Letter to a Young Refugee from another and Farewell to Manzanar
are both stories about struggles of families inside a refugee camp for the
former and internment camp for the latter. In the “Letter to a Young refugee”
which took place in Guam after the Vietnam war, Lam addresses another refugee
he saw in the news to relate his previous experience. The theme is more like, “I
know what you are going through.”
In “Farewell to Manzanar”, the main character went back to
the old camp in Manzanar much later in her life to reflect on what used to be her life
there as a displaced Japanese in America.
I'd choose dark, inaccessible, and comfortless. The other words don't really pin down the tone ("draperies"? "General"?).
