Racial Compare and Contrast
Many different cultures and races faced hardships just because they were a certain religion or nationality. They have been punished time and time again for no apparent reason. We have seen many instances of this throughout history. Specifically I will touch on the holocaust and the Japanese American internment. I am going to compare and contrast the two stories, “Night” by Elie Wiesel and “Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. These are two stories that are very alike but still have many differences. There are some between these two stories.
You could start with the fact that in both, the main character is a child whose family is forcibly moved from its home to a restricted and enclosed area due to an official government policy of discrimination against the family’s ethnic group. In both stories, family members are separated, many hardships are endured, persons struggle to understand why this is happening to them and how to maintain their identity in the face of the dehumanizing conditions in which they are being held. Both stories contain many elements show the emotions of suppression and separation.
In both cases, the narrator of the story survives and becomes a spokesperson for all who were in the camps in later years. There are also many differences between the two stories. The specific ethnic and religious backgrounds of the subject persons are much different. One is Japanese and the other is Jewish. Many of the Jews are killed and annihilated by the German Nazis, whereas many of the Japanese were allowed to return to life in the general society of the United States after the war was ended.
The types of activities undertaken by the persons in the different camps are very different, reflecting the differing attitudes toward the camp’s residents by the governments of the United States and of Germany. The oppression of people has been seen many times and history and should not be taken lightly. We have to learn from our past mistakes. We can use the perspective of these authors to learn from the mistakes of the human race. Most of the time we only see the outside of situations, but these stories let us see the interior perspective of the situation.
