Passage to Adulthood

In the novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the author writes an autobiography about living in an internment camp during World War II, known as Manzanar. It was written in 1995 with the help of her husband and reflects on her past of growing up in a racial discriminated environment, because of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Jeanne becomes confused with the actions taking place towards her family and develops a fear toward …

…as possible. As she grows older, she realizes that she cannot simply "make it" as a Caucasian. Her Manzanar experience gained her prejudice against herself and acceptance for herself and her family. She later realizes this, changes it, and thirty-years later writes many novels on her experience. She had felt like Manzanar was the finish of her and her family, without realizing this experience was the beginning to her maturation on her passage to adulthood.