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Farewell To Manzanar Theme Essay

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In the book Farewell To Manzanar, the government moved the Japanese Americans to

internment camps to live after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The people were in these camps for

two years. In December 18, 1944, the camps began to close. The author writes about three main

themes. They are survival, prejudice and self-discovery.

The first theme is survival. Jeanne uses examples of survival when Woody has a positive

attitude. Woody, Kiyo and Jeanne uses humor to make others feel better. (p.26) Woody makes

repairs to the cabin to make it a better place to live. (p.28) When Woody goes to Japan to visit

his Aunt Toyo, he is afraid that his father’s family is not going to accept him, but they treat him

very kindly. (p.146) Papa builds a rock …show more content…
176) Jeanne wanted us to know what her family went through and how they dealt with it in

order to survive.

The second theme is prejudice. Jeanne mentioned that Radine assumes that she doesn’t

speak English. (p.157) Jeanne is being stereotyped, but she doesn’t know it. Jeanne is not able to

join Girl Scouts (p.161) or become friends with classmates because their parents didn’t accept it.

(p.160) White girls got preferential treatment like when Jeanne wants to be a song girl but

doesn’t get chosen because she is Japanese and the coach doesn’t know how parents would react.

(p. 170) Also when Jeanne was running for queen, the teachers were going to change the ballots

so someone else would win. (p 174) Jeanne mentions that a woman spits on her and tells her to

go back to Japan where she came from. (p186) Jeanne wants us to know how she was treated

when they left the camp.

The last theme is self-discovery. In order to fit in, Jeanne tries traditional Japanese

dances like odori. (p. 109) Jeanne also wanted to become Catholic. (p. 113) After leaving

Manzanar, nobody talks or remembers what happened there that Jeanne feels like she dreamt it.

(p. 186) She goes to back Manzanar with her family. (p. 187) When she sees her

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