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Snow Falling On Cedars By David Guterson

1061 Words5 Pages

Morals in Snow Falling on Cedars Morals are a lesson in right or wrong. Snow Falling on Cedars is based on the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese man accused of murder. Ishmael is a journalist who is in love with a girl who is married to Kabuo. He gets into a situation where he has to figure out what he believes his morals are, to do the right thing. Etta Heine is the mother of Carl Jr. Heine, the man who died. Throughout all of her questioning in court, she still stands by the fact she did the right thing because it was the right thing. The people of San Piedro island do not try hiding their racism against the Japanese Americans either, they may not have the proper morals either. In Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, the novel's main theme is morals and morality because of …show more content…

She did NOT want this to happen and let her racism get in the way. The Japanese family was put in internment camps and could not make their last payment on the land, then the one who was supposed to actually own the land, Kabuo, went to war. Etta Heine went and sold the land to someone else before he could claim the land upon his return. She does NOT want this to happen. Kabuo went and spoke to Etta Heine. He was respectful and trying to be nice. She talked to him, made fun of him and made accusations of him harassing her afterwards too. Etta very sarcastically says to Kabuo, “I'm supposed to tell someone’s buying up my land there’s an illegal contract muddling matters up?” (Guterson 138) Etta Heine is being blatantly rude, refusing to pay any attention to the contract her husband made years before. Sorry for the fact Kabuo is Japanese. She decided to go the legal route, not the “good person” route. Etta Heine shows her feelings towards the Japanese, she does not like them. She refuses to be a good person with good morals and allows the land agreement to go

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