Racial Prejudice in David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars
'It's not one ocean,' said Hatsue. 'It's four oceans...They're different from each other.'
'Well how are they different?'
'They just are.' (Guterson 97).
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson's award winning novel, is set on an island in Puget Sound in the early 1950's. It is a story of the racial prejudice that was felt so strongly against Japanese Americans immediately before, during and after WWII. Kabuo Miyamoto, the man accused of murdering Carl Heine, would never have received a fair trail, had it not been for Ishmael's late introduction of crucial evidence and Judge Fielding's morally right choice. That Kabuo never stood a chance of getting a fair trial can be supported by actual historical evidence from the time period and evidence of prejudice and discrimination taken directly from the novel. The general attitude of anti-Japanese feelings was so strong among many, that Kabuo would have never gotten a fair trial.
One historical event that shows the general attitude of anti-Japanese feeling that was so prevalent in the 1940 to 1955 time period is an article from the Tuesday, March 24, 1942 edition of the New York Times. The article is written in Manazar, California, the same place where the Japanese people of the novel were sent. The article's title "Japanese Begin Evacuation Trek" is a show of prejudice itself ("Japanese" 21). The fact that the wholly unconstitutional relocation of not only aliens but American citizens is called a "evacuation" is laughable. This event was the forced relocation of people who reminded some other people of the tragic events of Pearl Harbor. To do this nowadays would be like gathering up all Arab-Americans ...
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... there might have been enough evidence to find him innocent. Through reading the book, it was clear that the jury was going to convict him and almost certainly it was based on race. The prejudice and racism that was so clearly seen not only in the novel, but also in historical context, was so great that Kabuo never stood a chance of getting a fair jury trial. That is he never would have been acquitted of the crime had the Judge have not dismissed the jury in light of evidence, both physical and written, turned up by Ishmael that all but proved Kabuo's story and innocence.
--Works Cited-
"20,000 for Arizona" New York Times 24 March 1942: 21.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling On Cedars. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1995.
"Japanese Begin Evacuation Trek" New York Times 24 March 1942: 21.
"Move to End Citizenship" New York Times 7 January 1943: 40.
‘Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson is based on court case dealing with a Japanese- American man on trial for being accused of killing a white man. The story takes place back around the 1940s when World War II was happening and America started being hostile to Japanese-Americans. Throughout the story there is a minor character named Alvin hooks who was the prosecutor which played a huge part in the trail demonstrating the acts of being prejudice against the Japanese. I will be talking about how Alvin hooks displayed his acts of being prejudice towards the Japanese in order to win his case and get Mr. Miyamoto prosecuted.
Wells, Walter. "John Updike's 'A & P'" Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 30, (1993) : Spring, pp. 127(7).
Kabuo Assumed Guilty Because of Japanese Heritage in Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
In a country full of inequities and discriminations, numerous books were written to depict our unjust societies. One of the many books is an autobiography by Richard Wright. In Black Boy, Wright shares these many life-changing experiences he faced, which include the discovery of racism at a young age, the fights he put up against discriminations and hunger, and finally his decision of moving Northward to a purported better society. Through these experiences which eventually led him to success, Wright tells his readers the cause and effect of racism, and hunger. In a way, the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle illustrates similar experiences. In this book, the lives of two wealthy American citizens and two illegal immigrants collided. Delaney and Kyra were whites living in a pleasurable home, with the constant worry that Mexicans would disturb their peaceful, gated community. Candido and America, on the other hand, came to America to seek job opportunities and a home but ended up camping at a canyon, struggling even for cheapest form of life. They were prevented from any kind of opportunities because they were Mexicans. The differences between the skin colors of these two couples created the hugest gap between the two races. Despite the difficulties American and Candido went through, they never reached success like Wright did. However, something which links these two illegal immigrants and this African American together is their determination to strive for food and a better future. For discouraged minorities struggling in a society plagued with racism, their will to escape poverty often becomes their only motivation to survive, but can also acts as the push they need toward success.
Updike, John “A&P.” Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama and The Essay.4th e. Ed. Frank Madden. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 496-501. Print.
Another inspirational architect in this time was William Kent. His designs using ogee pointed arches with a classical cornice inspired Batty Langley to produce a study in which he analyzed Gothic in terms of classical orders. A comparison with true mediaeval and Gothic architecture at this time shows that at this time all Gothic architecture was a decorative style to be applied as ornament to regular structures and s...
Luscher, Robert M. John Updike: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993.
McFarland, Ronald E. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983): 95-100.
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