Snow Falling on Cedars: Earth Doesn't Care If You Cry

Setting has more influence on day to day life than many realize. Of course, living in a city is incredibly different from living on a rural farm, but it is the subtle changes in day to day surroundings that tend to go unnoticed. People might go to a certain pond when they are feeling sad or to a certain cafe when they need to focus. Mood, of course, influences the setting you chose to be in, but your setting influences your mood as well. Sometimes, in literature, the place a character inhabits can show much more than the descriptions of the characters themselves. By externalizing the mood of Snow Falling on Cedars into four concrete settings--the sea, the strawberry fields, the cedar forest, and the town--, David Guterson provides insight on the characters’ internal struggles for control.

The sea establishes a tone of isolation and a threatening mood to the novel, while also holding a note of passive indifference--there is no reason or vengeance behind its actions and therefore humans cannot sway it. As young Hatsue and Ishmael sit on the beach, Guterson writes: “The tide skated in over sun-heated flats, and the water was as warm as a lagoon. The two of them sat side by side in the shallows, facing out toward the expanse of the ocean, kelp draped across their legs. ‘It goes forever,’ said Ishmael. ’There’s more water than anything in the world’” (Guterson 97). The tone of this passage establishes the ocean as calming as the water is “as warm as a lagoon” and the seaweed is “draped across their legs” in the same way one would drape a blanket. Yet the use of words like “expanse” and “forever” weaken this calm feeling by beginning to establish how insignificant the characters are in comparison to the sea. This mood is later reinforced by the description of the coming storm, where the narrator states that “the rest--like the salt water around them, which swallowed the snow without any effort, remaining what it was implacably--was out of their hands, beyond” (255). By the use of the world “implacably”, Guterson suggests that the sea, like the fate of the characters, is relentless and unchangeable. The snow, which is utterly transforming the land around it, has no power to change the water. It just melts into it and disappears. And yet, the sea does not act in favor of the snow or of the people--it is simply itself and indifferent to all that surrounds it. While describing the attitude of Islanders, Guterson writes that “They could not speak freely because they were cornered: everywhere they turned there was water and more water, a limitless expanse of it in which to drown” (439). In this passage, the sea takes on a more directly threatening stance. The use of the word “cornered” sets a claustrophobic tone which is emphasized by “a limitless expanse” and the repetition of the word “water”. There is no escape from the water; it seemingly has no end. Furthermore, the use of passive voice to describe the act of drowning emphasizes the indifference of the ocean. The water is a threat to everybody, all the time. This indifference implies also that the restrictiveness on their speech is not caused directly by the ocean, but rather is because if one misspeaks, they have no escape from their fellow Islanders. The ocean has a brooding and almost magnetic feel to it: while it is claustrophobic and isolating, it is also vast and mesmerizing.

The strawberry fields, like the ocean, are unbiased and unseeing, but though they require nurture, they set a caring and pleasant mood. When young Ishmael spies on Hatsue in the strawberry fields outside her house, Guterson writes, “There were young strawberries growing on the plants around him and their fragrance filled up the night” (105). The fragrance “fill[ing] up the night” gives a comforting feel. The strawberry fields literally provide delicious food and good smells to the community. Furthermore, the “young” strawberries figuratively represent life and growth, giving an air of hope to this scene. Later, while reflecting in his jail cell, Kabuo describes the strawberry fields: “He was in them as he’d always been, a sea of strawberries, rows and rows, a labyrinth of runners as intricate as a network of arteries feeding on the surface of a dozen farms he knew from childhood” (161). The comparison of the strawberries to “a network of arteries” gives the impression that the strawberry fields are literally what is keeping the community of San Piedro alive. Furthermore, the figurative idea that Kabuo has “always been” in the strawberry fields shows how they stay with, and inspire, the community even when they leave the island. The strawberries are also described as a “sea”, suggesting that they have the same power and indifference as the ocean, though the way this power manifests in the strawberries is far less menacing. The idea that the strawberries “feed” on the farms, suggests that not only are the strawberries keeping the farms alive, but the people and the farms are also keeping the strawberries alive. The comfort of the strawberries, therefore, stems from the fact that the people have control over them that they lack over other aspects of nature.

