From Farewell to Manzanar Cultural Characteristics and Influence on the Wakatsuki Family?
Farewell to Manzanar Introduction
A young girl and her family are forced into an internment campsite because of what they expect like. Kind of sounds similar Anne Frank, right?
Close. Except instead of setting Farewell to Manzanar in Europe, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston'due south book takes identify in the The states, in an internment army camp for Japanese-American people during World War Two. And equally yous'd expect, that means Farewell to Manzanar details all the stuff that goes through a young girl's mind when forced to live with a whole lot of fearfulness, no freedom, and alongside her family in very crowded quarters.
In other words, you've got a volume full of family unit dramas and coming-of-age bug (including body image stuff and, of grade, boys), but you lot've besides got a book that shows how complex and contradictory camp life could exist for Japanese-American internees.
In short? Nothing's uncomplicated for our master character, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (yes—she'due south one of the authors). More than than that, though, Jeanne's story provides a glimpse into what it's like to experience and understand yourself every bit an Asian-American person in the 1940s (and on).
Oh—and in instance you hadn't figured this out however, you'll probably want to grab a box of tissues before settling down with this read. A volume about forced internment can't help but contain a few tearjerkers along the style.
What is Farewell to Manzanar About and Why Should I Care?
This is an like shooting fish in a barrel 1. Why should you care? Because if you're reading this, you're probably an American.
And heck, even if you're not, the whole volume is near the question of freedom and what that truly means, especially when your "democratic" (that'southward right—we used scare quotes) government decides to lock you up without due process.
Looking for some modernistic parallels? Not to exist downers, but you tin can pretty much just close your eyes and allow your finger land anywhere on a global map—rounding people upward for ridiculous and prejudiced reasons happens all over the identify. If you want to become specific, though, so think Guantanamo Bay… or, for an event that occurred at the same time as the events of the book, look no farther than the internment of Jewish (and other) people by the Nazis.
Granted, the U.S. didn't fix gas chambers for Japanese-American people, but the whole question of liberty and citizenship—what a country can and can't do to the people residing within its borders—is key to almost every major international flare-up. And information technology just so happens that that'south what the U.S. internment of Japanese-American people during WWII—i.e. this volume—is all about.
Just nosotros know you lot get all of this—after all, we're talking most a major historical effect. So why else is this book of import?
It'due south pretty rare to become an eyewitness account or memoir of something similar life in an internment army camp, and so when i comes along, specially ane that's well-written, you kind of have to leap on it.
What helps too is how surprising Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston'southward account is. Kids having fun in an internment military camp? Come over again?
But that's just what Wakatsuki Houston's story is: full of contradictions, ironies, and surprises.
Plus, at the core of it all, the volume is still about a girl coming-of-age, dealing with her parents and with her peers. It'south about feeling like a perpetual misfit or misunderstood outcast even when (or considering) you're surrounded by friends and relatives.
In other words, don't let an internment campsite story make you think y'all can't relate. Jeanne's stories are as typical of an angsty teenager as any other coming-of-age novel or memoir.
Farewell to Manzanar Resources
Websites
The Husband
Nosotros can't forget about Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's co-writer for the book—her hubby, author James D. Houston.
JA Internment History, The "Textbook"
This site is kind of the end-all-be-all of history websites on U.S. history in general—a really thorough look at Japanese-American internment.
Sources, Sources, Sources
This site is technically for teachers, but it has a treasure trove of original documents and materials from internment that you might like to check out.
Picture show or TV Productions
Farewell to Manzanar—the movie
You know your teachers are drooling over this ane—information technology'due south the perfect affair to show on one of those in-class movie days. Educational, historical, and clocking in at a perfect 120 minutes.
Articles and Interviews
"Never forget"
No 1 knows what it's like to brand a film about Japanese American internment better than the actors and the managing director. Or how to have a little picture and turn it into a DVD for broad release. Read all most the struggle.
The Bill for Redress
Japanese-Americans weren't most to permit the nation forget what happened, and they sued for redress. Hither'south the bodily pecker.
One of the Authors on Republic
"Being 'American' is non a question of race, tribe, or physical attributes." Discussion.
Video
Author in Chat: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
If you've got an hour and a half of free time, you lot tin hear the author talk (in two parts) all about her book and camp life.
Ken Burns's Manzanar: "Never Again"
If there's an American historical result, you lot know that there's as well a Ken Burns-PBS documentary nearly it—and Manzanar is no exception.
Touch of Culture
What does Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston take in mutual with other American woman writers? Sit back (and we mean far dorsum—this is a long one) and notice out.
Audio
Mess Hall Eating
Hear all about the mess halls from one of the authors—Jeanne herself.
Images
Get Squad
A picture of Wakatsuki Houston and her husband/co-author. Bonus: lots of stuff almost James Houston.
The Manzanar Coiffure
A nonetheless shot from the movie adaptation of the book.
Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/farewell-to-manzanar
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