Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Antagonist: Papa

Papa gets in the way of everyone once he rejoins the family at Manzanar, a feat he accomplishes by being your basic grade-A jerk. He abuses his wife and mother-in-law; he tries to keep Woody from volunteering for the war effort; he thwarts Jeanne's attempt to become Catholic and—later on—carnival queen. Even if he has good reasons to block the journeys of the other characters, he's still a really unpleasant obstacle for the other characters to overcome. By the way, did we add that he refuses to work at a steady job because it's too low for him? The kind word to describe him: complex.

Antagonist: The U.S. Government

There's really no two ways about this: the U.S. government comes off really badly in this book (and Jeanne as our narrator isn't even as harsh as she could be). The feds throw Japanese-Americans into internment camp without any kind of constitutional/legal right, splitting families apart and treating the internees like animals. It's bad all around.