Shaping Identities / Farewell to Manzanar and Japanese-Americans during the experience of World War II

Abstract

In this thesis I will analyze Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. She is a Japanese-American writer who, almost thirty years after having been released from an American detention Camp, wrote a reconstruction of the events related to the imprisonment she suffered. In this thesis, first I will describe the historical context in which the book is inscribed. Secondly, I will analyze the main events which influenced the life of the author. Then I will focus on the novel itself and the technical devices which influence the narration. In conclusion, the results of the thesis will present a variegated list of answers on literary, political and historical matters related to the Japanese-American community.