Farewell To Manzanar Analysis
Lives Shaped By Prejudice
When faced with a difficult situation, a person usually does one of two things: gives up or shows strength and fights through it. In Farewell To Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the author recounts her story of her experience in Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp in California, during World War II. In The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, the author recalls his journey as a migrant child in the 40’s in California, as his family struggles through all kinds of labor camps. Both Francisco and Jeanne show resilience in the difficult situations they face; however, Jeanne shows defiance towards her father, while Francisco is always sweet and kind. Ultimately, neither character has a lot of control over their fates, …show more content…
When Jeanne and her family finally get to leave the camp, Jeanne defies her father’s wishes for her to be more proper. Despite his scolding, she joins the marching band, and realizes that boys are staring at her in her short skirt and tight outfit. While her brothers are proud of her, her father does not share their pride. He lectures her on the importance of concealing her body, and the garishness of smiling too much. But she stays in the band, ignoring his rather outdated beliefs. Now that she’s older, she’s discovering her own independence and becoming more defiant towards her father. Jeanne realizes she has lost respect for her father. “He would counsel me on the female graces, as he understood them, on the need to conceal certain parts of the body…But his tastes could not compete with the pull from the world outside our family. …I had lost respect for Papa” (Wakatsuki 164). Jeanne’s journey of defiance begins in the camp, and climaxes when she realizes she has lost respect for her own father. Contrary to her father, Jeanne stays resilient in the internment camp. Jeanne is only around ten years old when she and her family have to start adjusting to life in the internment camp. In order to distract herself from the
When faced with a difficult situation, a person usually does one of two things: gives up or shows strength and fights through it. In Farewell To Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the author recounts her story of her experience in Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp in California, during World War II. In The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, the author recalls his journey as a migrant child in the 40’s in California, as his family struggles through all kinds of labor camps. Both Francisco and Jeanne show resilience in the difficult situations they face; however, Jeanne shows defiance towards her father, while Francisco is always sweet and kind. Ultimately, neither character has a lot of control over their fates, …show more content…
When Jeanne and her family finally get to leave the camp, Jeanne defies her father’s wishes for her to be more proper. Despite his scolding, she joins the marching band, and realizes that boys are staring at her in her short skirt and tight outfit. While her brothers are proud of her, her father does not share their pride. He lectures her on the importance of concealing her body, and the garishness of smiling too much. But she stays in the band, ignoring his rather outdated beliefs. Now that she’s older, she’s discovering her own independence and becoming more defiant towards her father. Jeanne realizes she has lost respect for her father. “He would counsel me on the female graces, as he understood them, on the need to conceal certain parts of the body…But his tastes could not compete with the pull from the world outside our family. …I had lost respect for Papa” (Wakatsuki 164). Jeanne’s journey of defiance begins in the camp, and climaxes when she realizes she has lost respect for her own father. Contrary to her father, Jeanne stays resilient in the internment camp. Jeanne is only around ten years old when she and her family have to start adjusting to life in the internment camp. In order to distract herself from the