Student Question
What difficulties with food, housing, and living arrangements are depicted in chapter 2 of Farewell To Manzanar?
Quick answer:
In Chapter 2 of Farewell to Manzanar, the family faces significant challenges with food and housing upon arriving at Manzanar. The cooks, unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine, serve fruit on overcooked rice, which is culturally inappropriate. Their living quarters consist of two small rooms, each 16 by 20 feet, for twelve family members, with walls that have cracks. Additionally, some individuals are placed in rooms with strangers.
So you are only talking about Chapter 2, where the family has just been sent to Manzanar, right?
If so, we see them have problems as soon as they get there. First of all, they go to have dinner and the cooks have no idea what kind of stuff Japanese eat. They put fruit on top of overcooked rice, not realizing that Japanese didn't eat sweet stuff on rice.
Then they went to the barracks and the living quarters were tiny. They had two 16 by 20 foot rooms for the twelve people in their family -- that's like two pretty big bedrooms in modern American houses. In addition, the walls had cracks in them. Finally, some people got put into these small rooms with people they didn't even know.
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