Camp Harmony [NOT!] Literature Focus :]

Question:
Interpret: how would you define the mood of the people on the bus at the beginning of the journey the camp harmony and at the end of the journey?

Answer:
When the people were on the bus to go to Camp Harmony, they all felt excited and tried to be as positive as they can. The group of college students were singing and at least they were trying to be positive.  The group of college student probably was the most exciting group, "Everyone was quiet except for a chattering group of university students who soon started singing college songs." page 515. With the tone of the description of what the author was seeing while she was sitting on the bus, we can tell that she's describing things beautifully with her innocent and positive soul.

But when they got to the camp and assigned their department, they started to feel uncertain about the harsh life conditions they're going to have as long as they remain living in that Camp Harmony. At first the family of Monica was trying to be as positive as they could, the mother found an inspiration for her poem. But the main character changed from a positive girl into a girl with fear, confusion because of the treatment that she’s getting from the U.S.A government. She considered herself as a native-born American and she probably has been acting as a true American but now she's blamed for her real nationality. And she felt loss of her identity because since now the americans are considering her as a Japanese but she knows very little about being a Japanese so she doesn't know how to act and how to become a "real japanese". She  has little or no privacy. Everything is under control of the government [the director of camp]. In the book, Monica said, "Maybe I wasn't considered an American anymore. My citizenship wasn't real, after all. Then what was I? I was certainly not a citizen of Japan as my parents were." Page 520.