Character Development: Hatsue, Mariam and Laila, and Ruth and Nao

            In the novel Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson, Hatsue learns what it means to be a Japanese American during a time of war.  When she was just a child, she believed that she was more American than she was Japanese, thinking that there was no difference between her and Ishmael since they were just people.  Her young innocence led her to have a growing romance with Ishmael while in their secret cedar tree, where they felt that nothing could separate them or tell them that they couldn’t be together, not even the war.  Although she did not realize that she was already following the conventions, young Hatsue knew that she could not be romantically tied to Ishmael, even though they grew up with one another.  Hatsue undergoes a major transformation when her and her family are sent to the Japanese internment camps.  She realizes that she can never be with Ishmael while traveling south.  She grows up much quicker than most young girls her age, realizing that even though she sees herself as an American, on the outside, she is Japanese.  Hatsue struggles to accept the fact that even though she was born in America, she will always be seen as Japanese first.  By the time she marries Kabuo and during the present time of the novel, Hatsue has learned to follow the social conventions by marrying a Japanese man and to have a stoic, silent demeanor that will not betray her true feelings.

            In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Mariam and Laila both undergo transformations.  Mariam has her first transformation when she realizes her father’s true nature on her fifteenth birthday.  Not only does she realize that she is unwanted by her father, but she also blames herself for her mother’s death.  She grows into herself, losing the curious happiness associated with innocence and youth when she is given away to Rasheed.  She grows even harder than she originally was at the beginning of the novel, particularly when she has her first miscarriage, for when she was pregnant she felt a rekindling of hope and love in the world which will not return until she grows closer to Laila and Aziza.  During the time she is living with Rasheed, Mariam becomes detached from the world.  By the end of the novel, however, she realizes that there is hope and that she can stand up for herself.  Although the attempt to run away with Laila fails, when Laila’s life is in danger, Mariam realizes that she can take control of her own life and make her own decisions, which she does by killing Rasheed.  Mariam also learns by the end of her portion of the novel that even though she was born a harami, or bastard child, she can still be loved and love in return.  Laila, on the other hand, started out life happily.  There were some struggles in her youth, such as the bombings, her friends moving or dying due to the rockets, and choosing to stay behind with her parents when asked to leave with the love of her life, but Laila started off as an innocent girl as well who had hopes for herself.  However, when her parents are killed by a rocket and she decides to move in with and marry Rasheed, she is forced to realize the harsh reality of her life: because she is a female during the time of Taliban rule, she will not be provided with the same opportunities as men.  Laila also grows in to herself for a portion of the novel after realizing the cold truth that she will not be able to do the things that her father had high hopes of her doing one day, which includes going to school to receive a full education.  Laila may have been naïve in the beginning of the novel in her hope of living a happy, successful life, but once she makes the connection with Mariam and has her two children, she realizes that even if she gives up hope for herself, she must remain strong for those around her.  Laila, in becoming a mother, realizes that she needs to protect other people instead of focusing on her own well-being.  However, if not for each other, Mariam and Laila would not have been able to develop as characters because they teach each other the power of friendship (even though their relationship becomes one similar to that between a mother and daughter) and learn to sacrifice their own well-being for someone else.  By living together and growing together as people, the two both transform into women who are willing to sacrifice themselves because they now have something worth fighting for: each other and the two children, Aziza in particular.

            In the novel A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, Ruth finds a diary written by a Japanese teenager named Naoko, or Nao for short.  Although they never come into direct contact, Ruth forms an unexplainable connection to Nao.  At the beginning of the novel, Ruth is a distanced, somewhat self-centered person, as demonstrated by her quick willingness to just throw away what she discovered on the beach without even trying to see what was inside the package.  As the novel progresses however, and Ruth becomes more invested in Nao’s story, she opens up more to the world and realizes the importance of being Japanese.  Ruth learns how precious life is and how crucial it is to remember where one’s family comes from as she continues to read Nao’s story.  Ruth becomes more invested in Nao’s life even though she has never seen Nao or met her in real life.  In the novel, Ruth is attempting to write a memoir, but is finding difficulty because she does not know who she really is and has no motivation to write about herself.  However, after reading Nao’s diary, she is able to look within herself to see that there is still more to the world than what Ruth has been living so far.  Nao, on the other hand, undergoes multiple transformations in the novel.  She may have originally had the intent to write a biography about her great-grandmother, but instead finds that by writing what she is feeling, she can confide her feelings in something instead of letting them bottle up inside of her.  Nao wonders about death and suicide a lot in the novel, but by the end of the novel, she realizes the importance of life.  Nao had to face the tough challenge of moving from California, which she has always considered her home, back to Japan, where she feels foreign and unwelcome.  She is angry with herself and the world in the beginning of the novel because she was forced to move to a place that challenged who she was.  However, when she lives with her great-grandmother, she opens up and looks deep within herself to realize that the whole world is not bad; there are good things in the world that can outweigh the harsh things in life.  When she is first going to the temple to live with her great-grandmother over the summer, Nao asks her father if they can go to Disneyland after he comes to pick her up, not realizing how materialistic her request sounds.  However, when she leaves the temple and her father is actually able to take her to Disneyland, she is not nearly as happy as she would have been before living with her great-grandmother Jiko because she has undergone a transformation.  At this point in the novel, Nao makes a connection with her spiritual self and has a new view of the world, one that is not shrouded in anger and resentment.  However, her newfound spirit does not last for long as she enters into a lost state of mind in which she does not see the value in life; she reverts back into a form of her past self in which she closes herself off from the world, but the new Nao does not care about things and begins to have a much more sadistic view of life than she originally had.  At the end of the novel, though, Nao once again undergoes a change for the better in which she once again sees the beauty in life.  She enters into a much happier state of mind, and, even though she knows that there will be more struggles ahead of her, she appreciates the life that she has and decides to keep living instead of giving up and ending her life early.

