本篇論文將從近代白人中產階級社會對於母職論述的主流思潮與其侷限開始討論。第二章著重於探討娜歐蜜五歲之前與其母親的親密關係，而五歲之後，她母親的不在場又如何使她逐漸沉浸於各個童話故事之中。第三章則聚焦於娜歐蜜與兩位女性長輩，歐巴桑和艾蜜莉阿姨的關係，以及這兩位女性長輩最後如何促成娜歐蜜與她母親在精神層面上的重逢。第四章討論了娜歐蜜以其想像和母親重逢還有她如何與歐巴桑、艾蜜莉阿姨重新建立關係的過程。最後，娜歐蜜娓娓道出她與母親以及兩位女性長輩的故事，並且重寫了希臘神話中穀物女神蒂美特(Demeter) 與女兒波希芬 (Persephone) 的故事。小川樂的小說描繪了日裔血統的母親們如何於二次大戰中保護自己的女兒，而女兒又如何於回憶、夢境、信件與舊照片中抽絲剝繭找尋母親們的愛。運用充滿意象與隱喻的文字，小川樂不僅道出母親與女兒的故事，也反映了日裔加拿大人與其祖國加拿大之間矛盾的關係。藉著娜歐蜜的第一人稱的敘述與追憶，《歐巴桑》深刻地再現了不同於主流白人文化的族裔母職經驗。

This thesis begins with the discussion of dominant theories about motherhood and its limitations within contemporary multicultural society. The second chapter explores the relationship between Naomi and her mother and how the absence of her mother eventually makes her a child who imagines herself as protagonists of various fairy tales. Chapter three emphasizes on the relationships between Naomi and her two aunts, Obasan and Aunt Emily and who lead to her spiritual reunion with her absent mother. Chapter four focuses on Naomi’s recovery of her absent mother and her reconnections with her surrogate mothers, Obasan and Aunt Emily. In the end, Naomi tells her story with her mother and her aunts as a reverse of the Demeter-Persephone myth. This thesis concludes that Joy Kagawa’s novel portrays how mothers of Japanese ancestry manage to protect their daughters during World War II, and how daughters attempt to understand the love of mothers within tangled memories, dreams, letters and photographs. With language that is full of imagery and metaphors, Kogawa not only depicts the story between mothers and daughters, but also reflects contradictory feelings of Japanese Canadians toward their motherland, Canada. Through the narration of Naomi, the novel reveals a profound and powerful representation of ethic motherhood that is different from dominant white motherhood.

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