John Okada's No-No Boy

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Recommended: Deeper Analysis into 'No-no Boy' novel

Austin Benoit’s presentation on the significance of noir in John Okada’s No-No Boy was a new approach to the theme of American National Belonging, which usually targets the societal aspects of American identity. Titled “’A Terribly Incomplete Thing’: ‘No-No Boy’ and the Ugly Feelings of Noir,” the article mainly argued that dark deeds, and the social estrangement signified by noir, depicted the “psychic torment” that Ichiro suffers due to his refusal to serve in the US military, representing a “discourse of negative feelings” and corrosion of any “affirmative patriotic sentiments” that the text upholds. Furthermore, Benoit treated the article’s evidence and stakes by first defining vocabulary, such as noir, in order to help the audience better

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