Classical Mythology and Biblical Terms

Classical Mythology Terms:

1)  Achilles:  He was the best fighter and essential in the Greek war effort against Troy in the Trojan War.  In an attempt to make him immortal, Achilles’ mother dipped the infant Achilles in the magical water of the Styx river, but held him by his heel when submerging him in the stream, leaving a weak, spot susceptible to injury on Achilles’ body.  Paris took advantage of Achilles’ weak spot, and with the help of the god Apollo, killed Achilles by shooting an arrow at his heel.

2)  Adonis:  Adonis was such a handsome young man that Aphrodite found him irresistible.  However, he was killed by a boar after ignoring Aphrodite’s warning.  To memorialize his death, Aphrodite sprinkled nectar on the ground which caused an anemone to grow.

3)  Aeneas:  A noble fighter for Troy during the Trojan War.  He managed to escape from the invading Greeks and established a new Troy in Italy, founding the city of Rome.

4)  Ares/Mars:  The god of war, but also the product of one of Zeus’ affairs.  Ares’ actual mother was turned into a cow by Zeus to protect his secret unfaithfulness, but Hera took the cow and had a one hundred eyed giant watch over it.  Ares had a long-term affair with Aphrodite, having Eros, Deimos (Panic), Phobus (Fear), and Harmonia, but was also trapped in bed with Aphrodite by her husband, Hephaestus.

5)  Argus:  The shipwright who built the Argo for Jason, but also a mythological creature with more than the typical number of eyes.  The Argo for Jason was a ship that Jason rode in his quest of the Golden Fleece.

6)  Athena/Minerva:  The Olympian, virginal goddess of arts and crafts, wisdom, and war.  She is also known as the protector and benefactor of heroes, beating Poseidon in a contest for the honor of having the city of Athens names after her.

7)  Atlas:  A Titan who fought on the side of Cronus against Zeus in the Titanomachy.  Unlike the other Titans who were condemned to Tartarus, Atlas was condemned to hold the sky on his shoulders, separating the sky from the earth.

8)  Augean stables:  One of Heracles’ Labors was to clean the filthy, unbearable stables of King Augeas, who hadn’t cleaned the stables in years.  Heracles agreed, cleaned the stalls, and was able to divert the course of two rivers.

9)  Bacchus/Dionysus:  The Olympian god of wine, frenzied music and dance, and the irrational.  He watched over ecstatic, sometimes sexual rites which involved initiation and often left the participants to become possessed by the deity.  He is often worshipped by females and male satyrs.

10)  Hiawatha:  A central figure of The Song of Hiawatha (1855), a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  He was a pre-historical Native American chief.

11)  Judgment of Paris:  Paris’ decision to award Aphrodite the golden apple because of her offer of Helen in the competition between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera.  Paris’ decision is believed to have set off the Trojan War.

12)  Jupiter/Zeus:  The king or supreme god of the Olympians and the father of Perseus and Hercules.  He was also the god of the sky.

13)  Laocoon:  A Trojan who realized that Sinon was lying when he said that the huge wooden horse the Greeks had left them outside the walls of Troy was an offering to Athena to make the city invincible if brought into the city.  However, he and his two sons were killed by snakes, causing Trojans to believe he was killed as punishment for being ungrateful for the holy gift to Athena.

14)  Leda:  The wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, who gave birth to two sets of twins.  One set of twins belonged to Zeus, who made love to Leda in the form of a swan, and the other of Tyndareus, who had sex with Leda in the same night that Zeus impregnated her.

