Critical Analysis Of The Novel 'Snow Falling On Cedars'

1339 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial inequalities in the criminal justice system

Snow falling on cedars Snow falling on cedars is a renowned novel whose story revolves around an American Japanese, Kabuo Miyamoto. Kabuo is charged with murdering his Carl, a white man and the case takes a period of three days. However, the story covers the pre-war period, World War II and the periods after the war. It provides a framework to do an analysis of the effect the Japanese-Americans on the people living in the island of San piedro. Although it covers all these three periods, the story in the novel moves forth and back in time. This novel has become renown because of its efforts to explain the effects of war and the issues surrounding race and human motivation. The events, characters, attitudes and the relationship between the people …show more content…

Snow falling on cedars clearly draws the lines in human characters, both groups and individuals. The whites show resentment to the Japanese immigrants and at the same time they see them as a threat. This is so ironical because the white people reap the economic benefits from the hard work and discipline of the American Japanese. Throught the novel, the white envy and mistrust for the Japanese rounds up and end up to imprisonment and expulsion of the Japanese by the white people. However, the Japanese-Americans may not be the victims but they rather chose to remain separated from the rest, maybe out of a sense of superiority. For instance, Fujiko and Kabuo have contempt for the white people and their culture (Guterson chapter 7). This explains why Kabuo distrusts his white neighbors a lot until he was not willing to co-operate with Arit Morans in the investigation of Carl’s …show more content…

Snow Falling on Cedars. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Internet resource. Martin, Monica J., et al. "The Enduring Significance of Racism: Discrimination and Delinquency among Black American Youth." Journal of Research on Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), vol. 21, no. 3, Sept. 2011, pp. 662-676. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00699.x. Singh, Basil R. "Citizenship Education and the Challenge of Racism, Discrimination and Disadvantage." Contemporary Politics, vol. 7, no. 4, Dec. 2001, pp. 299-318. EBSCOhost,

Show More
Related

  • Mood of Passage in Snow Falling On Cedars

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the passage be ginning “They had picked…” from the novel Snow Falling On Cedars, the author, David Guterson, uses many techniques to give the passage a depressing, and frightening mood. He uses vivid imagery to describe Carl’s dead body. He also uses figurative language, such as metaphors and similes to show the severity of the situation. Finally, his diction shows the reader how reading about a crime scene can seem real if the word choice is right. All the techniques Guterson use help the reader to feel as if they were actually at the scene when Carl’s dead body was found in the ocean.

    Read More

  • Comparing Novel and Film Version of Snow Falling on Cedars

    2273 Words  | 5 Pages

    The story of Snow Falling on Cedars was set on a fictional island called San Piedro, somewhere in the Puget Sound area. The island had a thick history of generations of prejudice disguised by immigrant strawberry farmer life. The island was home to descendents of German, Swedish, English, and Japanese ancestry. When the Second World War arose, the people immediately panicked and reacted poorly to the Japanese American citizens. The story follows the lives of these Japanese Americans through their painful internment by the American government for what they termed the 'good of the union.' The story is also centered on several other subplots, including a biracial romance between a young couple, as well as the death of a white island fisherman named Carl Heine, Jr., and the trial of the Japan...

    Read More

  • On The Rez

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    discrimination that the Indians felt around the Indian reservations, but the main story is about how a

    Read More

  • Romanticism: Human's Connection With Nature In 'Snowbound'

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,

    Read More

  • From Juvenile Justice School To Prison Pipeline

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    This study is about the phenomena of students experiencing a transfer from school straight into juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. Heitzeg (2010, 1) presents how this study attempts to explain how the pipeline emerged with the help of media and youth violence. In addition to media, the process of moving youth toward the pipeline is also due to authority’s tendency to target youth according to racial, social, and economic backgrounds (Heitzeg, 2010). The implementations of zero tolerance policies exhibit a trend among African American and Hispanic/Latino youth. “African-American students are referred for misbehavior that is both less serious and more subjective than white students” (Fowler, 2011, p.17). According to a study done by the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University (2005), “the single greatest predictor of future involvement in the juvenile system is a history of disciplinary referrals at school.”(Fo...

