Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Identitiy In "Farwell To Manzanar"

So far, how much of Farewell To Manzanar deals with Jeanne's struggle to discover her identity? How does her Japanese identity conflict with her American identity? How does her experience with prejudice help her to reconcile the two? (Please use quotations to support your response. Due by 3:30p.m. on Thursday, 2-19-2009.)

24 comments:

Corinne said...

There isnt much so far in reading is about her struggle to find her identity its more about the first little things in Manzanar.its nalso not much about her japanese identity and her american identity.

Anonymous said...

she struggle with her identy by not really knowing where they were going when they sent japenese-american to the camps.her japense identyconflick with her american because she is an jap-american and she lives in america. by having prejudice in her life it might reconcile that american are only treating japenese that way bexcause o the war and its really unfare.

Camille! said...

She struggles with these two identies because although she's japanese she was born and raised in america and is only used to being surrounded by mostly americans. Its what shes more familliar with. "When I had entered kindergarten two years earlier, I was the only Oriental in the class."

loveroflifeisgood said...

Jeanne struggles to find her identity because she has two different places to belong to. The "caucasian", american soil she was born on and the "Japanese" side that flows through her blood. I think so far in the book she doesn't know the importance of her japanese heritage as well as the american because she is surronded by the American people "And it wastill with me, this fear of Oriental faces, when we moved to Terminal Island."

SarahD!24 said...

Since she is still a younger women, she is still searching for her identity. These times of being discriminated against is not really helping her. The people are treating her differently, even the people who are supposed to be helping her such as her teacher, "In Boyle Heights, the teacher feels cold and distant...she wants nothing to do with me." This is really showing her how she is being treated even thought she was born in America. Yes, she has a different skin tone but, that doesn't mean she should be discriminated against. Even though the "Caucasians" are treating her differently. she does not seem affected by it at this time. This doesn't mean she doesn't see that this is going on, "Public attitudes toward the Japanese in California were shifting rapidly...America was on the run." She notices this but is too young to really know what this word discrimination means. Since she is being prejudiced against, such as by her teachers and classmates I really think that it is affecting her deep down and she will show it soon. Just the hate towards her is just seeping in maybe slowly.

kiaraq said...

From what we have read I noticed that she is struggling with her identity. Since she is Japanese but was born here in america. She does not know that much about japanese culture. So she is struggling.

Sharon S. said...

In the reading of Farwell to Manzanar. I haven't really seen or noticed anything concerning her identiy or her Japanese identity and her American idnetity.

Kelley said...

Jeanne struggles with her identity because one, she has the blood of an Japanese person and two, she was born on American soil therefore making her an American citizen. At first she thought nothing of it, that is until Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japanese pilots and suddenly America was put on the bridge of fear and going to extreme measures such as by putting Japanese-Americans in Internment camps. Her sense of identity is suddenly tested, and she no longer is a child of 7 but a child who must act like a mature adult.

Anonymous said...

She struggles with her identity because before her family was moved to the camp she was terrified of oriental people (besides her family). She was afraid of them and considered herself as caucasian. She was confused because she was of Japanese descent bust was born on american soil. She was afraid when going to the camps but now she knows that they are just like her and are Americans too.

amariah said...
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amariah said...

Jeanne struggles with her own identity since she has grown up in America and she has learned english and American coultures. Although when she sees japanese people who are speaking the language and arent acting as foreighn as she is, she just sits back watching,and confused, she doesnt understand who she really is. And when Americans start acting rascist against her since she "looks like the enemy" she doest understand the meaning of a Japanese-American.

FAbassi said...

In the book "Farewell to Manzanar" Jeanne struggles with her identity, because she is half american, and half japanese, so it is hard for her to realize where she belongs. Before heading to the camp, she was scared about being with japanese people, and was intimidated from them because she had been around americans all her life, and she grew up in america. Also, when people are judging her at school, she feels left out, and somewhat confused on where she belongs, because of her heritage.

Ariana said...

She struggles with finding her identity because of the fact that she was raised without really knowing her heritage, or even by being around the same race other than her family. Her japanese identity conflicts with her american identntiy because the fact that she is of japanese race she was then looked upon differently after the horror of pearl harbor. She was terrified of people of her descent because she had been hidden from that world involving those, that she was scared of anyone of oriental race. Once she got in the camp though that fear went away realizing that they were just regular peolpe and not anything malicious.

Jazzy said...

First of all, she struggles with her identity because she is only seven. She probably doesn't even know her true self yet. Also, she struggles with her identity because she was born in America but she has Japanese blood. Putting people in internment camps demonstrates injustice, for America is the land of the free and is known for human rights, and just because she looks like the enemy doesn't mean she is the enemy. That gives no reason to take away her rights.

Amanda said...

She is so used to living with americans even though she is Japanese. Jeanne's struggle is that she is being imprisoned for a race and culture that she barely knows becasue she was born and raised in America. She is techniqually is American, she is forced to live with a bunch of people who only speak Japanese and they have "slanted eyes", which terrifies her because she is not used to everyone around her looking like that. "When I had entered kindergarten two years earlier, I was the only Oriental in the class. They sat me next to a Caucasion girl who happened to have very slanted eyes." This shows that she was terrified of the people she was not used to and had some difficulty adjusting to it.

GraceK said...

She grew up around caucasions and thinking of her self as nothing more than an american she wasn't used to asians "When I had entered kindergarten two years earlier, I was the only Oriental in the class. They sat me next to a Caucasion girl who happened to have very slanted eyes. I looked at her and began to scream,.." she was scared of oriental people. she didn' like being differnt form the caucasions.

Courtney Davis said...

She hasn't really discovered who she is yet because she has been really confused. She says more about her as an american then a Japanese origin.

Alison! said...

It doens't exactly seem like she has found her true identity yet. As for her japanese identity, she struggled when she moved to an island with other japanese kids because she did't even speak japanese, and she was also used to being the only oriental child in her class, which was not the case anymore

Anonymous said...

Her Japanese identity conflicts with her American identity because she still probably still feels ties to her home country in ways, eventhough she has never lived there, but she feels more of an American.

Courtney Davis said...

I think that the only real part of Farwell to Manzanar that deals with her trying to find her identity is the last half after she starts to live out in the real world again like she wanted to be like her friend but she discovered that she couldn't really because she was Japenese. Her Japenese identity conflicts with her American b/c she wants to be a normal American teenager, but society wont treat her the same because she is Japenese.

Kayla Van Hee said...
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Kayla Van Hee said...

I think she struggles with her identity. She conflicts between her japanese culture and her american culture. Her father wants her to grow up as a traditional Japanese girl, but she will do anything to to be accepted by the American community.

NikkiZ said...

jeanne struggles with her own identity she has her japanesse idnetity and then her american identity. She struggle with the first few things with manzanar. But it is hard for her what idntity is really her. She has to deal with all these prejudice things going on too

KPeterson said...

jeanne struggles through out the novel with her identity, becuase she is trying to determine during hte war, is she american or is she japanese? she was born in america and is naturally an american citizen, but her culture is different, and there for clash throught her time during the war.