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Farewell To Manzanar Character Development

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In the novel, Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D Houston, the main character is put through a lot of devastating, circumstantial situations that causes her overall development to be quite different from others. Seeing as she is telling the story, readers get to know Jeanne tremendously throughout the plot. Jeanne is a very family oriented person, and needs that support to get through the rough patches she hits after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. When Jeanne and her family were first forced to Manzanar, Jeanne is at a very prime and impressionable part of her life. Her family and friends she meets at Manzanar help to shape who she will grow up to be as a person. Even though the story is told in less of an emotional …show more content…

Jeanne’s mother was a very reserved, traditional Japanese-American woman. She couldn’t even bare to use the latrines the camp provided. The novel states “My mother was a very modest person, and this was going to be agony for her, sitting down in public, among strangers (Houston and Houston 32).” Mama was also a very family-oriented woman. Her beliefs were those of a traditional Japanese-American. For example, before entering Manzanar they had dinner together every night and stayed a close knit family that depended on the patriarch of the family. Once the bomb hit and all Japanese were moved to Manzanar, she tried her best to keep that culture alive. Jeanne took notice of this. For example, during dinners in the mess hall Mama tried everything she had to keep the family sitting and eating together. But despite her yearning, it all started slowly tearing the family apart. Jeanne states “Mama tried to hold us together for a while, but it was hopeless (Houston and Houston 36).” Mama was also a very strong, hard worker and worked multiple jobs in the camps for a while. We can see this strength and perseverance in Jeanne as she grows up. When she starts to feel the pressure and pain of prejudice that exists against her race, she doesn’t let people walk all over her, yet she doesn’t let it bring her down either. If she was discriminated against in one of the activities she took part in, she moved right on to the next one and tried equally as hard to be recognized for the talent she has. Because of growing up observing her mother go through all of the troubles she experienced in Manzanar and how she got over them with dignity, Jeanne is a very emotionally strong and confident person by the end of her

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In chapter 5 titled “Almost a Family,” allows the readers to understand the affect the internment had on Jeanne and her family. This chapter discussed how the family did not eat at the table as a family like they used to. Jeanne exclaimed, “Before Manazar, mealtime had always been the center of our family scene” (Houston 35). As one can see, mealtime was an important aspect of the Wakatsukis’ lives (Houston

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Throughout her stay at Manzanar, Jeanne struggled with her identity. Jeanne was trying to figure out who she was and what she was going to become. When Jeanne first wanted to try something new, she did not know if she should try Japanese or American activities. Jeanne expresses her confusion when she states “even at ten, before I really knew what waited outside, the Japanese in me could not compete with that. It tried in camp, and many times later, in one form or another”(Houston 84).

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Jeanne, a seven-year-old in the year 1942, experiences the racial discrimination of Japanese-Americans firsthand. Her family like her mother, father and her many siblings like Woody and Kiyo face these difficulties with her when they’re shipped away from their homes. Papa is sent for interrogation in Fort Lincoln, North Dakota, whereas the rest of the family is sent to Manzanar Internment Camp in California. At the beginning of the story, Jeanne is a young, naive girl who experiences camp one day at a time, exploring and trying new things wherever she goes. But as soon as her papa arrives at the camp, she is soon crushed to find what has happened to him while he was in North Dakota.

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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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Farewell to Manzanar tells the true story of Japanese internment and the constant struggles that the interns at Manzanar had to face. Interment pulls apart families and communities leaving a permanent dent in their relationships. This is shown mostly in the novel by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston which is about her life at Manzanar A Japanese internment camp during World War 2 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This book tells us about her life before Manzanar and after Manzanar really shows a spiral into insanity by mostly her father and also the other people around her. Jeanne also made a short film about the book that really showed the conditions and main moments of the book.

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She watched her mother die slowly and she watched her dad struggle to take care of her. As a young kid or even as an adult watching the person who is supposed to raise you and teach about love, and everything you need to know in life will greatly affect what type of person you turn into. One of the most heartbreaking things you can go through as a child is watching your mother slowly die and then watching your father struggle to take care of her and provide for the family. Ida went through a lot, her mom was sick and then her mom’s sister Clara came to help out and caused a lot of drama in the family. All the fighting put a lot of stress on young Ida, “Mama charged Clara with sneaking into the house like an enemy, charger that she had always covered papa, berated her for taking advantage of illness to have her way” (283).

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While some of these skills may have been a little too out of control and could have been harmful for their children at times, some of these skills helped them become more independent and self reliant people. Without the rough childhood that Jeannette went through, who knows if she would have been able to become the successful person that she is

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She started helping around the house, but when she figured out that it wasn’t much, she got a job at the fields and even though she had no experience in it she still went ahead and did it. “Mama had been strong for her. Now it was her turn to be strong for Mama. She must show her that she didn’t need to worry anymore.”(p163) Based on this quote, I can tell that she knew she had to be strong and her Mom’s sickness didn’t make her more sad than she already was, it motivated her to be strong for her mom and whatever was coming up.

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They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.

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