The cedar forest has a serious and all-knowing atmosphere, emphasizing both the importance of the characters’ lives but also their insignificance. Before Hatsue leaves for the internment camps, she describes the forest as “a map of fallen trees that had lived half a thousand years before collapsing--a rise here, a dip there, a mound or noldering hillock somewhere--the woods held the bones of trees so old no one living had ever seen them” (204). In contrast to the strawberries, which, through the simile of arteries, set a hopeful, joyful tone, the cedars are compared to “bones”. While this alone sets a somewhat sinister tone, it is accompanied by a description of the floor of the forest as “a map of fallen trees”. Together, the bones and the map are not sinister, but simply show that the forest is frozen in time; it has histories and stories that can be found nowhere else on the island. When Ishmael goes to the cedar forest right before showing Hatsue the proof of Kabuo’s innocence, “he smelled the old fragrance of the place of his youth and the clean scent of the newly fallen snow. Here under the trees it was fresh and untouched” (443). The preservation of the “old fragrance...of his youth” along with the preservation of the snow as “fresh and untouched” further establishes the timeless quality of the cedar forest. While the forest is alive and changing, it still preserves memory and relics of the past, giving it a nostalgic and protective mood.

San Piedro has a very fragile and lonely mood, showing just how little power humans have over the elements. Near the beginning of the novel, Guterson gives a concrete image of the village: “It was an eccentric, rainy, wind-beaten sea village, downtrodden and mildewed, the boards of its buildings bleached and weathered, their drainpipes rusted a dull orange...Often the sea wind made its single traffic light flail from side to side or caused the town’s electrical power to flicker out and stay out for day” (6). Guterson subtly emphasizes the isolation of the town by slipping in that there is only a “single traffic light” and mentioning that the power is often out. The description of the village as “downtrodden”, and “wind-beaten” sets a dreary mood and yet the village is also described as “eccentric”, showing that despite the hardships, it still has a character and personality, but one shaped by its surroundings more than by the people who live there. Later in the novel, the transition from summer into fall in San Piedro is described: “A gray green stillness settled into things, and the summer people left for their city homes again: soft overcast, night fog, low mists in the dips between hills, road mud, vacant beaches, empty clam shells scattered among rocks, silent shops folded in on themselves” (174). The description of the “empty clam shells” serves as a metaphor for the entire town, illustrating its empty, lifeless feel. Furthermore, in the description of the shops folding “in on themselves”, the action of folding belongs to the shops. Not only is this description oppressive, but the use of active voice suggests that it is not the people that make the town shut down, but rather a natural course of action. This action, which does not belong to the townspeople, forces them to cope with the emptiness that follows. During the snowstorm near the end of the trial, Ishmael comes to the realization that “weather of this sort overwhelmed absolutely everything, so that even when a man stood trial for his life it was no doubt the destruction of docks and bulkheads, the trees fallen on homes, the burst pipes, the stranded cars, that would most interest San Piedro’s citizens” (313). The priorities of San Piedro’s citizens establish that the town is at the mercy of the elements. Despite the efforts to get more land and build more houses, all it takes is one storm to wipe all progress away. Ishmael’s having “no doubt” that this destruction will take priority over Kabuo’s life sets the mood of the town as selfish, vulnerable, and fearful. Even on their own turf, the townspeople are stuck in a battle for control.

Most of the settings in Snow Falling on Cedars are not impacted by humans. The people depend on their environment, but the environment does not depend on them. The ocean changes on its own accord, the cedars die and new ones grow, unaffected by the world of humans, and even the town rusts and topples in the storms. The strawberry fields are unique in their cultivation; they are tended and weeded and primed for growth. And therefore, of course, the strawberries are what bring people hope. Because, while they love the ocean, the cedars, and the town, the strawberries helps to counter their powerlessness against the forces of nature. The fruit shows that though in life, many things are out of your control, you have opportunities to cultivate success and happiness to some extent. No matter how much there is that cannot be controlled, at least a little bit of your future lies in your own hands.