53 pages • 1-hour read
Kira-Kira
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Character Analysis
Katherine (Katie) Takeshima
Katie, the younger sister of Lynn, is the first-person narrator and protagonist of Kira-Kira. When the story begins, she is almost five years old. Near the end of the narrative, she celebrates her 12th birthday. A person of Japanese descent, as are all the main characters, Katie has straight dark hair, and darker eyes and skin than the novel’s white characters. Katie is curious, outspoken, guileless, and loyal to her family—particularly to Lynn. When Katie does not understand something, she asks someone she views as an expert or, as the story progresses, investigates for herself. Thus, she asks a woman who inoculates newborn chicks if the needle hurts them. However, when told that Lynn has lymphoma, Katie searches for information until she discovers her sister suffers with a potentially terminal disease.
Katie is mischievous and boisterous, though seldom out of control. She is often exuberant, as when playing with her cousins or dancing with her friend Silly. Katie sees herself as naughty and hard-headed, though she desires to please her parents. Thus, she wrestles with whether she is a good person. Reflecting on the ranking of bad behavior established by her mother—hitting is the worst, stealing is next, and lying is third worst—Katie acknowledges she has done all three before turning 12. However, Katie does not regret punching the betraying Amber, stealing pink nail polish for the ailing Lynn, or lying to a cop about her father breaking Mr. Lyndon’s windshield. As she grows up, Katie sees that hard and fast rules do not account for the nuances of real life.
Unlike Lynn, Katie is an average student. Rather than paying attention in class, she daydreams about Joe-John, her imaginary future husband. Though she is obviously bright, Katie assumes that Lynn is the smart one, meaning Katie does not have to achieve good grades, especially since her father expresses great pride at her consistency.
Katie matures a great deal in the course of the novel. Content to follow her sister’s lead at the outset of the narrative, by the end, Katie takes charge of the family’s welfare as her parents grieve over Lynn’s death. While she is also emotionally rocked by Lynn’s illness and passing, and her expressions of grief are powerful and normal, Katie attains heightened confidence and unapologetic assertiveness.
Lynn (Lynnie) Takeshima
Four years older than her younger sister, Lynn is almost nine when the story begins and is 15 at the time of her death near the end of the narrative. Lynn is imaginative, good-hearted, articulate, and incredibly bright—as shown in her talent for chess. Lynn is completely devoted to Katie; until she becomes an adolescent and suddenly finds boys attractive, she includes Katie in everything she does. Even after she has a boyfriend, Gregg, and a best friend her own age, Amber, Lynn still confides everything to Katie.
Lynn is also precocious in several ways. Besides her intellectual capacity, she is also wise and somewhat worldly, counseling Katie before her first day of first grade to expect prejudiced behavior from the other students. Encouraging Katie to pool their allowances, Lynn surprises their parents with $100 they have saved toward the down payment on a house.
As the story progresses, lymphoma gradually emerges as the dominant fact of Lynn’s life. The changes at first are physical: weakness, extreme fatigue, and loss of appetite. Lynn tries to maintain a positive attitude and cling to the belief that she will recover. As is normal, she experiences petulant moments, including one occasion when she and Katie express hatred for one another. Resigned to her death in the days before she dies, she writes a will in her diary, explaining what she bequeaths to each person in her family. In her last conversation with Katie just hours before she dies on New Year’s Day, Lynn elicits promises from her sister about her behavior going forward. When Katie says they will take care of their parents together when Lynn gets well, she emits a tender laugh.
Masao (Father)Takeshima
The girls refer to their dad simply as “Father”—a standard and respectful form of address for one’s parents in Japanese translated into English. Readers only learn Father’s name when he identifies himself to his fearsome boss, Mr. Lyndon. Father is apparently a first-generation immigrant, meaning he was born in the US to immigrant parents; Father studied in Japan in his youth until a family emergency compelled him to return to his family’s home in Iowa, where he met his future wife Kiyoko. At times, Father is wistful, wishing his early life had transpired differently and allowed him to provide more for his children. However, Katie realizes that if his life had been different, she would not have been born. She also makes clear that Father deeply loves Mother.
Father is six feet tall and extremely introverted. He seldom shares his thoughts, even though he is constantly evaluating his circumstances. Because he almost never expresses his emotions, the girls watch him carefully so they can guess what he thinks and feels: Katie sees him smile as she and Sammy run errands for workers at the hatchery and recognizes his aloofness as disappointment in her after she shoplifts. Kadohata uses Father’s stoic behavior to align the reader’s surprise with Katie’s when Father finally does become expressive, dissolving into sobs at Lynn’s burial or enraged as he demolishes the windshield of Mr. Lyndon’s Cadillac.
Subjected to prejudice throughout the narrative, Father demonstrates the consequences of silent acceptance—by remaining silent, he maintains his job at the poultry plant and can provide for the family; however, the psychic toll of abuse clearly weighs on him. Kadohata gradually ratchets up the financial, occupational, and familial pressure on Father. Father reaches his breaking point when his children are harmed—Sammy’s limp after his ankle gets caught in Mr. Lyndon’s foot trap prods Father to react with violence and then accept the results of his acting out without fear. Once he has emotionally reacted to these events, however, Father’s demeanor quickly returns to quiet calm.
Kiyoko (Mother) Takeshima
As with their father, the sisters refer to their mom exclusively as Mother. In many respects, Mother is the direct opposite of Father. She stands a waif-like four feet, 10 inches tall. Katie describes her as being delicate, almost doll-like. Lovely and perfectly mannered, Mother has an extremely high moral code. She seeks to impart refined sensibilities to her daughters, who—though they know how they should act—tend to discard their mother’s moral imperatives when they can: During their move from Iowa to Georgia, the girls sit on a wall with their legs crossed and pretend to smoke cigarettes, like the women their mother deems unladylike.
Also unlike Father, Mother expresses her emotions readily. She looks at the girls sternly when they misbehave, which includes being loud and rambunctious. Occasionally overwrought with worry, Mother takes an aspirin and lies down to calm herself. Just as she dislikes boisterousness, so too does Mother avoid upsetting the social or vocational order in any way; for example, Mother refuses to befriend Silly’s union activist mother because the factory frowns on organizing. After Lynn’s death, however, Mother gains a new perspective on supporting positive causes, and her pro-union vote enables the rendering factory to unionize.
Though she presents as delicate, Mother is actually quite resilient and emotionally strong. She works to the point of exhaustion in the rendering factory to achieve the family’s dream of homeownership. Mother is the person in charge of the family’s finances, finally persuading Father to go to the bank to seek a mortgage for what they call “Lynn’s house.” Mother can also sway father whenever she thinks he will behave rashly, by stroking his feet or by telling him he has a big day ahead of him. They function effectively and tenderly with one another.
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