Farewell to Manzanar Theme
In the book, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D Houston, Jeanne struggles with finding her place in society after being interned at Manzanar. She tries to be unlike herself and more like the crowd, and because of that something goes wrong. The author uses Jeanne’s and her father’s internal conflicts to portray the theme that not being one's normal self can lead to future consequences.
When Jeanne competes for the title of Carnival queen, she decides to use her race as an advantage in her run. She wears exotic clothes to flaunt her appearance to sway votes over to her side, “[knowing she] couldn't beat the other contestants at their own game, that is, looking like a bobbysoxer. Yet neither could [she] look too Japenese-y. [She] decided to go exotic, with a flower print sarong, black hair loose and a hibiscus flower behind
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When he was in Manzanar, he was so mentally unstable, he would over-drink every day and make unreasonable decisions. One night he over drank in the barracks and threatened “to kill [Mama] this time! “ (69). Here Papa almost kills Mama while drunk and doesn't realize what he is doing, until he is stopped. Being drunk causes people to not think about their decisions, and if he really did kill Mama, there is no reversing that. Even after that moment, he doesn't stop drinking, though. Even out of Manzanar, he almost makes another hasty decision and regrets even thinking that, that scares him away from drinking. “A few months later he had almost killed himself on a combination of whiskey and red wine...when he started vomiting blood from his mouth and nose. It sobered him up permanently. He never touched alcohol again” (172). When he got drunk, he had too much and then almost died. When something gets that serious and one continues, they probably would die from that. Not being his normal sober self nearly killed Mama and