¶ … Falling on Cedars
The characters use many qualities like love and courage to settle in their new country. Families are very important to the Japanese, and so, they create new families where they can share their love and laughter. They also maintain many of their old values, such as honesty and courage, to help them in the new land, and they keep other reminders of their culture, such as foods and furnishings that remind them of home. Many also still spoke Japanese, another way to alienate them. The author writes, "A moment later Hatsue's father came onto the porch and called to the dog in Japanese" (Guterson 106). Their strengths sometimes help them in America, but their tendency to stick to themselves and not show their emotions makes them seem like outsiders and helps prevent their social adjustment to their new country.
Probably the realizations about the Japanese that came from this book are that they are so stoic and grim, and that they seem very inapproachable to many people. Kabou shows this at the trial. The author writes, "Some in the gallery would later say that his stillness suggested a disdain for the proceedings" (Guterson 3). The Japanese people do not seem to be too happy, and this makes sense after what they had been through, but it makes them seem inhuman or at least unemotional and distant, something that most Americans do not appreciate. The biggest differences between these cultures seem to be this distance and the Japanese habit of keeping to themselves and not communicating with other people. They keep their emotions inside, and that is not true for many white Americans.
This book is very lyrical and uses vivid descriptions of the natural world to tie the Japanese love of beauty and the natural world into the story. The author writes, "Slender and sinuous, olive green, mahogany, red, scarlet, and ash, they were weighted with broad gleaming leaves and velvet berries" (Guterson 106). The book is full of writing like this, which adds to the authenticity of the immigrant experience while painting a vivid portrait of the area, as well.
References
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel. New York: Vintage, 1995.
