Snow Falling on Cedars Ishmael's Transformation

1177 Words5 Pages
Ishmael’s Transformation The United States declared war on Japan in 1941, and it can be said that people from all around the country would be affected by the repercussions that the war brought. Everyone had to do their part, and unfortunately for some, like the Japanese-Americans as well as those fighting the war, their part was substantially more difficult. The fiction novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson picks up in 1954 on the fictional island of San Pedro in Washington, the home to mostly strawberry farmers and fisherman, many of which are Japanese-American. Although World War II ended almost a decade prior, the prejudice and memories from that time are not forgotten. The story is of a man, Kabuo, of Japanese descent, that is on trial for the murder of a white man, Carl Heine. From the very start the book is riddled with flashbacks to the war, San Pedro before the war, the childhood of many of the islanders, and various other events. The plot is laced with multiple views all going on at once, and it is not until at least a quarter of the way through the book that the protagonist becomes apparent. All of the different stories are crucial to the solution that comes at the end, but the most important of these would be the transformation of Ishmael. While the book incorporates many different accounts all being woven into one, the most important is the transformation of Ishmael from a week character plagued by the war to a stronger character able to overcome his internal struggle to do what is necessary. From the start of the novel, Ishmael Chamebers is introduced to the reader as the newspaper reporter following the murder trial. Through the course if flashbacks it is learned that Ishmael, Carl and Kabuo all fought on the American side during World War II. Not so incidentally Ishmael is the only one that came back with a wound, one of his arms was
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