know super laziness right but oh well cheating never harmed anyone
H English
B3
August 14, 2008
Farewell to Manzanar
While the main topic of this story is Jeanne Wakatsuki we must first identify with the father, Ko. Ko is one of the main people in Jeanne's life and influenced her greatly. Ko is what separates and unites her as a Japanese person and an American citizen. He shows her how painful times can make someone and how even the smallest thing can change the out look of a situation. Ko acts like a caring Japanese father who is losing his life and family to something he doesn't and could never understand.
As a child Jeanne was always brought up with traditional Japenese values and belief. We see that at the beginning when all the women wave the men goodbye at the docks. She was also taught to be an American and to try and become less foreign because of threats made by her father to sell her to the Chinese and other Asians if she didn't behave correctly. You also see that her family tried to be very American so that Caucasians were less wary and more opening of the family by not teaching her more but a few Japanese words. When the family was sent to Manzanar, though her father was less enthused about America, they tried hard to lessen the influence. He did this by stopping her from baptism and discouraging the baton twirling. He even went so far as to force her to take an odori class to make her appear more like he believed she should.
When released from Manzanar she was forced to deal with ignorance and misguided hate. Her father dealt with the pain by drinking to the point where he would be sick for long periods of time. The mother, Riku, lived for her family and provided food and money for them. Woody, a brother of Jeanne's, dealt with everything by going to Japan and seeing his family history and finding closure there. Jeanne on the other hand spent her years believing things to be her fault. She spent years believing that she was unworthy and unwanted by others and relaying deeply on her few close friends and taking great pride in her accomplishments. She discovers a balance between being American and being Japanese, that lets her see that she is free to be whoever she chooses to be come as an American citizen.
During the camp Jeanne grows up. She realizes that the world and her family aren't as perfect and peaceful as she believed. But she also realizes who she is. Jeanne sees her world and finds out how it works, she sees herself. She finds her likes and dislikes. She sees her family in ways she couldn't before. And most importantly Jeanne dreams of the future ahead where everything is perfect and she is finally free.
When Jeanne is released from the camp all of the sudden she is faced with ignorance and hate that she has never had to face before. As she grows she realizes that there are some things she will never be able to day because of her ethnicity. But she also learns that not every one is a blind as others and creates true friends who protect her when she can't do it herself. She also loses friends but those who were lost weren't as good as those kept. Basically when she released from camp Jeanne losses who she was and recreates herself in this new environment. Jeanne and her family never truly make it over the mountain that is created by Manzanar but they adjust to a new destiny.
Jeanne sees her self differently in every situation she comes across and in the end she puts them together and is who she is because of it.
That simply cannot be helped.
Shikata ga nai
yeah dumb i know