Identity In David Gutterson's 'Snow Falling On Cedars'

The fabrication of ones identity is dependent on existential and religious circumstances throughout an individuals life, that lead to intellectual development and transformation. David Gutterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars (SFOC) explores the spiritual and psychological journeys experienced by Ishmael, Hatsue and Kabuo by subjecting each character to moments of peripeteia that provoke personal transformation. In Life of pi, directed by Ang Lee, Pi is a castaway that relies on his faith in god to guide him through a gruelling physical journey through which his strength, both spiritually and physically, is tested. Stephenie Meyer’s The Host is a science fiction novel that explores the psychological and emotional journeys borne by the protagonist,

In SFOC, Hatsue struggles to accept her identity as a result of her romance with a hakujin that causes her to become guilt ridden from deceiving her family. Hatsue had been carefully trained since her childhood with the intent that she would not forget that she was first and foremost Japanese by her culture teacher, Mrs. Shigemura, and her mother. She had always received warnings about the white race and was encouraged to marry a Japanese boy. Mrs. Shigemura believed in cultural isolation rather than integration and we are told by the narrator, ‘She claimed that white men carried in their hearts a secret lust for pure young Japanese girls…Stay away from white men, said Mrs. Shigemura, and marry a boy of your own kind whose heart is strong and good.’ Due to the strong perceptions of white boys pushed towards Hatsue she was forced to keep her relationship with Ishmael a secret and deceive her family, this caused conflict within Hatsue and she started to resent her own culture. ‘I don't want anything to do with them! Do you hear me? I don't want to be Japanese!’ this line expresses Hatsue’s refusal to accept her Japanese heritage and her struggle to uncover her true identity. The Host is a novel in which the protagonist (Wanderer) is a ‘soul’ that invades the mind of her host body, she finds residency within a group of rebel humans where she develops bonds and discovers feelings of love. Similarly to SFOC, Wanderer is also faced with an identity crisis as her former beliefs of the human race are proven wrong and she is left to question where she belongs. During the first chapters of the novel we are given the preconceptions about humans thought by Wanderer, she says, ‘Who would have the stomach to face the violence of this particular species, the hostile humans who killed so easily, so thoughtlessly?’ Once Wanderer discovers that her perceptions of