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Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (Characters (Ishmael Chambers (7)…
Snow Falling on Cedars
by David Guterson
Themes/Motifs
Nature
Snow
Purity (8)
"impossible winter purity...from his youth" (8)
Beauty (5)
Cedars
Used for fences, covering everything (6)
Ishmael and Hatsue kiss in cedars (112)
"The inside of the tree felt private" (111)
The Sea
Salmon (13)
San Piedro's reliance on salmon
Fear of the sea (16)
War
Horace Whaley, haunted by time as a medical officer (47)
Carl Heine, served in Okinawa
Kabuo: guilty of 4 murders, honor (155)
Ishmael: afraid of getting drafted (176)
Loyalty
Deliberate actions
Arthur Chambers, deliberate in his actions (35)
Carl Heine, went "about his life deliberately" (53)
Nels, taking drink of water, etc. (just by description)
"deliberately controlled hysteria" (93)
Loneliness
Pride in fishermen, "courage to fish alone" (38)
Noble profession
Journalism = sus
Kabuo alone in his cell
Racism
Japs (43)
"looking for a Jap with a bloody gun butt" (59)
Japanese-Americans take rear seats of courtroom not by law, but by society (75)
"One way or another, they wanted. and on account of that, she told the court, her son had been murdered by Kabuo Miyamoto. Her son was dead and gone" (133)
Hatsue taught to fear white men (84)
Identity
Hatsue, betraying her Japanese identity by being with Ishmael
Silence
Acceptance of fate
Storm, "If disaster, so be it" (255)
Superstition
Seagulls = ghosts (263)
Fishermen's "web of cause and effect" (263)
Kabuo
kills a seagull by accident (264)
Characters
Kabuo Miyamoto (3)
Accused
Demonstrates loyalty by enlisting against wife's wishes (92)
Sitting in dark, dirty cell (152)
Haunted by his four murders (154)
Shooting German boy (153)
Body language: composed (Japanese) vs defiant (to the jurors) (155)
Unable to change his face >>> guilty of 4 murders (155)
Dreams of being on
The Islander
(159), then dreams of
Hatsue
(160)
Bonded at Manzanar (163)
Kissed in back of truck, "brought her down for him, from the world of angels into the world of humans" (163)
Enlist = honor (163)
"It had been, he saw now, a war marriage" (164)
Kendo = liberation from madness, sins (169)
Denies killing
Carl
(265)
Kabuo's eyes revealed nothing (269)
Carl Heine (4)
Liked (14)
Father + grandfather = strawberry farmers (14)
Served as gunner during invasion of Okinawa (15)
Silent, not too friendly, but a good guy (16)
Judge Fielding (4)
So far (through ch 10), stock judge
Points out, impartially, that Art's five concerns really are not substantial pieces of evidence (262)
Ishmael Chambers (7)
Local reporter
Enjoyed American Lit (31)
Arthur = father, started San Piedro Review
Spying on Hatsue (94)
14 yo flashback, with Hatsue, digging for clams (94)
Geoducks
Sexual language
"'Gentle,' she urged. 'Slow. Easy is the way'" (96)
"'He's huge,' answered Hatsue" (96)
Ishmael confesses (99)
Kisses Hatsue
Still spying, fig tree (100)
The Crows [NC] (100)
Ishmael working odd jobs
Ishmael creeping on the Imada place (106)
Inside cedar tree (110)
Ishmael + Hatsue, rain (110)
Apologizes for kiss, "don't be sorry" (112) from Hatsue
Kiss again (112)
Spent 4 years in that cedar tree (171)
Afraid of getting drafted, war (176)
Naive? "'We're not going to let this hurt us'" (187) >>> after Pearl Habor
War story: marine radio operator, platoon gets annihilated (233-)
"'this ain't right!'" (243)
Ishmael sees Eric Bledsoe bleed to death (245)
"'that fucking goddamn Jap bitch'" (251)
Hatsue Miyamoto (8)
Wife of Kabuo
Visiting husband in jail for 73 days (79)
Hurt by this ordeal
Princess of the strawberry festival 1941, beauty (82)
