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Compare And Contrast Farewell To Manzanar

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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

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215 Words | 1 Pages

Jeanne uses Papa’s dependence on his cane to symbolize weakness and the difficulty of letting go of the past. Papa holds his cane with

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634 Words | 3 Pages

Jeannette’s parents were not paying attention to her; in fact, her mother was in the other room painting and singing when all this happened. Jeannette is also not paying attention to her surroundings. Jeannette was too young to cook without adult supervision, but she did not know better.

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633 Words | 3 Pages

The book had two very significant parts. In chapter six Papa returns to his family but in chapters seven through ten the author’s impression of Papa’s character changed. This is significant because since Papa was taken into the custody the family was in grief and waited for better days when he returned; but when he returned things became worse. “He terrified all of us, lurching around the tiny room, cursing in Japanese and swinging his bottles wildly. Mama got nothing but threats and abuse

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Jeanette is the eldest of this group of girls and she has earned the rank of a teacher’s pet, as some may say. Her quick-to-comply nature makes the sisters in the home rather fond of Jeanette; her sisters from her old life as a wolf begin to resent her. Claudette reveals a profound level of intelligence by stating, “I

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238 Words | 1 Pages

Jeannette’s mom and dad are trusting a three year old to cook hot dogs by herself. “Lori, Brian, and I could pretty much go anywhere we wanted and do pretty much anything we wanted to do” (Walls pg 59 line 9-10). Jeannette’s mom really trusts Jeannette and her brothers and sisters because she lets them run around everywhere. Both of these examples show how Jeannette’s parents look at her and view her as an adult. In the Rite of Passage the mom

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635 Words | 3 Pages

Fear is an upsetting feeling of distress or anxiety induced by a perceived danger or threat. The Crucible is a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. This play is a dramatized and partially historically accurate play inspired by the witchcraft hysteria that took place in 1692. The British colonists of Massachusetts were victims of a series of trials, prosecutions, and hearings that eventually led to the wrongful jailing of over one hundred people and the execution of twenty people. Farewell to Manzanar is an autobiography written by a Manzanar camp prisoner, Jeanne Wakatsuki and her husband, James D. Houston.

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488 Words | 2 Pages

Jeanne realizes that the family she had loved before Manzanar and the time she spent with them would never

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1395 Words | 6 Pages

Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki and her husband James D. Houston, brings the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor to life through the the reimaging of the hardships and discrimination that Jeanne and her family endured while stationed at Manzanar. After the events of Pearl Harbor, seven year-old Jeanne is evacuated with family to an internment camp in which the family will be forced to adapt to a life in containment. Through the writings of Jeanne herself, readers are able to see Jeanne’s world through her words and experience the hardships and sacrifices that the Wakatsuki family had to go through. Farewell to Manzanar takes the reader on a journey through the eyes of a young American-Japanese girl struggling to be accepted by society.

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319 Words | 2 Pages

Papa and his family were one of the million Japanese Americans that their real problems began after the war ended. So, Papa did not like change in his life, after a while, he started to accept the difficulties that they had to live with. On the other hand, he was afraid because they did not have any money to

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779 Words | 4 Pages

She becomes friends with a white girl, Radine, and teaches her baton-twirling, but Jeanne remains better. However, she doesn’t get the same opportunities. She is not even let into the Girl Scouts, a simple and everyday thing. “‘Gee, Jeannie, no. I’m really sorry.’

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448 Words | 2 Pages

“I told him I that I would never lose trust in him, and I promised myself I never would”(76). At this point in the story, Jeannette is the only one who seems to still believe in her father. She looks up to him with a child’s eyes and always wants to be there for him. After failing her everyday, having faith in her father begins to be a struggle for Jeanette, and her tone changes. “If Francie saw the good in her father, maybe I was not a complete fool for believing in mine, or trying to believe in him.

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980 Words | 4 Pages

He knew I had a soft spot for him the way no one else in the family did, and he was taking advantage of it” (209). Although getting played by her father, Jeannette learns a valuable lesson about managing money and how to be strong. We see in the end of the book that almost

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570 Words | 3 Pages

Even though she is fairly young in the time the family lives in Battle Mountain, she still can be described as tolerant and understanding in most situations. Her father was really pushing her, making her suffer, and though at first upset with his actions, she quickly analyzed the situation, coming to an understanding as to why he did what he did. For a short time, she resented her family at the sulfur spring because as she was drowning, her own mother floated on her back, unconcerned with what Jeannette thought was a life or death situation. In the end, Jeannette came to the conclusion that maybe her father’s actions were justified. There was no way he would let anything happen to her, and there was no other way to explain why he or her family would let her drown, so she tolerated the

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758 Words | 4 Pages

She struggled with how the society and her family shaped who she was. She was exposed to her family first which made her behave the way she did under her family’s house. Jeanette struggled with her family by taking care of the house, beings told bending the rules is okay and the acceptance of her Mom’s and Dad’s homelessness. When Jeannette left her family and went to live in New York, she becomes an individual. She fends for herself and gets her life together.

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1007 Words | 5 Pages

Stockholm Syndrome has become a known topic because of Patty Hearst. She was kidnapped at the age of 19 years old, and it has affected her life ever since. She developed emotions towards her captors that she still cannot explain. Stockholm Syndrome can be best described as feelings of trust and affection felt in certain cases of kidnapping by a victim toward a captor. The abuser’s treatment of the victim is the primary cause of Stockholm Syndrome.

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