15)  Midas:  His ears were turned into those of an ass by Apollo for his lack of perception when he chose Pan as the victor against Apollo in a musical contest.  Midas hid his ears under a hat, but his barber saw, and, unable to keep the secret, the barber dug a hole and told his secret.  The wind blew the secret so that everyone could hear the secret that was supposed to remain buried.  For doing a favor for Dionysus, he was granted with the ability to turn everything he touched into gold.  However, Midas found that even food and drink would turn into gold, so Dionysus told him to bathe in the river Pactolus, whose bed became golden.

16)  Nemesis:  The goddess of vengeance who brings retribution to sinners, especially if they sinned through hubris, or extreme pride.

17)  Odin:  The great magician among the gods and was associated with runic writing.  He had an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir, who could gallop through air and over the sea.

18)  Cassandra:  A Trojan who was pursued by the god Apollo.  When she agreed to sleep with him, he gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she broke her promise, he changed her ability so that she would never be believed.  Cassandra’s predictions were typically about some future disaster, but she was never believed.

19)  Cerberus:  The hound of the underworld and Hades’ guard dog that stood guard to the gates of Hades to prevent those from entering if they weren’t supposed to.  Related to the Chimaera and the Hydra, he’s usually described as having three heads and a dragon’s tail.

20)  Ceres/Demeter:  The Olympian goddess of agriculture, the sister of Zeus, and the mother of Persephone.

21)  Chimera:  A fire-breathing monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of serpent, which was killed by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon on one of his journeys.

22)  Circe:  An enchantress of divine lineage, a sorceress, and advisor to Odysseus.  Odysseus spent an entire year with her on the island of Aeaea when going home after the Trojan War.  She directed him to go to the Underworld to talk to Tiresias.  Their son, Telegonus, would later on accidentally kill his father.

23)  Daedalus:  A master craftsman who worked for King Minos of Crete after being banished for killing his nephew.  He built the Labyrinth that housed the Minotaur, but was imprisoned by Minos for telling Theseus the secret of the Labyrinth.  In his attempt to escape, he built himself wings, but got too close to the sun, causing the wax of the wings to melt and the feathers to fall from his arms, plunging him into the sea.  Minos searched for Daedalus but was killed by the daughters of Cocalus, the king of Camicus, who was harboring Daedalus.

24)  Damocles:  A member of the court of Dionysus the Elder, the king of Syracuse.  Damocles showed envy of the king’s position, so Dionysus offered to switch roles with him for a day, but to teach Damocles that being a king wasn’t the great, happy role that Damocles originally believed, Dionysus suspended a sword over the throne.

25)  Delphic Oracle:  The shrine of the god Apollo and the site of the famous Oracle, whose often inscrutable advice was sought down into historical times.

26)  Electra:  “Amber,” the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who helped Orestes avenge their father by killing Clytemnestra and who married Pylades.  She is the mother of Medon and Strophius.

27)  Pan:  The son of Hermes and the god of nature and shepherds who is part goat and part man and is often associated with Dionysus.  He gave rise to the word panic because of his ability to inspire terror with a shout or sudden noise.  He fell in love with Syrinx, a nymph, who ran from him and was turned into a bed of reeds.  Pan took two reeds and put them together with wax after hearing wind blow through them and made it into a panpipe.

28)  Pandora’s Box:  A beautiful woman, possibly the first woman, given to men by the gods to punish mankind.  The gods sent with her a jar that, when opened, released the ills that plague humankind.

29)  Paris:  The Trojan prince who caused the Trojan War by carrying off Helen, wife of the Greek Menelaus.  He grew up to be the handsomest man alive, causing Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite to argue who was the most beautiful.  To solve the conflict, Zeus had Hermes bring the three goddesses to Paris: Hera promised him political power if chosen, Athena promised success in battle, and Aphrodite promised Helen.  Paris chose Helen and after being reunited with his parents, he went to Sparta to go get Helen.

30)  Parnassus:  A mountain in Greece which was sacred to Apollo and the Muses and was where the Muses supposedly lived.

31)  Prometheus:  A Titan at birth who joined the Zeus’ side in the Titanomachy, but then challenged Zeus by championing the cause of man.  He prepared two sacrifices for Zeus to choose, one being fine meat and organs of an ox and the other bones covered in fat.  Zeus chose the less desirable one, setting the precedent for the kind of sacrifices mankind would have to make.  When Zeus refused to give men the gift of fire, Prometheus smuggled it out of heaven and brought it to earth.  (Prometheus bestowed many gifts to the mortals to bring them from savagery to civilization).  As punishment for his disobedience, Zeus punished mankind by creating women and chained Prometheus to a cliff where each day an eagle would pick at his liver and each night the wounds would heal and the liver would grow back.  Heracles killed the eagle with an arrow, freeing Prometheus, who then traded his mortality for Chiron’s immortality.

