Farewell to Manzanar Book Review

Farewell to Manzanar Book Review

" What is Pearl Harbor?"(4). The book I read was Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki. This is what started World War II. During these times Japanese people were treated like animals. They were forced to live in internment camps throughout Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 was approved by Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, this order ordered the military to place Japanese or Japanese Americans into these internment camps. This is where this story takes place, in an internment camp in Manzanar were Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family spend there time during these harsh times. Well developed characters, excellent theme, but a lacking a more entertaining plot makes Jeanne Wakatsuki's Farewell to Manzanar an exceptional book.

The first literary element that caught my attention was the characters. In Farewell to Manzanar the main characters are Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family. " For one thing Papa discouraged me"(33). Then as the story gradually moves on, and the life of these Japanese Americans get a little better Jeanne has school friends. These school friends make Jeanne want to become a Caucasian girl. Then she gets treated like an outcast. She tried out for the band and she couldn't get the part she wanted because she was a Japanese American. " When he was angry he would wield it like a flat of a sword, whacking out at his kids or his wife or his hallucinations"(36). Papa was sent to jail and now has come back "crippled". This is how two of the main character of Farewell to Manzanar acted or behaved.

The second literary element I chose was setting. They were forced to live in an internment camp throughout most of the book until the war finishes, then their life after the war is even worst. They go out to the real world and Caucasian people put up posters of monsters with slanted eyes. They get treated unfairly then they go back to their old house, which has been sold to Caucasian people. These Caucasian people that live in Jeanne's old house makes the Wakatsuki's live in what used to be their garage.

The last literary element I chose was plot. The plot of Farewell to Manzanar was Japanese American life inside these internment camps. During the whole book they just talked and talked and talked which gave us the reader a lot of information, but its not