Snow Falling on Cedars
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Individual judgments of Kabuo Miyamoto are profoundly affected by racial stereotypes in David Guterson's novel Snow Falling on Cedars. In the first place, Miyamoto was placed in an internment camp, along with other Japanese-Americans, on the basis of racism and nothing else. Miyamoto and the others were seen as dangerous enemies of the United States on the basis of their racial heritage, their skin color, their facial features, their names, and nothing else. There was absolutely no evidence that Miyamoto had committed any crime against the United States or posed any danger to the United States, but he was placed in an internment camp nevertheless. While it is true that there is evidence which suggests his involvement in the murder of the other fisherman, Carl Heine, that evidence seems, to the reader, at least, if not the other characters, highly questionable. In any case, even if the evidence were to hold up before the inquiry of a trial, the book is full of examples, both in the trial and in the life of the town, of judgments of Miyamoto which are wholly or partly based in racial prejudice and stereotyping. On the first page the reader finds racial stereotyping in the townspeoples' perceptions of Miyamoto. Some of the townspeople "would later say that his stillness suggested a disdain for the proceedings; others felt certain it veiled a fear of the verdict that was to come" (3). In fact, Miyamoto is, at least "with one segment of his consciousness," observing the snowf
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at that moment "struck" with the "infinite beauty" of the falling snow. The reader also notes in the above passage how even good or positive qualities can be twisted in the mind of a racist into negative or non-human qualities. What is normally seen as positive--having nobility and dignity--is in the racist mind turned into something so alien that he is seen as "not like them at all." This is a fascinating part of racist stereotyping, namely, that what is seen as an honorable quality in most people is seen as a dangerous excess in the individual who is the target of such stereotyping.
Guterson uses a conversation (between the protagonist's wife and the newspaper reporter who is still in love with her from a youthful relationship) to show how racial stereotyping and the destruction done as a result of such stereotyping is a result of choices human beings make. Ishmael is suggesting that perhaps "unfairness" is simply a part of the universe which one must simply accept. Hatsue interrupts:
"I'm not talking about the whole universe. . . . I'm talking about people--the sheriff, that prosecutor, the judge, you. People who can do things because they run newspapers or arrest people or convict them or decide about their lives. People
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Approximate Word count = 1365
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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