32)  Proteus:  A sea-god who could change shape and possessed knowledge of the future, but in order to obtain information, one had to struggle with the god until his metamorphoses ended.

33)  Pygmalion:  “Cubit,” he was a craftsman who lived on an island whose women were all prostitutes, so he decided to carve a statue wife out of ivory, which Aphrodite had come alive.  He named his wife Galatea and their son Paphos.

34)  Romulus and Remus:  They established the city of Rome.  Their grandfather Numitor was sent into exile by his brother, Amulius, who usurped the throne of Alba Longa.  Their mother had an affair that produced the twins, causing Amulius to send the twins adrift on the Tiber in an ark.  When they came ashore, a she-wolf discovered them and took care of them until a man named Faustulus found them and raised them.  When they were young, Remus was captured by one of Numitor’s shepherds and brought to Numitor, so Romulus came to explain their life story.  Numitor recognized the two as his grandchildren and conspired with them to overthrow Amulius and return Numitor to the throne.  After, Romulus and Remus established the city of Rome, but when they argued over who should rule the city, Romulus killed Remus and named the city after himself.

35)  Elysian Fields:  The paradise of heroes either in the Underworld or in the far West; it is granted to those mortals who have won a blessed afterlife for having a virtuous life.

36)  Fauns:  Faunus, which means one who shows favor, was a Roman woodland deity who was thought to bring prosperity to farmers and shepherds and depicted with horns, tail, ears, and legs of a goat, creating an association with Pan and Dionysiac satyrs.  His lover was Fauna, a female agricultural deity and a goddess of flowers, grains, and the grapevine.

37)  Golden Fleece:  The woolly coat of a magical flying ram, and sought by Jason and the Argonauts on a quest.

38)  Hades:  The son of Cronus and Rhea, yet not an Olympian god since he doesn’t live in Olympus, Hades is the god of the dead and ruler of the Underworld.  He is married to Persephone, who he abducted and made his queen.  Hades is also the realm of the dead, named after the god.

39)  Holy Grail:  The cup or platter used by Jesus at the Last Supper and by Joseph of Arimathea when receiving Christ’s blood at the Christ.  The Holy Grail became earnestly sought after by many.

40)  Hector:  A Trojan prince who was the Trojans’ greatest warrior, but was more noble than Achilles.  After he killed Patroclus, Achilles killed Hector and dragged his body around the city for twelve days, with Apollo restoring the corpse each night.  Priam, Hector’s father, ransomed his son’s body from Achilles.

41)  Henry, John:  A hero of American folktales who was portrayed as an enormously strong black man who worked on the railroads and died of exhaustion in a battle against a machine.

42)  Hera/Juno:  The Olympian goddess of marriage and fertility, the wife of Zeus, and the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.  She sent snakes at and stirred the Amazons against Hercules, but aided and protected Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece.

43)  Hermes:  The Olympian messenger god and guide of dead souls to the Underworld.  He delivers messages for the gods, travelers, roads, orators, commerce, and thieves.  On the first day of his life, he escaped from his crib, created the first lyre, and stole some cattle from his half-brother, Apollo.  The two reconciled, with Hermes giving Apollo his lyre.

44)  Scylla and Charybdis:  Scylla was once a beautiful sea nymph that either the minor sea god Glaucus fell in love with and was determined to have her with the help of Circe, who then turned Scylla into a horrible monster so Glaucus would have to follow Circe’s plans for him, or had attracted Poseidon, who made advances towards her, causing Amphitrite to throw magic herbs in the water that Scylla swam in to change her into a terrible monster.  Charybdis is a mythological whirlpool off the coast of Sicily.  Together, they form a danger towards sailors, such as Jason and the Argonauts and Odysseus, who wanted to go through the Strait of Messina, between southern Italy and Sicily.

45)  Sisyphus:  He revealed the secret of one of Zeus’ love affairs and when he died, he cheated Death by begging for permission to go back to earth long enough to arrange a proper burial for his corpse, but ended up staying there and not returning to the Underworld until he died a second time.  As punishment, he was condemned to have to push a large boulder up a hill and then watch it roll back down to the bottom for all eternity.

46)  Tiresias:  The blind seer from Thebes.

47)  Titan(s):  The twelve sons of Earth and the second generation of gods, born of Ge and Uranus, they were older than the Gods of Olympus.  They were thought to be the natural forces, and were invincible even though they were defeated and punished by Zeus.

