What Is The Significance Of Papa's Cane

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Papa’s cane was self carved and polished back In North Dakota. Its significance lies in its imagery. Papa arrived back at Manzanar with a newly brandished cane. The cane represents Papa’s pains from Fort Lincoln as well as pains from Manzanar. Fort Lincoln hurt him, not physically but mentally, causing him to wield the cane. His pain from Manzanar, shame, caused Papa to become an abusive, antisocial, alcoholic. It was then that the cane morphed into a samurai sword. The “sad, homemade version of the samurai sword his great-great-grandfather carried in the land of Hiroshima,” resembles to end of Papa’s life. The ending of his life not by death, but by the loss of his chance at succeeding life. The cane can also be seen as Papa’s source of power.