Critical Essays

Settings in Farewell to Manzanar

Part 3, the most intense description of place, brings Jeanne full circle to the site now synonymous with Japanese-American oppression — Manzanar, which was actually one of ten internment camps. Like a conductor calling out stops, she mentally records the miles from Santa Cruz down Route 101 to Paso Robles, from the Diablo Range around Bakersfield, through Tehachapi Pass and on to the Mojave. The tension in her voice resonates the last miles, beyond "two oases, the first at Olancha, the second around Lone Pine, a small, tree-filled town" and on to a scene dominated by "sagebrush, tumbleweeds, and wind." The sketchy remains of what used to be a fair-sized, ready-made city poke up from the sand like remnants of a ghost town: a pillbox, elms, cattle guard, white obelisk memorializing the dead, spigot, and flagpole circle. The scent of spring blossoms and the single stepping stone that once served as someone's front stoop bring back homier memories of a time when Ko and Mama sat on the steps deciding how to make the long trek back to civilized life. The zany vision of Ko steering his car on a shredded front tire replays Ko's indomitable spirit as he yells to onlookers his jubilant rhyme, "No bus for us! No bus for us!"


Settings in Farewell to Manzanar : 1 2
CliffsNotes® To Go
Literature reviews for the iPhone™ & iPod touch® help you study anywhere, anytime.
Learn more now!
The Ultimate Learning Experience!
WATCH the film and READ the lit note for a fast way to study!
Learn more!