48)  Vesta/Hestia:  “Hearth,” the goddess of the hearth, whose temple in the Roman Forum housed an altar with a fire that symbolized the center of life of the Roman Republic and wasn’t allowed to go out.  Her priestesses, or Vestal Virgins, were chosen at a young age, took a vow of chastity, and had the power to pardon criminals sentences to die nor did they have to take an oath of honesty.  A Vestal Virgin who died while in office was given the honor of being buried in the city of Rome.

49)  Venus/Aphrodite:  The Olympian goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology even though she was originally seen as the protector of gardens who brought luck and favor.

50)  Zephyr:  Zephyrus is the west wind, which signals the return of spring.

Biblical Terms:

1)  Abraham and Isaac:  Abraham’s wife, Sarai, later changed to Sarah, cannot become pregnant, but she really wants to giver Abraham an heir, so God promises a son, who he says shall be names Isaac.  God asks Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to test his loyalty.  Abraham obeys and brings Isaac to the top of the mountain to be sacrificed, but right before Abraham strikes, one of God’s angels stops him and tells Abraham that God is impressed with his devotion and supports his covenant.

2)  Annunciation:  The celebration of the angel Gabriel’s announcement of the virgin Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus.

3)  Ararat:  The mountain peak of Ararat where Noah’s ark landed and rested during the flood and while it receded.

4)  Armageddon:  The destination of the final conflict between Christ and Antichrist; the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment.

5)  Babel:  All of mankind spoke one language and decided to build the Tower of Babel in order to reach heaven.  However, God understood their true intention of promoting themselves instead of God, so he scattered the people and created different languages to create a language barrier in order to prevent them from rising above him.

6)  Babylon:  One of the first cities in the world, Babylon was a city of rebellion against God, where mankind built the Tower of Babel.  The city was seen as a symbol for evil and was destroyed by God.

7)  Burning Bush:  A manifestation of God himself when he speaks to Moses because Moses was too frightened to look at God himself.  God tells Moses to go back to Egypt and demand for the Israelites to be released from slavery.

8)  Damascus:  The most ancient of the Oriental cities and the capital of Syria; the city was later taken and destroyed by the Assyrians, with the Syrian inhabitants being captured and carried to Assyria.  The city s most memorable for Saul’s conversion and became the center of Christianity.

9)  Esther:  The Jewish Queen of Ahasuerus whose original name was Hadas’sah.  One of the princes of the kingdom, Haman, wanted to rid of his rival, Esther’s uncle Mordecai, so he told the king that there was a group of people (Jewish) that wanted to overthrow him and his power, convincing the king to pass a law that allowed for Jews to be murdered.  Although conflicted, Esther told the king of her ethnic origin and told him that she was required to be killed.  She became the Jewish peoples’ protector and savior through her intervention and Haman was hanged.

10)  Golden Calf:  When Moses left to receive the Ten Commandments, the people became impatient waiting for his return and decided to create a molten image of a calf to worship.  However, Moses commanded them to destroy the calf upon his return.

11)  Jacob’s Ladder:  Jacob dreamed of a ladder on earth that could reach heaven at the top.  Jacob saw in his dream angels ascending and descending the ladder and dreamt that God promised that his descendants would return to the land, multiply in population, bless all people on the earth, and to be with Jacob for the rest of his life.  Jacob then built a pillar and devoted his life to following after God.

12)  Jeremiah:  A Hebrew prophet of God who was sent to preach about indictment and judgment in the hope of turning people from their wicked ways, but faced harsh opposition by many.

13)  Job:  A wealthy, devoted Arabian patriarch who suffered through a series of trials created by Satan in an attempt by Satan to argue of Job’s goodness to God that fell on him.  However, he maintained his integrity and faithfulness, so God visited him with goodness and greater prosperity.

14)  Leviathan:  A crocodile, sometimes seen as a sea monster or serpent, which is used by God through the use of rhetorical questions to prove to Job that man is not all-powerful.

15)  Lot’s Wife:  Two angels visited Lot, who told them to come into his home in order to protect them from the neighbors, after Abraham convinced God not to destroy the good people with the wicked.  The angels told Lot and his family to flee the city and go to the mountains because God was going to destroy the city, but warned them not to turn around.  However, when they escaped the city, Lot’s wife turned around and turned into stone.

16)  Methuselah:  He was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah.  He was the oldest man to live in the record, living nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

17)  Olive Branch:  During the flood, Noah wanted to find out whether the flood was over or not.  He send both a raven and a dove out of the ark to see if the flood was over and the second time that he sent the dove, it came back with an olive branch in its mouth, signifying the end of the flood.  The olive branch became a symbol of peace and is associated with the Holy Spirit.

18)  Pearls Before Swine:  Jesus told his followers to never throw pearls before swine to explain to his followers not to waste something they find sacred and valuable to those who won’t appreciate them in order to prevent the gift from being wasted.

