The Pursuit of Happiness is an American idea that wants to be achieved. In Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston shows that no matter how hard you try to fit in to everyone's standards, it's not going to be perfect. In Jeanne's pursuit of happiness, she is trying to fit into American standards while pleasing her dad, and trying to feel like she truly belongs. Jeanne is just like any other American teenager, trying to fit into everyone’s standards, but it is even more difficult for her because she is also Japanese. Her time in American schools are difficult because people look at her differently, they do this because they don’t expect her to be able to do the same things as them. This is very similar to how things …show more content…
Papa wants to start a life in America and decides to not contact his family in Japan for over nine years, leading them to think that he is dead. This leads Papa to have a lot of conflicting thoughts because he wants to be in America and live a good life, but he also doesn’t want to give up on Japan. Papa begins to build a lot of anger up, which leads him to become abusive later on. He is abusive because he wants to be able to live the American dream while honoring his life in Japan, unfortunately this isn’t really possible for him. Because he has all this built up anger, he has very high expectations for Jeanne about how she should honor her Japanese heritage and how she should live her American life. Jeanne starts to build resentment towards her father because he is being abusive, and he expects a lot out of her. Although she does start to grow hatred toward her father, she doesn’t want him to completely hate her. To please her father a little, she decides to wear a more modest dress to a dance at her school. Jeanne also makes a compromise with Papa, stating that if she wants to be carnival queen, she is going to have to start attending odori lessons. Jeanne complained “Papa” (178), but he tells her that if she wants to be queen, she has to attend odori lessons. She starts taking the lessons but gets kicked out after ten, which she is very excited about. Papa isn’t thrilled that she is sent away, but there is a part of Jeanne that makes her think he is proud of her for being