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination in the books Snow Falling On Cedars and The Book of Negroes

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, the journey throughout most of the texts in Snow Falling On Cedars and The Book of Negroes show how racial discrimination causes people to abuse other peoples rights, determine a person based on their human characteristics, and the treatment of people in different parts of the world. This issue, despite its negatively mixed vibes, has helped individuals in society. It has helped them to be become a stronger, well rounded person in their community with faith in themselves but, have also taught a person being that everyone is equally the same in their own way.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Hunters In The Snow

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.

    Read More

  • Racial Disparities In The Criminal Justice System Essay

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in

    Read More

  • Racial Inequalities in the Justice System

    1738 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf Pearson Education. (2008).

    Read More

  • Racism: Incarceration of a Household Member and Hispanic Health Disparities

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the discrimination in the incarceration rate. Many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates, and that African Americans are more likely to face discrimination from the police as well as being falsely arrested.

    Read More

  • Farming the Home Place, by Valerie J. Matsumoto

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.

    Read More

  • White Civilized Culture In Blue Winds Dancing By Thomas S. Whitecloud

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a desperate attempt to discover his true identity, the narrator decides to go back to Wisconsin. He was finally breaking free from captivity. The narrator was filling excitement and joy on his journey back home. He remembers every town and every stop. Additionally, he admires the natural beauty that fills the scenery. In contrast to the “beauty of captivity” (320), he felt on campus, this felt like freedom. No doubt, that the narrator is more in touch with nature and his Native American roots than the white civilized culture. Nevertheless, as he gets closer to home he feels afraid of not being accepted, he says “… afraid of being looked on as a stranger by my own people” (323). He felt like he would have to prove himself all over again, only this time it was to his own people. The closer the narrator got to his home, the happier he was feeling. “Everything seems to say, “Be happy! You are home now—you are free” (323). Although he felt as though he had found his true identity, he questioned it once more on the way to the lodge. The narrator thought, “If I am white I will not believe that story; if I am Indian, I will know that there is an old woman under the ice” (323). The moment he believed, there was a woman under the ice; He realized he had found his true identity, it was Native American. At that moment nothing but that night mattered, “[he], try hard to forget school and white people, and be one of these—my people.” (323). He

    Read More

  • Analysis of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston´s Farewell to Manzanar

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...

    Read More

  • What Are The Issues On Indian Reservations?

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    The death of one character, June, Albertine’s aunt, unites the Kashpaw and Lamartine families and shows the issues within them. As a young woman, Albertine witnesses situations involving domestic violence and poverty. The desperate manner of the lives of many Natives living on Reservations is shown throughout the novel. In White Men Fear to Tread, the life of Russell Means on and off of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota portrays many of the issues of Reservation life, especially today. Means describes his life experiences from growing up as a young man to being grown and going to find a job and later being a leader in the AIM movement and the struggles he experiences there. Works of literature such as these open the eyes of many people to the issues that exist on many Native American Reservations today, specifically to those who aren’t Native and are ignorant to what is happening really. For example, some people think that all Reservation Indians lack motivation and therefore don’t do anything in order to make something of themselves, but this isn’t necessarily true. There are various situations that Natives are exposed to and the conditions on many Reservations account for the habits which some people

    Read More

  • Snow, Yolanda by Julia Alvarez

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Culture molds the character of writers and gives a variety of different perspective on certain life experiences. In Julia Alvarez’s short story Snow, Yolanda, an immigrant student, moved to New York. While attending a Catholic school in New York, bomb drills were performed. The teacher would explain why these drills were important. Yolanda later found out that her first experience of watching snow was not the best experience one could possibly have.

    Read More

More about Critical Analysis Of The Novel 'Snow Falling On Cedars'

Open Document