19)  Promised Land:  God, in the form of a burning bush, told Moses to free the enslaved Jews in Egypt.  Under God’s guidance, Moses was able to lead the Jewish to the promised land of Israel even though he wasn’t able to enter the promised land himself.

20)  Prodigal Son:  Jesus tells the story of a man who has two sons.  The younger son asks his father for some of the family’s land as an early inheritance, and when he receives the land, the son goes on a journey where he wastes his fortune.  When he runs out of money and a famine hits, he becomes destitute and, recognizing his foolishness, comes back to his father to beg for forgiveness.  The father welcomes his prodigal son back warmly, enraging the older brother.  However, the father tells him that everything he owns is the older son’s and that he just wants to celebrate the return of his lost son.

21)  Queen of Sheba:  She had heard stories of Solomon and wanted to find out if the stories were true or not, so she decided to visit him, bringing lavish gifts.  When she got there, she tested him with hard questions.  At the end, she was satisfied that the stories were true and left the Solomon with the gifts, to which he reciprocated.

22)  Ruth:  She married her rich relative, Boaz and became the mother of Obed, who becomes the grandfather of David, the slayer of Goliath who later becomes king.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

            In the first chapter of the novel How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster writes about quests that may or may not seem like quests within works of literature.  Foster writes that in order for there to be a quest, there must be a quester, a stated place to go and a reason for going there, challenges and trials during the trip, and a real reason for going on the trip, which is typically for self knowledge.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, both Mariam and Laila have a minor quest, although Mariam’s quest is much more heartbreaking and causes Mariam to grow up much faster than Laila’s.  Nevertheless, both quests reveal some sort of truth to the girls.  At the time of the quest, Mariam just turns fifteen, and realizes her father’s true nature.  She goes down to the village in order to see her father, but has to first face the challenge of her morals and whether or not she should abandon her mother and disregard the rules for the day.  Once Mariam gets to the village, she has to face the challenge of figuring out where her father’s home is and two of Jalil’s servants who told her that Jalil was away.  However, after spending the night in the cold, Mariam learns the truth.  As she heads home, “…she cried.  They were tears of grief, of anger, of disillusionment. But mainly tears of a deep, deep shame at how foolishly she had given herself over to Jalil” (Hosseini 33).  The real reason Hosseini has Mariam go down to the village and to see her father was to reveal the truth to Mariam – that her Nana had been right all along about her father and that Jalil is ashamed of having her as a daughter.  Another reason for having Mariam leave is to advance the plot of the story and to have her Nana hang herself so that Mariam feels the guilt at leaving her Nana for her awful father and to have Mariam move in with Jalil’s family for the time before she becomes married.  Laila’s quest, on the other hand comes with a self-awakening that does not come into play until much later in the novel.  Laila enters her quest as a surprise from her father, going to the two Buddha statues for educational purposes.  However, Laila learns two things while on top of the Buddha statues: that her father feels “‘…like you’re all I [Babi] have, Laila’” and “…that, in one important way, she [Laila] was glad they couldn’t go [to Babi’s little dream, somewhere near the sea]” (135, 137).  The self recognition that Laila learns on her quest does not have its full effect until Tariq asks her to marry him and leave with him and his family.  Instead of leaving, Laila realizes that she has a duty to stay with her father, even if she desperately wants to leave at the time.  Near the end of the novel, Laila’s lessons from her quest appear once again when she realizes that even though she may be happy with her new life with Tariq, her life is not right because she belongs at the place where she wanted to escape a few years before; that the place she has escaped still remains her home and always will be her true home.

            In chapter seven of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster writes about how many pieces of literature allude to the Bible in some way, whether it be through titles, names, or symbols.  Foster writes that even if a person is not familiar with the Bible, if a part of a novel seems to resonate within itself, then there is probably a deeper meaning behind it and one can therefore assume there is some sort of allusion.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Tariq becomes a leader and savior, especially for Laila.  His becomes a holy figure in her life, returning after nine years, which is a multiple of three, after Laila believed that he was dead.  Therefore, Tariq, in his later years at least, becomes a Jesus Christ figure because both return from the dead and both bring a sense of hope for a better place for mankind.  After coming back and speaking with Laila, “…another shudder passed through [Laila], a current of something sad and forlorn, but also something eager and recklessly hopeful” (306).  Tariq brings a sense of hope for Laila, even if he has not had the chance to really do much yet since she is still married to Rasheed.  The hope though, is something that seemed to be forgotten for the time being when Laila was married to Rasheed, so, like Jesus, Tariq brings back a sense of hope for a better, purer life, even during the harsh time of war.  Tariq causes Laila to hope that she, Mariam, and the two children can “…go someplace remote and safe where no one would find them, where they could disown their past and find shelter.  ‘Somewhere with trees,’ [Laila] said.  ‘Yes.  Lots of trees’” (315).  Once again, Tariq brings hope to Laila’s life, causing Laila to hope that she and her family can escape to a better place than Rasheed’s home.  In addition, Laila hopes that they will live in a place that has a lot of trees, which is her hope to enter the Garden of Eden, before the loss of innocence, to a place of purity and happiness.

