Ben Sweet once said, "The greatest success is successful self-acceptance." The characters in Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Farewell to Manzanar, Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Ayn Rand's Anthem all learn about and accept themselves for who they are by the end of these novels. The main characters, Jeanne Wakatsuki, Maya Angelou, and Equality 7-2521, respectively, are very different but also similar individuals who go through significant changes in the courses of the novels by overcoming oppression.
Internment by one's own country in a camp away from anything that a chil…