Mrs. Shigemura (82)
Dance odori and serve tea (82)
How to be a proper Japanese woman
Learned to sit still, be tranquil (83)
Fear white men (84)
Wedding day (88)
Expresses similar interests (strawberry farming!) (88)
Kissed
Ishmael
??? (87)
Lied to
Kabuo
said never kissed anyone (87)
Has sex with
Kabuo
(91)
Relationship with Ishmael discovered by mother at Manzanar (223)
Cuts off all communication with him
Kabuo
= arranged relationship
Art Moran (9)
Sheriff
Feels out of place in his position (11)
Dutiful, delivers solemn news of Carl's death to wife (73)
Four pieces of rope (256)
Trying to follow the clues, do his job
Getting warrant: five concerns with
Kabuo
(261)
Worked same waters as Carl
Etta >>> dispute
Mooring line on cleat
Ole Jurgenson, buying property
Oh yeah, and Horace, kendo wound
"For here was the Jap with the bloody gun butt" (269)
Abel Martinson (9)
Sheriff's deputy
Can't hang (with dead bodies) (48)
Nels Gudmundsson (20)
Old, blind in left eye (20)
Cross-examining
Art Moran
(20)
Lights on ship drawing power (22)
Batteries, D-6 and D-8 (24)
Very deliberate, thorough with his actions
Uncovers little details, significance not completely clear (63)
Realistic, direct when meeting
Kabuo
(156)
Playing chess, gives up men for positions, wins in the end (158)
Horace Whaley (46)
Coroner (46)
"nervous caution" (46)
Biased against Japs, kendo?
Etta, Carl Heine's mother (113)
Worked 25 years on farm
Supervised Indians and Japs (114)
Didn't really like San Piedro (114)
Tears up remembering the Miyamoto family (116)
Guilt
Zenhichi Miyamoto (117)
Wanted 7 acres
Carl Sr
advocating for him to wife
"'Miyamotos live clean'" (119)
Etta
lets them sell, $500 down with interest (121)
"Man of the house" (121)
Illegal at the time of sale (122)
Missed two payments due to Pearl Habor (124)
Etta
still sus (131)
Carl Jr
and
Kabuo
childhood friends (131)
Guilty about selling Miyamoto's land, but still delivers the witness testimony (133)
Alvin Hooks
questions Etta (134)
Currently lives in 1 bedroom apartment above apparel shop, at $35 a month (135)
Kabuo shows up in 1945, trying to get land, claims he talked to
Ole
(137)
Etta claims she only received "dirty looks" from
Kabuo
(138)
Nels
just asks about the money involved in the sale of land to Ole (141)
Carl Sr. (115)
Died Oct. 1944 of heart failure (115)
Alvin Hooks
Stock prosecutor
Ole Jurgensen
(142)
Questioned by Alvin Hooks (142)
Had a stroke, sickly (142)
Did not want to sell land to
Kabuo
(144)
Sells farm to
Carl Jr.
Carl Jr.
interested in the details of
Kabuo's
visit (151)
Ominous, dark mood (14)
Exploring the murder scene (14)
Gruesome body of Carl Heine, skull crushed, eyes bloody (19)
Just the overall language creates a mood of something dark
Children have weird reactions to sheriff Art Moran (71)
Wife too, "It was strange, the way she reacted" (73)
"'I knew this would happen one day,'" (73)
Gruesome and sexually explicit coroner scene (50)
Conflict
Murder mystery
Art and Abel describing the scene of crime (ch 2)
Carl found in net of
Susan Marie
(18)
Skull crushed (19), gruesome body
Details about Carl's death from Coroner (50)
Watch stopped (50)
Foam
"went in breathing" (57)
Head wound >>> kendo-kind-of wound (56)
Affair?
Dealing with racism, war, memories
Pearl Habor (177)
Arthur Chambers
: "Plain Talk" >>> defending the Japanese residents on the island (184)
FBI takes away Hisao + Japanese artifacts (194)
March 21, given 8 days to relocate (208)
History
Japanese
Mill, then strawberries (76)
Sending for wives
Pearl Habor Day, 843 Japanese shipped off the island (74)
"right thing to do" (74)
Again, (174)
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