            Foster points out that the Greeks provide a lot of subject matter for future authors.  The Greeks have provided writers with the four great struggles of the human being, which include the struggle against nature, the divine, other humans, and with oneself.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam captures a few of the four great struggles of the human being that Foster writes was given to writers from Homer.  Mariam definitely struggles with other humans, particularly with her father and Rasheed.  Mariam does struggle with her mother at the beginning of the novel, but after her death, Mariam has to deal with her father and then her forced-upon husband, Rasheed.  Mariam also struggles with herself because she remains guilty for leaving her mother for her father and causing her mother’s death.  Mariam also struggles to discover that she has a say in what she wants for herself and what she wants to do with her life.  However, not until Laila’s life is in danger and Mariam is the only one who can help, having to kill Rasheed, that “…this was the first time that she was deciding the course of her own life” (311).  Mariam finally comes to terms with the fact that even though she is a woman during a time and place where women had practically no rights at all, she can still take control of her own life, utilize the power of free will, and decide her own fate, which she does.  By killing Rasheed, Mariam knows that she has also put a death sentence on herself.  In addition, Laila crossed over to the underworld somewhat quickly in order to speak to Mariam.  Laila travels with Hamza, who “…tells [Laila] to cross the dry streambed” (353).  In order to reach the land of the dead, one must cross the river, which Laila does, albeit the river Laila crosses is dried up.  Even though Laila does not pay him with a golden coin, Hamza is the carrier that brings people over to the dead just as the person who carries souls across the river.  Once she finally reaches Mariam’s original home, Laila is able to reconnect with Mariam and feels Mariam calling to her.  Therefore, Laila enters the Land of the Dead for a brief moment in order to speak with Mariam and give her a final good-bye.

            Foster points out that the weather plays a critical role in a work of literature.  Whether it be for plot development or for a democratic reason, rain, snow, or fog plays a significant role in literature.  In general, rain can bring about enlightenment and restoration, and snow can bring abstract thought.  What an author does with rain, snow, or fog in the novel can signify a change in character or parallel the atmosphere or what is happening in the novel.  For much of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the characters must withstand a drought.  However, when there was a snowfall during the winter of 1992, “[Laila] would retreat back to her room, sit on the bed, and watch the snow falling” (208).  Instead of going outside to feel the snow, Laila remains disclosed from the world, choosing to just watch the snow.  In doing so, Laila enters a state of abstract thought, in which she can think without thinking too much about what has happened to her within the past few years and how she came to be in the situation that she is currently in.  In addition, by not letting Laila walk freely outside and in the snow, namely by having Laila remain inside, Hosseini reestablishes that Laila is no longer the free spirit that she once was when her parents were still living and Tariq’s family had not fled as well as reinforce the idea that Laila, as all women during the time in Afghanistan, were not able to go outside when they wished to.  In the final chapter of the novel, “the drought has ended.  It snowed at last this past winter, knee-deep, and now it has been raining for days” (361).  At this point in the novel, the rain signifies the restoration of Afghanistan, particularly Laila’s home, from the harsh time of war.  The rain brings people back to the town, restoring the town back to life after the dreaded war and signifying a more hopeful, cleansed future life for Laila.

            Foster writes that almost anything in a piece of literature can be a symbol.  However, what symbols mean depends on the reader’s personal past and experiences, so there is an unlimited number of things a symbol can mean instead of one symbol having only one specific meaning.  There are many symbols within A Thousand Splendid Suns, such as the color green, which both Mariam and Laila constantly wear (Laila especially, since her eyes are green), representing the growth and maturity that the two girls have to undergo in such a rapid period of time.  Laila wearing green in particular has another possible meaning, in which she is constantly being compared to a flower, with Rasheed even calling her “‘…my flower, my gul’” (207).  Laila’s very being reminds the reader of a flower because of her green eyes and blonde hair, and with the addition of wearing green a lot, she resembles a bright flower, possibly even a yellow daisy.  In doing so, Hosseini creates a sense of irony by having Laila run away during the spring time, which makes sense, since spring is the perfect time for the flower to bloom, but has Laila caught in the midst of her escape.  Besides the color green, there is also the matter of Mariam having miscarriages every single time she tries to have a child.  The symbol has multiple meanings, some of which Mariam thinks about in her anger, but as Foster writes, there is no single meaning behind a symbol.  Mariam losing the child could be her payment for having abandoned her mother for her father, it could represent Mariam being a harami and therefore cannot have legitimate children of her own since she herself is not legitimate, or it could be a simple way for Hosseini to move the plot along and to help Mariam realize that even though she is not legitimate, she can still love and have that love be returned to her from someone she is not related to.  In the latter idea, Mariam’s inability to have children presents her with a problem she must face directly in order to overcome, which she does eventually after finally accepting Laila and her illegitimate child, Aziza.  Rasheed is the “man” of the house in the novel, having a tight control over Mariam and Laila.  However, the reader should not forget that Rasheed is “‘…a shoemaker….He makes them for diplomats, members of the presidential family – that class of people’” (43).  Rasheed may believe he is the king in his home, but in reality he is merely someone who bows at the feet of wealthier, classier people.  Rasheed’s profession can symbolize his desire to be considered upper class and can help to explain why he feels the strong need to have a son and why he is so possessive over his things and wives.  However, as Foster points out, Rasheed’s profession can mean something else entirely, but it is up to the reader to determine what the many different symbols can mean.

