Theme Of Farewell To Manzanar

The book, Farewell to Manzanar is a nonfiction story about a little girl named Jeanne who lived during World War II. Throughout the book, Jeanne describes what it was like before living in the camps, what it was like line in the camps, and how living in the camps affected her for years to come because it taught her something about the Americans. In the story, her idea of what the camps meant and what they were intended for changes as she gets older and learns the actuality of the impact it had on her life, and her personality growing up.
Before living in Manzanar, Jeanne lived in Long Beach, with her three older brothers, Kiyo, Bill, and Woody, her parents, and her brothers’ wife, Chizu. Jeanne’s role there was just to be a child, and sometimes, a “woman”. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, her father was taken in for questioning, something that didn’t bother her nearly as much as she thought it would, due to that the new world she lived in was far worse. Her mother didn’t know what to do, so, in attempt to keep the family together, she moved Jeanne and her siblings to Terminal Island. While there the Japanese children had bullied Jeanne because she didn’t speak Japanese. Jeanne says they never actually did anything to hurt her, just threatened her. But, because she …show more content…
She was being treated differently since she was of Japanese ancestry. When she wasn’t allowed to join certain clubs, being ostracized, she ends up being ashamed of herself and accepting of how she was treated. She had thought that it had been her fault that she was treated this way. She wishes she could disappear, yet at the same time she wishes to be noticed. She decided to fight this head on , and joined a couple of different activities. After she puts in the effort to change their opinion of her, she notices no matter how hard she tries that they’ll only see her for her race, and she will be denied of her