Analysis Of Farewell To Manzanar By Elie Wiesel

A boy and a girl, unalike in appearance, nationality, and creed, united under the oppression of powerful governments. In Farewell to Manzanar, by author Jeanne Wakatsuki, and Night, a novel by Elie Wiesel, the experiences of the interned and imprisoned are shared with the masses. Elie, just fifteen years old, was led to the rod iron gates of Auschwitz and left everything he knew behind. Jeanne, a young Japanese American, bid her life goodbye and hopped on a Greyhound bus bound for dehumanizing internment. Though Elie, who spent the defining years of his life watching mankind destroy everything he knew, ultimately lost more faith in humanity than Jeanne. One of the reasons that Elie lost more of his faith in humanity comes as a result of him being separated from his family. “‘Mother is still a

“The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon, and, with them, finally, our illusions” (Wiesel 29). Since Elie is not a child he sees every cruelty, threat, and dehumanizing action for what it is. When Elie sees men dying there is not any way for him to remain oblivious, but because of her age, Jeanne is able to remain blissfully ignorant in some ways. “I was proud of my new coat, and remember sitting on a duffel bag trying to be friendly with the Greyhound driver. I smiled at him. He didn’t smile back” (Wakatsuki 17). Since Jeanne is so young she is too innocent to fully understand what she is being subjected to, but she does understand enough to know that what is happening is not okay. Every time she sees her mother crying and the food she loves disappearing, her faith in humanity slips away. Though Jeanne lost her innocence in Manzanar, it is Elie’s full understanding of what is happening, and why it is happening, that causes him to truly doubt if humanity exists in