Snow Falling On Cedars

613 Words3 Pages
Snow falling on cedars written by David Guterson is a novel written on the American - Japanese people of the early 1930s. On the San Piedro Island located off the coast of mainland Washington, a Japanese -American fisherman named Kabuo Miyamoto goes on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, a well-liked local fisherman and respected war veteran. Kabuo’s wife Hatsue is there throughout the whole trail supporting her innocent husband. Ishmael Chambers is another war veteran who is the same age as Carl, is the editor of the town newspaper, the San Piedro review. Ishmael remains silent about one aspect of his person history, the romantic relationship he once had with a young Japanese-American girl named Hatsue, who is now Kabuo’s wife. Throughout the novel Ishmael struggles with his memories of this relationship. She had once abruptly called off the relationship and has treated him coldly ever since. Ishmael learns the truth about accidents and how it is related to fate and he also learns to heal himself. Ishmael learns that being the better and the bigger person in the situation always has positive outcomes no matter how painful it maybe. Ishmael Chamber’s heart goes through a lot of pain throughout the story. But Ishmael learns that being the bigger and better person will result in good outcomes. He learns a lot during the story, Hatsue is happier than she could ever be with him; she has a husband and family. Even though they do have history, Ishmael needs to move on from the past. The first step to Ishmael moving on in life is giving all the evidence he has to the court to save Kabuo from going to jail. At the end of the novel Ishmael says that “accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart” when he says this he means that things happen, fate happens, if it’s meant to be everything will fall into place. Accidents happen
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