Snow Falling on Cedars

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Snow Falling on Cedars is the first novel written by American writer David Guterson. Guterson, who at the time was a teacher, wrote the book in the early morning hours over a ten year period between the 1960s to the 1980s. Because of the success of the novel, however, he quit his job and began to write full-time. The novel was published on September 26, 1995, becoming an immediate bestseller and winning that year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Influenced by Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Snow Falling on Cedars also deals with racism. Snow Falling on Cedars was adapted into a film (Snow Falling on Cedars) in 1999, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Cover of Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars

Due to the violence and sexual content in the novel, in some markets it was placed on a list of banned books. The book, however, remains a popular novel in English classes at high schools across the United States, and portions of it have appeared several times on the English Literature AP Exam. Some Catholic schools have also banned the book.[1]

[edit] Explanation of the novel's title

The title of the book comes from a heavy snowstorm that causes a delay in Kabuo's trial and burdens the islanders.. The fictional island of San Piedro is heavily forested with cedar trees. In the midst of the cedar forests, a fallen cedar tree was a special place between Hatsue and Ishmael when both were children. They would hide in the hollow tree and talk, often unaware of the storm brewing around them. Once, Ishmael followed Hatsue from the cedar tree to Hatsue's house. Another time, there was a heavy snowstorm as Ishmael and Hatsue snuggled up in the tree. Ishmael loves Hatsue but she does not feel that their love will ever work.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the northern Puget Sound region of the state of Washington coast in 1954, the plot revolves around the murder case of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American accused of killing Carl Heine, a respected fisherman in the close-knit community. The trial occurs in the midst of deep anti-Japanese sentiments following World War II. Covering the case is the editor of the town's one-man newspaper, Ishmael Chambers, a World War II veteran who lost an arm fighting the Japanese. Torn by a sense of hatred for the Japanese, Chambers struggles with his powerful emotions of love for Kabuo's wife, Hatsue, also a Japanese-American, as well as his deep conscience knowing that Kabuo is truly innocent.

Spearheading the prosecution efforts are the town's sheriff, Art Moran, and prosecutor, Alvin Hooks. Leading the defense is the old, experienced Nels Gudmundsson, who has been through a lot in life. An underlying theme throughout the trial is prejudice. Despite evidence proving Kabuo's innocence, several witnesses, including Etta Heine, Carl's mother, accuse Kabuo of murdering Carl for racial and personal reasons. Etta is a stereotypical anti-Japanese person; she represents the part of America that persecuted Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. This stance is not without irony, as Kabuo Miyamoto (a decorated war veteran of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team), experienced prejudice because of his ancestry, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As Etta Heine is in fact a German-American, she too could by the same standard be blamed for Nazi war crimes.

Also involved in the trial are Horace Whaley, the town coroner, and Ole Jurgensen, an elderly man who sells his strawberry field to Carl. The strawberry field is contested in the trial. The land was originally owned by Etta Heine's husband. Kabuo, as a child, and his family lived on the land and picked strawberries for Mr. Heine. Kabuo was a great friend of Carl; the two even gave each other fishing lines. Mr. Heine, Sr, respected the Japanese and sold the land to the Miyamoto family. However, before the last payment was to be made, the Japanese were forced to move to internment camps. Thus, all but one of the payments had been made to the Heines. After some years in the internment camp, Kabuo returned and found that Mr. Heine, Sr., had died and that Etta Heine had sold the land to Ole Jurgensen. Ole Jurgensen, in turn, sold the land back to Carl Heine, moments before Kabuo arrives to try to buy the land back.