Answer:
In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston use a
variety of literary techniques in telling her story. Many of the discussion questions,
activities, and journal suggestions explore those techniques in greater detail.
Genre: The Houstons have described Farewell to Manzanar as a “web of stories tracing a few paths, out of the multitude of paths that led up to and away from the experience of the internment.” In structuring the book in this way, they suggest that
Jeanne’s memoir is a part of a much larger story. Chapters that are printed in italics
reinforce this idea. Each depicts an event that the narrator could not possibly have
witnessed but that supports her experiences. That idea is also reinforced in the
teacher resource through a feature entitled “Historical Sidelights.” The feature provides information and questions that link Jeanne’s story to stories and experiences of
other Americans.
Theme: In the opening to the book, the Houstons reproduce two quotations (page
xiii) that introduce the central question of the book. The first is by historian Henry
Steele Commager. In 1947, he described internment as an unjust act that caused
“incalculable” misery and tragedy. The second is a Vietnamese poem that speaks of
life as leaving “footprints” on one’s forehead. Those footprints are wiped away only
by the cycle of birth and death. The story the Houstons tell is in effect a journey
through the pain of false accusations to the healing that time alone can bring. In a
sense that journey is much like those found in “coming of age” stories. In such
books, a youngster goes through difficult trials only to discover something new about
herself, people in general, or the world.
Explanation:
