Jeremiah Knox, Manzanar: Pictures v.s Words

In my personal, unprofessional opinion, Embry's written account of Manzanar is a much better description of Manzanar than Adam's photographs. Embry's written account of how life inside and outside of Manzanar reveals much more than what Adam's photographs could ever reveal. Embry's description of her brother's life really give the reader a sense of how he suffered inside and outside of Manzanar. Embry's words give the reader an accurate account of the personal feelings of herself, her brother, and her family and other people around her. Although Adam's photographs are more descriptive in other ways, they are very deceptive about life in Manzanar and they just don't have the ability to convey the same message that Embry's words provide.
Adam's photographs are not without purpose. Adam's photographs provide a much more accurate visual description of Manzanar than what Embry's written account provides. His photos give the viewer a very accurate view of how Manzanar and its surroundings actually looked. Embry's description lacks power when it comes to describing her surroundings. Adam's photographs deliver a much more detailed description of Manzanar than what Embry's written account could ever provide. So, visually speaking, Adam's photographs provide a much better description of Manzanar than Embry's written account.

#1 Different Views of a Tragedy

Both Embrey and Adam's attempt to give the reader a sence of what it was like to live at Manzanar. The messages they are trying to convey, however, are very different. Embrey focuses on the hardships that are associated with Manzanar. She tells how her little brother was forced to stay there for years. She reinforces the hopelessness experienced when she tells her brother he should study and he responds, "What's the use of studying American history when we're behind barbed wires?" Overall, Embrey's picture of the camp is very dark and sad. Adam's photographs, however, tell a totally different story. Instead of focusing on the bad associated with the camp, Adam's showes how even through hardships the people oppressed were able to servive. He shows pictures of people working as well as playing cards and being, from the looks of it, relatively successful. Both of these accounts are true, but both give very different information. Without reading both, an accurate view of the camp could not be formulated.

manzanar Malcolm

Adams only depicts the people as being happy. In every picture everyone has a smile on there face, meaning it couldve been planned. In Embrey's story, it helps the reader get a better picture of the situation. It tells people how they feel when the cameras arent flashing in there face. The pictures help us though get an image of what it actually looked like. Other than the story we can only make a mental image. Both the story and the pictures help everyone see the whole ordeal in both lights. When times were somewhat good, and when times got frustrating. They both help in letting us know what really happened

Nick W. Japanese Americans

Embry talks briefly about the life in Manzanar while Adam's pictures show more of what it was like there. Adam's pictures show that there was a dress making class, feilds to work in, and games to play while the Japanese Americans were there. On the other hand Adam's depicts life at the camp easy and stress free. That is not how Embry told her story, she talks about the barbed wire that fenced them in, but in Adam's pictures there was no barbed wire to be seen. Embry also talks about a school that the nuns strted, and the most comparable thing to a school that Adam's potographed was the church. Overall Adam's portrays the camp as a happy place, with his pictures of smiling people, and a free place. Embry talks about the camp as a closely watched horrible place where no one should ever have to stay.

Embrey vs. Adams

After reading what Embrey wrote, and looking at the pictures that Adams took, I couldn't believe the dramatic differences and contrast between the two. Embrey's writing made me feel very sad about what was going on for her and her family, the way she felt about the situation and the things she had to deal with seemed terrible. Adams photos however were almost completly the opposite. The photo's Adams took, showed people looking happy and like they were having a good time. It seems that Embrey's writing captured the hardships, where as Adam's photos captured the time when people seemed to have forgotten about their troubles and were trying to have a good time.

-Gabby Henskens