Introduction This study guide Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Please click on the literary analysis category you wish to be displayed. Back and Next buttons can guide you through all the sections or you can choose to jump from section to section using the links below or the links at the left. Author …
David Guterson was born in Seattle, Washington, on May 4, 1956, to Murray Guterson, a criminal defense trial lawyer, and Shirley Zak Guterson. As a child he spent a lot of time outdoors, and his writing is full of the woods and mountains he enjoyed. He attended the University of Washington in 1974 as an …
“It was an eccentric, rainy, wind-beaten sea village, downtrodden and mildewed . . .” (Chpt. 1, p. 5). The setting of the island of San Piedro is important to the action and themes of the story. It is not a mainstream American city but a small community that lives with the natural elements and the …
RacismThe major theme of the novel is racism and its destructive effects on individuals and communities. The settlers on San Piedro come from many countries, but the Japanese immigrants are a different race, with different ways, beliefs, and religion. When they first come, they do not even have the right to be citizens or to …
Cedar TreesThe beauty of San Piedro is often mentioned, and its landscape is symbolically important. The lush green is provided by the many trees, mainly cedar, on the hills, with rain “the spirit of the place” (Chpt. 1, p. 5). The trees were part of the islands lumber economy in the beginning, until they became …
Arthur Chambers Arthur Chambers is the father of Ishmael Chambers. He started the island newspaper, the San Piedro Review, when Ishmael was a child. Ishmael worked for his fathers newspaper growing up. His father is trusted by the Japanese community because he is liberal and fair in his editorials and protests the Japanese being sent …
Summary of Chapter Thirty-OneIshmael has supper with his mother, then sits in his fathers chair and looks at his books by Shakespeare, Jefferson, Rousseau, Paine, Melville, Dickens, Tolstoy, etc. His father was self-educated, had built his own house, and after the war, had started a newspaper in which he tried to present social justice in …
Summary of Chapter Twenty-NineAlvin Hooks makes his concluding argument that Kabuo is a cold-blooded murderer, driven by hatred and jealousy. Nels Gudmundsson makes his summary by bringing out the facts and showing there is not enough evidence to say a murder was committed. It is all circumstantial evidence and hearsay. He states clearly, “this trial …
Summary of Chapter Twenty-SevenThis chapter tells the story from Kabuos point of view as he spends a cold night in his cell waiting to testify. The danger of fishing in a fog and near shipping lanes comes out in his memory. He found Carl Heine in the fog at midnight, dead in the water, with …
Summary of Chapter Twenty-FiveHatsue is the first witness for the defense the next day. She takes the stand calmly and with dignity, though she feels no inner calm. Her marriage to a war veteran racked with guilt has been difficult. Their children help him to find purpose in life. He wants to recover the land …
