FREE ESSAY ON FAREWELL TO MANZANAR

FAREWELL TO MANZANAR

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's novel, Farewell to Manzanar (1973),
discusses the internment of Japanese-American people in a relocation camp from 1943-1945.
The autobiographical work reveals, through the eyes of a Japanese American teenage girl,
her inner struggle with her identity as a person of the Japanese race living in
California during World War II. The novel explores the issues of gender culture, and race
as important ideas that help Jeanne Wakatsuki to construct her own sense of identity and
self-hood. Specifically, Farewell to Manzanar attempts to raise some significant
questions: What is the role of a Japanese woman in the tradtional Japanese society? How
does this role shift for a second generation (Nissei) Japanese girl growing up in
American? What are the differences between the home culture and school culture? How are
these differenceS revealed within the novel through values, customs, and the parent-child
relationship? What does it mean for Jeanne to be both biLterate and biculture in American
during the 1940's? 1970's? How does Farewell to Manzanar compare to The Diary of Anne
Frank? We will focus on such concerns in the framework of the social, historical, and
cultural contexts of the times.