Yoko Ogawa references vegetables excessively throughout her short story, “Old Mrs. J”. She does this to create an alternative meaning to the word while a reader is reading the text. Yoko Ogawa uses the word vegetable to show the progression of Old Mrs. J’s character throughout the story by pairing her with the mention of the vegetables.

While reading “Old Mrs. J,” it is very hard to ignore all of the times the author, Yoko Ogawa, references vegetables. Vegetables are a symbol of life, but Ogawa uses vegetables to symbolize the progression of Mrs. J’s character instead. The first time the word vegetable is used is when, “A stray cat turned out to be the reason for my first gift of vegetables from Mrs. J” (Ogawa 1).  This is when Mrs. J first encountered the narrator, and in this moment she seems to be a normal person. During this story it seems that Mrs. J is always in association with these vegetables.

When old Mrs. J is scattering pine needles to keep the cat away, she lies to one of the tenants, saying, “My grand- mother taught me that years ago when I was a girl” (Ogawa 2). This is when Mrs. J first appears to be a little abnormal. Vegetables are mentioned again in the next paragraph. Old Mrs. J is bringing the narrator vegetables from her garden, and she is also picking up his mail for him. He notices that she has taken a package, and she does not give it to him till two weeks later (Ogawa 2). Every time vegetables are mentioned with Mrs. J, she seems to become more peculiar.

During the story Mrs. J starts to grow carrots that are in the shape of hands. When she gardens she, “harvested them with great care, digging around each carrot and pulling gently on the top to extract it.” (Ogawa 4). This shows that she is very careful with the carrots. This is because these vegetables in her garden represent her. Old Mrs. J is recognized for these odd carrots and is photographed in the vegetable garden for the local newspaper. When the authorities appear the vegetables are mentioned for the last time. This is the climax of the story. She killed her husband, and the authorities find her husband’s dead body in the post office with limes covering him. The most eerie part of the story is when we find out that she cut off the hands of the body, and they were never found (Ogawa 4). This shocks the reader and shows the final progress of Old Mrs. J’s character and how it relates to the last mention of vegetables. Ogawa does this for effect. She shows the reader that Old Mrs. J is a murderer. Every time vegetables are mentioned the more chaotic the story gets. Therefore, the last mention of these vegetables is the craziest part of the story. When the reader hits the resolution there is no more mention of vegetables. Ogawa does not mention the vegetables again because there are no more encounters with Old Mrs. J. She is taken away by the authorities at this point in the story and Ogawa has showed us the real Mrs. J.

Ogawa uses the vegetables to portray Old Mrs. J because they are similar in appearances. For example, carrots have a rough outside and are short. Mrs. J portrays a carrot in that way. Ogawa says, “It looked nearly as old as Mrs. J and seemed to be suffering from a skin disease” (1). Old Mrs. J is being compared to the ugly cat, but her appearance is shown more through this comparison. She is a frail lady but gardens even though she is about eighty years old. She is also compared to vegetables because vegetables go bad fast. In the story she starts off as a fresh vegetable with nothing making her come off as strange. Then more time passes and she becomes more mysterious, just like how a vegetable goes bad. When we find out that she murdered her husband this would be the same point in time a vegetable goes rotten. This is definitely not why Old Mrs. J goes bad though. She is an old lady with a secret. Her secret was kept quiet, just like the vegetables are kept fresh, but once her secret is exposed the vegetables turn bad. Ogawa compares Mrs. J to the vegetables to show the progression of Mrs. J’s character.

The vegetables come to represent something more to the reader when they are reading it. The amount of times we see the word vegetable is a bit excessive to not have another meaning. When the reader is reading deeply into the text they notice that the underlying meaning of the vegetables is darker than one might think. Old Mrs. J seems like a regular old woman, but when reading through the story it is noticeable that she is not normal. Normalcy flies out the window when the narrator realizes that she is taking his mail. This is the point in the story when we realize something is up. Also this is the halfway point in relation to the repetition of the word vegetable. This is the third time this word is mentioned throughout the story out of five. It is also very interesting as to how people usually associate vegetables with life, but during this story it is also a sign of murder and death. Ogawa takes this usual meaning and twists it to add drama to his story.

We see the repetition of the word “vegetables” a lot throughout Ogawa’s “Old Mrs. J”. He uses that word five times during the story and every time it has something to do with Mrs. J. The first time it was used was when she was being introduced. The second time was when she told her first lie to the tenant. The third was when the narrator realized that Mrs. J was taking his mail and giving it to him weeks later. The fourth time was when Mrs. J and the narrator were in the garden right before she was convicted of murder, and the last time was when they searched the garden for her husband’s hands. We see Mrs. J’s character development through the repetitive use of the word vegetable during the progression of the story. Ogawa does this very effectively and adds character to this story through this technique.
