Compare And Contrast Farewell To Manzanar

Both Jeanne Houston and Yoshika Uchida wrote about their different experiences in their situation in these internment camps during WWII and how they were forced to leave their homes and to go to these camps. In Yoshika Uchida's story, The Bracelet, Uchida writes about Ruri and her experiences in the internment camps and how it was different from what she expected, and also what she learns from this situation. However, in Jeanne Watkatsuki Houston's story, Farewell to Manzanar, she writes about her and her family's experience at the camp and how they persevere through this journey. These stories are different because each story holds a different perspective on their experience and also a different thought towards this situation even though they experienced the same historical event. During

WWII many people experienced the same incident, but approached it in a different way. Both Houston and Uchida may went through the same historical event, but their experiences in the internment camps were different. Ruri loses her bracelet and keeps searching until she transferred to another camp. The text states, "I kept looking for it all the time we were in Tanforan. I didn't stop looking until the day we were sent to another camp, called Topaz, in the middle of a desert in Utah. And then I gave up" (Uchida 28). The quote helps illustrate how Ruri did not care that she was in Tanforan, but she only cared about the bracelet she lost and kept searching until she moved. This bracelet is significant to Ruri because it was a gift from Laurie, and Ruri promised that she would wear it forever and never take it off. This is different from Lauren's experience at the camp because Laurie was sick with diarrhea and cramps. The quote states, "I was sick continuously, with stomach cramps and diarrhea. At first it was from the shots they gave us for typhoid, in very heavy doses and in assembly-line fashion: swab, jab, swab, move along now, swab, jab , swab, keep it moving. That knocked all of us younger kids down at once with fevers and vomiting. Later, it was the food that made us sick, young and old alike"( Houston 19). This quote helps prove how Ruri and Jeanne differed in their experiences in these camps. When Ruri was at Tanforan, she experiences the lost of her bracelet and spends most of her time finding it. But in Jeanne's case, she went through being sick continuously with diarrhea and cramps. Jeanne was sick most of the time from the shots they gave them for typhoid which, " knocked out all us younger kids down at once with fever and vomiting." The reader can see that from what these authors provided, Ruri's experience was not as hard as what Houston had to go through, which was diarrhea, stomach cramps, fevers and vomiting. Another thing that differed between these two authors are their thoughts towards this situation. During WWII, even though many people experienced this same historical event, their interactions towards this were different. In these two texts, their thoughts differed while they were in these internment camps. Houston describes how her situation to show how bad it was, and also how she realized she was powerless in this situation. The text states, "But the entire situation there, especially in the beginning-the packed sleeping quarters, the communal mess halls, the open toilets-all this was an open insult to that other, private self, a slap in the face you were powerless to the challenge"(Houston 21). This helps show the reader how Houston's thoughts were that what she experienced was a slap in the face to show that she was powerless to the challenge. This slap in the face made her realize that she was helpless and could not do anything in this situation, all Houston could do was go through this until the end.

However in Ruri's case, she learns a new life experience of what her mother taught her that altered her thought of keeping something significant from a person to remember them. The quote states, "Those are things we can carry in our hearts and take with us no matter where we are sent" (Uchida 28). This quote helps show the reader how these two texts were different in that Ruri and Houston had different thoughts. Ruri's thoughts were more on the positive side compared to Houston's feelings because Ruri stopped caring that she didn't have a bracelet to remember Laurie, instead she uses what her mother taught her and thanks to Ruri's mother, she was able to still remember Laurie even until now. . However, in Houston's case, her feelings were negative towards the internment camp because she believed that her situation at the camp was an insult to her, and her private self and led to her believing that she was powerless and could not do anything about this entire situation. These stories are different because each story holds a different perspective on their experience and also a different thought towards this situation even though they experienced

the same historical event. Houston and Uchida may have experienced and went through the same event, but their experiences in the internment camp were different. In these two texts, Ruri and Houston's thoughts differed while they were in these internment camps. In conclusion, people have different perspectives on experiences and thoughts even if they experienced the same thing because everyone is different and interpret and think differently, and that is why these two authors differed.