How has Jeanne’s relationship with her mother changed over the years? What does each represent to the other?
Life in Manzanar forces Jeanne to become aware of people of her own cultural group. She lives among them and suffers with them. She learns what it is to be a Japanese girl. She never is able to make traditional Japanese culture a part of her life. She cannot understand the old odori dance teacher, and she smiles too much. Other Japanese traditions are often beyond Jeanne, for she was born an American and has lived among the Caucasians too long to truly be initiated into traditional Japanese culture. She clashes with father's expectations that his daughter be subservient and embrace Japanese traditions. She wants to be a part of American culture as well. She, for example, wants to twirl a baton in a band: a very American thing to do.
