Snow Falling on Cedars: Analysis of Major Characters
"Snow Falling on Cedars" is a novel that intricately weaves themes of love, betrayal, and racial tension against the backdrop of a small island community in the Pacific Northwest during the post-World War II era. The narrative explores the lives and emotional struggles of several major characters, primarily focusing on Ishmael Chambers, a World War II veteran and newspaper editor grappling with his feelings for his former sweetheart, Hatsue Imada Miyamoto, who is now married to Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American accused of murder. Hatsue's past relationship with Ishmael is complicated by her internment during the war and her subsequent marriage to Kabuo, who faces the death penalty for allegedly killing fisherman Carl Heine.
The community's dynamics are further enriched by the presence of Carl Heine, a well-respected fisherman with familial ties and ambitions to return to strawberry farming, and his wife, Susan Marie, who embodies conflicting social roles. The trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, presided over by judge Llewellyn Fielding, highlights the prevailing racial prejudices and legal hurdles faced by Japanese Americans in the wake of the war. Supporting characters like the prosecutor Alvin Hooks and defense attorney Nels Gundmunsson contribute to the courtroom drama, while figures like Sheriff Art Moran and deputy Abel Martinson provide insight into the island's law enforcement and community relationships.
Overall, the characters in "Snow Falling on Cedars" serve as a lens through which the novel examines complex issues of identity, heritage, and the lingering effects of war, set against the picturesque yet tumultuous landscape of San Piedro Island.
Snow Falling on Cedars: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: David Guterson
First published: 1994
Genre: Novel
Locale: San Piedro Island, Washington
Plot: Historical fiction; crime drama
Time: 1930s-54
Ishmael Chambers, reporter and editor of the San Piedro Review. A tall, embittered thirty-one-year-old World War II veteran, he lost an arm fighting the Japanese at the Battle of Tarawa. After the war, he worked at a newspaper in Seattle before returning to San Piedro after his father died to run the island's four-page weekly newspaper. His feelings for Hatsue—his Japanese American high school sweetheart who rejected him shortly before she was interned during the war—are resurrected. However, she is now married to accused murderer Kabuo Miyamoto and mother of several children. Despite his conflicting emotions, Ishmael investigates the circumstances of the alleged murder, eventually uncovering a key piece of evidence. After coming to terms with the fact that he has no chance of regaining Hatsue's lost love or his lost arm, Ishmael finally gains peace.
Hatsue Imada Miyamoto, an attractive Japanese American woman, the same age as Ishmael. She and Ishmael grew up and attended school together from age eight. Friends who grow into clandestine sweethearts, the pair as teenagers meet secretly beneath a huge fallen cedar in the woods, where they talk, kiss, fondle, and spiral toward greater intimacy. Hatsue breaks off her relationship with Ishmael on the advice of the Japanese community, which admonishes her to stick with her own kind. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hatsue, her family, and all the ethnic Japanese along the West Coast are rounded up and interned, and their property is confiscated or sold. During her confinement, she becomes intimate with Kabuo. They marry and return to San Piedro Island after the war.
Kabuo Miyamoto, a proud Japanese American man, descendant of samurai and son of a strawberry farmer. He grew up with Hatsue and Ishmael, is accused of murdering fisherman Carl Heine over a land dispute, and faces the death penalty if convicted. Like other Japanese, he was interned at the Manzanar camp in California, where he became intimate with Hatsue. Kabuo, who trained from childhood in the art of kendo (swordsmanship), later served in a Japanese American unit during the war, distinguishing himself fighting in Europe. Returning with wife Hatsue to San Piedro, he becomes a salmon fisherman, hoping to save enough to reacquire the land his father was buying on installments before the war to grow strawberries. During his trial, Kabuo sits erect and silent.
Carl Heine, fisherman of German heritage and presumed murder victim. Red-blond, tall, stout, and taciturn, Carl was Ishmael's classmate and football teammate as well as a war veteran. Carl is married, a father of three, well liked, fair-minded, and respected in the community. Though successful, he has plans to quit fishing and return to strawberry farming. His battered, frozen body is found in his own net, and because of his strength, size, and experience at sea, it is assumed that someone must have killed him.
Susan Marie Heine, Carl's attractive, sensual, twenty-eight-year-old blond wife, for whom he named his fishing boat, and the mother of their three children. She dresses in suits, hats, and jewelry to host church socials but at home wears comfortable clothes, with no makeup, and goes barefoot.
Llewellyn Fielding, judge at Kabuo Miyamoto's trial. Though he often appears to be asleep, Fielding, a man with mournful eyes, a lined face, and tufted eyebrows, actually listens closely during courtroom procedures and is a stickler on points of law. He presides at court during a difficult trial in trying circumstances: a major snowstorm that results in power outages and many automobile accidents.
Art Moran, the county sheriff. A slender, balding, compulsive gum chewer in his fifties, he takes his duties seriously, keeps his uniform immaculate, and is familiar with the people and the industry of the island. The unimaginative Art is often unsure of his role as island peacekeeper.
Abel Martinson, a twenty-four-year-old sheriff's deputy. He and Art discover Carl's body hung up in the net of the fisher-man's boat. Abel is eager but inexperienced.
Nels Gundmunsson, defense attorney for Kabuo Miyamoto. Gundmunsson, a seventy-nine-year-old widower, sports a bow tie and fingers his dewlaps for inspiration. He is blind in one eye, walks with a limp from arthritis, and is afflicted with neurasthenia. However, the shrewd, cigar-smoking lawyer has a sharp mind and a disarming folksy demeanor. Nels painstakingly picks apart evidence against his client, hammering home his points through repetition of key facts.
Alvin Hooks, prosecutor at Kabuo's murder trial. A competent showman who wears elegant suits with built-up shoulders, he is dapper and always well shaved. Hooks paces as he questions witnesses, makes theatrical gestures, and occasionally exhibits a sense of humor to lighten courtroom tension.
Horace Whaley, San Piedro's family physician, who also serves as coroner. A wartime medical officer, he has many times witnessed death firsthand. The meticulous Whaley is tall, slender, and about fifty years old. He bears a birthmark, and his eyes bulge behind steel-rimmed spectacles because of a thyroid condition.
Etta Heine, Carl's German-born mother. A stout-bodied woman with a bad back from farming, she reveals herself to be mean, spiteful, and bigoted during the trial.
Helen Chambers, Ishmael's mother. She is an independent, hard-working, fifty-six-year-old woman who enjoys flower gardening and reading classics. Plain but dignified and reasonable, she refuses to relocate from the family home to town and tries to encourage her son to stop isolating himself and move on with his life.
Ole Jurgensen, an elderly, bearded Scandinavian strawberry farmer. He has suffered a stroke and walks with a cane. During the war he purchased seven acres of land from Etta that the Miyamoto family had been buying on installments from the late Carl Heine Sr.