Snow Falling On The Cedars By David Guterson

Using surroundings to demonstrate contrast is a challenge. As hard as it is, David Gutherson has perfected it in his novel "Snow Falling on the Cedars." Gutherson strategically uses surroundings to show how Miyamoto is a strong, unmovable man, but he also uses them as Miyamoto's weakness. When we first are introduced to Miyamoto, he is already an extreme contrast to his surroundings. Guterson wrote, "In the face of the charge that had been leveled against him he sat with his dark eyes trained straight ahead and did not appear moved at all." (Guterson 1) Even in a case where everyone in the room knew what he had done and what he would receive as punishment, he still sat with the utmost confidence, not letting his audience scare and ridicule him.

Gutherson used words and phrases to help his case as well. Such as “dark eyes” “straight ahead” and “did not appear moved at all.” Gutersons use of these words and phrases helps further the idea that he uses Miyamoto's surroundings to suggest and convince his readers that Miyamoto is a strong, unmovable man. On the other hand, Guterson uses Miyamoto's surroundings as a weakness. In paragraph 6 Guterson states” The accused man, with one segment of his consciousness, watched the falling snow outside the windows. He had been exiled in the county jail for 27 days.there was no window anywhere in his basement cell.the snowfall he witnessed outside the corners of his eyes. struck him as infinitely beautiful.” (Guterson 6). This insight into Miyamotos thoughts is crucial for the readers to understand the contrast the setting creates. Without it, readers would not know that Miyamoto actually has a weakness, the reason why settings are a weakness is because they changed while he was gone. All the 29 days that Miyamoto was locked up went on, it did not just stop because of him. Which is a hard thing to come to terms