Powerful Imagery and Settings in David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedar

Powerful Imagery and Settings in David Gutersons one C Falling on CedarsSnow Falling on Cedars, a novel by David Guterson, is a post World War II drama set in 1954 on the island of San Piedro in Washington State. The storys focal point is the slaying effort of Kabuo Miyamoto, who is accused of killing a fellow islander, Carl Heine, Jr., supposedly because of an old family feud over land. Although the trial is the main focus of the story, Guterson takes the reader back in quantify through flashbacks to tell a story of forbidden love involving two young islanders, Ishmael Chambers and Hatsue Imada (Kabuos future wife). At the time of their romance, interracial relationships were considered strictly taboo because of racial bias. It is through both this love story and Gutersons remarkable use of setting and imaginativeness that the reader is informed as to why racial prejudice is so high on the island of San Piedro at the time of the trial and why Kabuo is not merely on trial for Car ls murder, but also for the pretext of his skin. While Snow Falling on Cedars has a well-rounded cast of characters, demands strong emotional reactions, and radiates the importance of racial equality and fairness, it is not these elements alone that make this tale stand far out from other similar stories. It is through Gutersons powerful and detailed imaging and settings that this story really comes to life. The words, the way he uses them to create amazing scenes and scenarios in this story, makes visualizing them an effortless and enjoyable task. Streets are given names and surroundings, buildings are given color and history, fields and trees are given height and depth, objects are given textures and smells, and even the weather is given a purpose in the... ...ght out of the book and constitute in front of the readers eyes, rather than form in the back of their minds. To sum up the overall experience that Snow Falling on Cedars delivers through imagery and setting would be to say that it is like a pop-up book for adults, without the need for the pop-up feature. Racial tension is not more or lessthing that can be imagined or understood without some sort of emotional history or background attached to it. Emotions like hatred or others, such as desire, that the characters feel for one another, would feel alter and empty without the descriptions that make them seem real and understandable. All these elements need to be present in order for the story to carry itself and the reader through to the end. Snow Falling on Cedars does that and more.Work CitedGuterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. New York Vintage Books, 1995.