How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Camp authorities frowned on mess hall hopping and tried to stop it, but the good cooks liked it. They liked to see long lines outside their kitchens and would work overtime to attract a crowd. Younger boys, like Ray, would make a game of seeing how many mess halls they could hit in one meal period - be the first in line at Block 16, gobble down your food, run to 17 by the middle of the dinner hour, gulp another helping, and hurry to 18 to make the end of that chow line and stuff in the third meal of the evening. They didn't need to do that. No matter how bad the food might be, you could always eat till you were full. (1.5.4-5)
No wonder meals with the family couldn't compete at camp… especially if you're a kid (like Jeanne's brothers) with depressed, anxious, traumatized parents. Mess hall hopping sounds like a bit more fun.
Quote #5
He followed the arrow from the sign to the back of the building, where he found a yard full of half-dressed Chinese and Japanese field hands waiting in line to apply for work in the sugar cane. His disdain for them was met with laughter. They looked at him as if he were a maniac, pointing with derision at his dandy's outfit. He rushed back to the street, cursing, dismayed, humiliated, heading for the safety of his cousin's. (1.6.7)
Ethnicity doesn't guarantee acceptance into a group, and Papa's learning that the hard way here. He's just gotten to the sugar cane plantation from Japan, so he's got his samurai class and status. But on the plantation, this doesn't fly—what bonds the men together isn't shared ethnicity because the Chinese and Japanese are able to hang together, but their shared experience in Hawai'i as second-class citizens. This excludes Papa.
Quote #6
As soon as the word got around that so-and-so had been cleared to leave, there would be a kid of tribal restlessness, a nervous rise in the level of neighborhood gossip as wives jockeyed for position to see who would get the empty cubicles. (2.12.4)
Just because the community tries to be cooperative doesn't mean everyone isn't out for his or her own family. Family life may be disintegrating at camp, but the core tribe is still the family—at least for the wives.