42 pages • 1 hour read
Jeanne Wakatsuki HoustonFarewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Changing Family Unit
For Jeanne and many others, Manzanar brings significant changes to traditional Japanese family structure. Prior to Manzanar, dinner is a communal, family-focused time for Jeanne and her family; they would prepare the food and eat together, bonding as a family. This eating schedule is one of many changes in Manzanar, as Jeanne and her family begin to take meals separately or with their friends. Meanwhile, Papa’s deteriorating mental health causes others—Woody, Mama, etc.—to take on aspects of his old role as the head of the family. Jeanne notes that even after Manzanar, her family could not resume their previous communal eating schedule—a remark that symbolizes the broader, lasting impact of the camp on family life. Most notably, Mama becomes the family breadwinner, displacing Papa from a position deeply intertwined with his pride and sense of self.
This motif, therefore, supports the themes of both Japanese American Identity and Imprisonment’s Harmful Effects on Mental Health. Jeanne realizes how important the family structure is for both as it begins changing in Manzanar, and she longs for the normalcy of her life prior to the camp. She notes that the changes to the family unit were difficult for many in Manzanar, to the point that sociologists who studied the camp encouraged families to reunite for their meals in the mess hall.
Endurance
Endurance refers to the ability to continue in a situation despite the presence of obstacles and setbacks. For both Jeanne’s family as well as the Japanese American community, endurance is an important credo for life. The mindset of the Japanese Americans in Manzanar is that their only option is to endure the difficulties and atrocities of the camp. Avoiding life’s pain, heartbreak, and obstacles is not desirable; in fact, the ability to endure is crucial to one’s development as a human.
Endurance is a central theme of the kimigayo, Japan’s national anthem. In particular, the anthem correlates the ability of a person to endure difficulties with their growth as a human. Jeanne’s development throughout the memoir is evidence of such growth. After enduring the difficult living conditions of the camp and grappling with life post-Manzanar, Jeanne is able to lead a mature and stable life, eventually reconciling with her difficult past.
Royalty
The motif of royalty develops Jeanne’s desire to be seen for her true self. This desire first appears in the camp, when she wants to convert to Catholicism after seeing an orphan girl receive attention and praise during her confirmation ceremony. While she was already intrigued with the religion itself, Jeanne wants a community to receive her in this “royal” manner. Many years later, during her first year at the high school in San Jose, Jeanne joins the competition to become the school’s annual carnival queen and secures a victory over the non-Japanese candidates despite the school administration’s efforts to thwart her election. In winning the crown, she also secures a victory for her inner child: She gains the crown that she desired many years before.
The motif of royalty calls attention to the inner turmoil that Jeanne experiences in her post-Manzanar adolescence. As she grapples with her identity, she simultaneously wants to disappear and be seen by her peers. The urge to be “queen” speaks to the latter desire, while the urge to disappear is a product of the shame that she acquired during her years in Manzanar. While her pilgrimage to Manzanar concludes the memoir with hope, the final scene of Part 2 is uplifting in a different way; her coronation as queen is the beginning of her journey of self-discovery, which will ultimately allow her to make peace with her memories of Manzanar.
