Farewell to Manzanar: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

On Jeanne’s first day of sixth grade, her kindly teacher asks her to read a page aloud. After she finishes, a blond girl turns around and says, “I didn’t know you could speak English.” Jeanne is stunned to learn that such a thing had ever been in question. She sits down, realizing that while she won’t suffer physical abuse at school she’ll always been seen “as someone other than American, or perhaps not be seen at all.”

In her years at Manzanar, although Jeanne knew her family hadn’t done anything wrong, she never truly questioned why the government put them there. The girl’s remark is a moment of “illumination” on this question, and the start of Jeanne’s pervasive feelings of shame.

From that day on, Jeanne frequently wants to be invisible. She feels that if people notice her, they will only see her Asian face and consider her part of a faceless bloc of Japanese, rather than as an individual. Jeanne notes that internment is only possible when people “stop seeing individuals”; in fact, she’s inherited the inability to see herself as one from the very people who put her family in Manzanar and can’t believe she speaks English.

However, another part of Jeanne wants to “prove” that she belongs in America, just as Woody proved his patriotism by joining the army. For the rest of her schooldays, these two impulses are constantly at war within her.

Soon, Jeanne learns that she’s accepted in certain areas of school life—she’s expected to be a good student and athlete and allowed to join clubs like the yearbook and newspaper. Things outside school are trickier—some girls’ parents won’t allow them to invite her over, which makes it hard for her to cultivate friends. When things like this happen, Jeanne feels guilty and ashamed as if she is “imposing a burden” on her friends.

Jeanne excels at school and extracurriculars, but she’s still not satisfied and doesn’t feel that she belongs. She decides she wants to joint the Girl Scouts. By now, she’s become friends with the girl who was surprised to hear her speak English—Radine also lives in Cabrillo Homes, and they often walk to school together. When Jeanne asks if she can join Radine’s Girl Scout troop, Radine seems uneasy but promises to ask her mother, the troop leader. The next day, she politely tells Jeanne that she can’t join. Jeanne too responds politely, saying that she understands.

Jeanne doesn’t truly blame Radine—she’s used to people’s parents being suspicious of her. As if in compensation, Radine becomes extremely protective of Jeanne, always challenging people who give her hostile looks on the way to school. Radine’s outspokenness shocks Jeanne, whose instinct is to avoid these looks.

Jeanne teaches Radine to baton twirl, which bring the two girls even closer together. Practicing every day, they soon master all the common stunts. In the fall, they try out to baton twirl for a Boy Scout band in the housing complex next to theirs. Jeanne even gets to be the lead majorette, and she and Radine get beautiful uniforms and white boots and hats. They perform at all the junior high assemblies and in parades each spring.

Jeanne explains that for her, it’s easier to gain acceptance from men’s organizations than women’s. Like high school and college sororities, the Girl Scouts is run by mothers and quick to exclude Asians. On the other hand, the boys and fathers in the Boy Scout troop like to have Radine and Jeanne, who are both maturing early, at all their events. Jeanne is too young to understand that her acceptance is based on her sexuality or that this is really “another form of invisibility.” However, she does know that her “femininity” is a good way to overcome anti-Asian sentiment.

Jeanne’s brothers are proud of her new role in the parades, but Papa is not; he wants her to cultivate a more traditionally Japanese feminine demeanor and is always lecturing her about the perils of showing her legs and smiling too much.

However, Jeanne’s feeling influenced less and less by her family; she doesn’t like being in the crowded apartment, where the family eats in shifts and Mama is rarely home. Moreover, she’s lost respect for Papa—he’s never able to gain support for his housing cooperative idea, and a later scheme he and Woody develop for harvesting abalone also fails.

Woody has returned from Japan confident and mustached, bringing valuable gifts from Aunt Toyo. Papa is proud to see how much Woody has grown, but it also seems like he’s “shrinking” in comparison. Papa starts drinking again, a development which Jeanne witnesses in “sorrow and disgust.” She channels her shame at the family’s poverty, their strained home life, and the stigma she endures at school into her shame of Papa and her feeling that he is responsible for what is happening to him.

Papa refuses to come to the parades when Jeanne marches, but she’s even more upset when he does show up to events. One night the PTA hosts a dinner for all the students in the scholarship society, of whom Jeanne is one. Papa and Mama arrive completely overdressed. As each student is presented, the parents are also introduced and stand up to give a quick wave to the crowd. When it’s Jeanne’s turn, Papa performs a slow ceremonial bow. Everyone looks at him in uncomfortable silence except Mama, who is pleased with his dignity. Jeanne wants to scream—or, better, to become invisible.