Comparing Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper And The Professor

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In Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor, The Housekeeper and the Professor maintain a familial yet fluid relationship. The Housekeeper benefits from this relationship because in the Professor, she finds the patient, wise father she never had but has always needed. The Professor benefits from this relationship because he, much like a young child needs a supportive and present mother, needs the Housekeeper to look after him and protect him from the world outside his home. Ultimately, this relationship changes both the characters’ narratives by mending the brokenness in their lives and providing the love and emotional nourishment they need. Through her novel, Ogawa suggests that a family has no absolute form, and that the most unlikely

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