Themes In Farewell To Manzanar

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Within the process of immoral and unethical acts being done, the identity of those who are persecuted stands to be changed by those who hold control. How the victims choose to react to this change being brought upon them, whether through resistance or acceptance, defines how the identity of that group moving forward. Yet, many times the decision between resistance and acceptance can create division within a community. This duality of resistance versus acceptance is displayed in Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s memoir, Farewell to Manzanar. Houston dives into the differing impact that these two responses against oppression hold in regards to identity. Houston emphasis on this theme also provides an understanding of the Japanese-American experience …show more content…
Once the camps closed, Houston and her family were, “… filled with dread” because “the outside world loomed… as someplace inaccessible” (127 & 129). When Houston's family moved to “… a housing project in West Cabrillo”(153) and she began to attend school, she, “… wanted the same acceptance that seemed to come easily,” to her peers (171). Her movement into Western culture, such as being, voted, “… carnival queen”of her high school led to her father, “… [making] a show of resistance” against her development and the life she led (173 & 178). Yet, the author’s acceptance of the Manzanar camp, as well as her upbringing, came once she returned to the Manzanar camp, where she realized she had not solely, “… imagined [or] made the whole thing up,” and that, “… Americans had actually seen the camp” (186 & 187).
Houston examines the contrasting reactions of defiance and acceptance most notably through her experience and perception of the internment camp and the community of the camp.
Amongst the prisoners in the camp, the resistance against the government authorities and all who supported them proves to be the inspiration for the December Riot when, …show more content…
Specifically, with her experience of her coronation during high school, she begins to wonder, “Who had [the students] voted for? Somebody [she] wanted to be. And wasn’t” (182). The self-doubt present in this passage derives from Houston wondering whether the acceptance and desire of fitting in, while simultaneously pushing her past and tradition aside, has led to her solely exemplifying an idealized vision of what people want to see, and not her true self. This concept of identity among those in lower societal standing appears in Hannah Arendt’s, We Refugee’s, as well. Arendt states how refugees lack, “… the courage to fight for a change of social and legal status… so many… try a change of identity” (Arendt 116). However, Arendt describes the dangers associated with that change in that, “… recovering a new personality is as difficult -and as hopeless- as a new creation of the world” (117). Arendt and Houston connect in the way that both speak of the desire from those on the outside, the Other, to assimilate and become one of the many. Yet, in changing identity as a means to no longer feel disconnected from the majority, many refugees and minorities create a disconnect within themselves between the person they truly are and the person they are portraying. Both Houston and Arendt make the claim that in conceding one’s integrity to the majority, there is a simultaneous
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