Themes: All Themes
Themes: Judgment and Perception
Guterson reminds us we cannot judge others by their facial expression or by their body language. We can only judge others only by seeing deeply into their hearts, seeing the coldness or warmth of their heart. For eighteen-year-old Ishmael, his childhood sweetheart, Hatsue, has her moods, "times when she went cold and silent and he felt her distance from him so completely that it seemed impossible to reach her. Even when he held her it seemed to...
(Read more)Themes: Love and Identity
For eighteen-year-old Hatsue, "what was love if it wasn't the instinct she felt to be on the moss inside the cedar tree with this boy she had always known? He was the boy of this place, of these woods, these beaches, the boy who smelled like this forest. If identity was geography instead of blood—if living in this place was what really mattered—then Ishmael was part of her, inside of her, as much as anything Japanese." She comes to realize that,...
(Read more)Themes: Silence and Concealment
Silence is a part of her; it lives in the silence of her mind. She is a master of the art of false preoccupation. She learns to conceal too much of herself. All this training will backfire on her; "Ishmael, at school, feigned detachment in her presence and ignored her in the casual way she gradually taught him to use."
(Read more)Themes: Self-Judgment and Reflection
We cannot even judge ourselves with any accuracy. "Kabuo sat in his prison cell now and examined his reflection carefully. It was not a thing he had control over. His face had been molded by his experiences as a soldier, and he appeared to the world seized up inside precisely because this was how he felt. . . What could he say to people on San Piedro to explain the coldness he projected?" The mask he has chosen to wear—"the face he had worn since...
(Read more)Themes: Honor and Integrity
Guterson is fascinated by honor. There is the code of honor among fisherman, for instance. "You keep to yourself and I'll keep to myself," one fisherman testifies in court. "No, you don't board for no other reason than a good one—other guy's in need, he's got an emergency, his engine ain't running, his leg's broke. Then, go ahead and board." There is honor among neighbors. When Ole Jurgenson meets with Carl Heine, he understands the young man's...
(Read more)Themes: Trust and Betrayal
Guterson delves into the problem of seeing coherently. When Ishmael—burdened with the coast guard notes that could exonerate Kabuo Miyomoto and thus crush forever Ishmael's chances with Hatsue Miyomoto—visits his mother, he finds "[A] fog of condensation had formed on the inside of the pane, so that her image appeared to him as a kind of silhouette, a vague impression of his mother at the sink, refracted and fragmented, a wash of color." Memories...
(Read more)Themes: Mysteries of the Human Heart
Most importantly, Guterson is concerned with the mysteries of the human heart, how we must fight back chaos and accident and chance.
To Guterson, growing up means we become "weary from the inside," a fatigue that grows from those "chambers of the heart." Ishmael has had a sort of heart disease, too. "But the war, his arm, the course of things—it had all made his heart much smaller. He had not moved on at all." Like the others, Hatsue too is...
(Read more)Themes: Interracial Love
The love affair between...
(This entire section contains 821 words.)
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Ishmael and Hatsue grew out of innocence and familiarity because they had known each other since they were very young. In fact, their first kiss was when they were ten years old. Romance bloomed when they were teenagers. They met secretly in a large hollow cedar tree where they talked and ventured slowly into a physical relationship. Because of the community (and larger society) in which they lived, they knew they must...
(Read more)Themes: Guilt
The theme of guilt runs throughout the novel, touching individual characters at various levels. Kabuo is on trial in court, the forum of determining guilt and innocence, although the reader comes to understand that what Kabuo is ultimately guilty of in this forum is being Japanese during a time when prejudice against the Japanese is common. Guterson shows that guilt is not always what it appears to be and that social institutions can be misused...
(Read more)Themes: Prejudice
Throughout Snow Falling on Cedarsthe harsh realities of prejudice are portrayed. It is seen not only in the present during the trial, but also in the community's past. The treatment the Japanese received at the hands of both the American government and the white members of their community reflects distrust bred by the war. Because of prejudice, many people did not judge Japanese Americans as individuals; instead, they were all treated as threats...
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