Yoko Ogawa did an amazing job realizing this default in the human experience and used it to her advantage in her short story “Old Mrs. J”. What was so special about it was the way she was able to make the reader prejudge characters and make them turn out wrong. She uses an old and seemingly innocent lady as the character in her story with the highest capability to do evil. Using the societal norms that people believe about old ladies, along with contrasting events of the story with Mrs. J’s personality, relationships between characters, and the description of Mrs. J’s actions, Ogawa creates interesting themes of bias vs. reality and human blindness or trust towards things they don’t see as a threat. 

Human bias is not only shown in a racist fashion where one person intentionally or unintentionally uses stereotypes and past memories to judge a person or act in a certain way; it can also be about underestimating a person or a character to be non-threatening when in fact they are the antagonist of the story. Ogawa intentionally chose the murderer of the story to be type of person that the average reader would think to be a fragile and sweet person who would not be able to hurt a fly. However, little by little the original assumptions are challenged by events that are happening in the story. You see how spry and lively she is in her garden and her strength is also described when she is giving her massages: “She seemed to have much greater strength than usual; her legs pinned him down while her hands grabbed in in various locations. As a watched, it seemed as though he was withering while she grew more powerful, sucking the energy from his body through her hands” (Ogawa 2). Ogawa proved the point that subconscious biases can be so strong through this quote alone. This scene can be seen as a flashback to Mrs. J murdering her husband, but even through all this violent language along with other innocuous moments the reader is so steadfast in their original thoughts about who Mrs. J is. Nothing else becomes obvious to the reader until the end where the reader can eventually connect all the dots and move away from their original perception.

When you look at the story of “Old Mrs. J” it is amazing to see how ogawa captures the finite parts of a relationship between two characters. In this case, the narrator and Old Mrs. J seem to have a simplistic relationship between landlord and tenant, but in actuality the actions of Mrs J make the narrator trust her and become unsuspecting.  At one point in the story Mrs. J starts to have a consistent string of visits, the narrator says, “Mrs. J began to come to my apartment quite often. She would have a cup of tea and chatter on about something--the pain in her knee, the high price of gas, the terrible heat--and then go home again” (Ogawa 2). The simple acts of human kindness and being a seemingly normal human being can make a person blind or unknowing about who person really is. Ogawa shows that the most normal relationships can be different than they look on the outside. Highlighted in this story is the fact, whether a good thing or a bad thing, that on a basic level, humans trust very easily and humans can be blind to a lot of things that they should see as a threat.

Whether or not human blindness and trust is a good thing, Ogawa uses them both in her story. Human blindness is ignorance due to ago, size, or race, while trust is something that a character actively tries to earn. She uses both characters and scenes in her story to show that they exist. She uses the extreme of murder to the exemplify the possible ramifications of this natural human response. On a separate plane from those two things, the fact that humans have automatic and subconscious discriminations against all people come into view as the story comes into view as the story draws to a close. The author gives good descriptions to Mrs. J to make her seem more innocent, “She tapped on her ear and then went over to the bookcase and began reading out the titles as she traced the spines with her finger. Yet she got them all wrong--perhaps she was losing her eyesight, or simply did not know how to read” (Ogawa 2). The way that the actions of Mrs. J are depicted throughout the whole story, it almost seems as if she has a split personality. Sometimes the things she does makes her seem helpless, very much like a young child. Other times she is strong and can perfectly take care of herself. These two sides make the reader question if both of these sides are real or is one just made up. 

Through her writing Ogawa shows that these discriminations don’t come from a place of fear or hatred but are grown from the roots that past experiences we have had and different things seen throughout the world. This story serves well as a narrative about the human mind and how we see and judge other people. Ogawa writes about things that are relatable to everyone, which makes it more effective in its meaning. Bias, blindness, and subconscious discrimination are combined in “Old Mrs. J” to create a simulated experience of how humans automatically and instinctively judge others.