            Foster points out that a novel would not be the same novel if it was not for the setting and geography.  Geography can mean a variety of things, ranging from people to setting to theme to symbol.  Geography can be used to develop a character as well, particularly if they are going on a trip or going south, in which case they are probably going south to “run amok,” but either way, by having a character leave one place for another can determine whether or not a character grows.  Geography is very important within a novel, for the geography can help to explain the plot or the people within the novel.  If Hosseini did not place the novel in Afghanistan, there might have been a war going on, but Hosseini chose Afghanistan for a particular reason, whether it be for the culture, the weather, or simply because he wanted to demonstrate the harsh realities of what happened in Afghanistan during the war that many people remain ignorant about.  At the end of the novel, Hosseini does right a denouement about why he wrote the book and placed the novel in Afghanistan, but it does not explain why he chose the specific parts of Afghanistan that he did.  Mariam grew up in a little hut on the outskirts of the main part of town.  In doing so, Hosseini uses the kolba to develop Mariam’s character.  At first, the reader thinks that the kolba is used to help show Jalil’s character because “Jalil could have hired laborers to build the kolba, Nana said, but he didn’t.  ‘His idea of penance’” (10).  Although that may be true, Hosseini also uses the kolba to develop Mariam as a character because of where the kolba is located.  By having the kolba on the outskirts of town, Mariam remains an innocent child, unaware of her father’s true character.  In addition, having her live separately from the rest of Jalil’s family reiterates the fact that Mariam is an illegitimate child.  Hosseini has a majority of the novel place within a town that is being hit hard by the war.  In doing so, he makes the atmosphere of the novel somewhat unsettling since the reader does not know when another loved character is about to randomly die by a rocket.  He gives the place a character, one of which is full of anger, sorrow, and hatred.  However, at the end of the novel, he also has Laila escape the place that has caused her so much pain in the past.  Even more, near the very end of the novel, he writes that “a year ago, [Laila] would have gladly given an arm to get out of Kabul.  But in the last few months, she has found herself missing the city of her childhood” (344-345).  Not until he has Laila leave her original, dreaded home does she realize the need she has for it.  On the way back to her home, however, she also stops by Mariam’s first home, the kolba, because she realizes that sometimes home is not a place, but a person, and Mariam was a part of her home.  Maybe Hosseini did this unintentionally, or maybe he did it intentionally, but the places where Mariam and Laila first grew up in started with the letter K.  Whether or not Hosseini did this on purpose or not, in doing so, the reader can believe that in doing so, the two girls are tied even more because of another commonality they have between them.

            Foster writes about the importance of season within literature.  He writes that authors can either use the seasons for their intended meaning or they can use them with irony, which many modern writers do.  The original meaning behind the seasons are: spring meaning youth, fertility, and innocence, summer meaning passion, love, and adulthood, autumn symbolizing tiredness, harvest, and decline, and winter meaning old age, anger, resentment, and death.  Writers can also use the seasons’ original meanings with a sense of irony to accentuate a certain characteristic or point during the novel.  The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns skips between seasons and years quite frequently and rapidly to the point that sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint what time of year it is in the novel.  However, Hosseini does try to help the problem by writing either the month or the actual season throughout the novel.  Laila and Tariq’s love life follow the seasons.  They first start their love affair in June of 1992, in which “Laila thought of Tariq’s hands, squeezing her breast, sliding down the small of her back, as the two of them kissed and kissed” (160).  By having the two of them come together during the summer, the season of love and passion, Hosseini uses the season to parallel what is happening in Laila’s life.  However, it is not until August of that same year do the two lovers consummate their love for one another and Tariq asks her to marry him.  August is much closer to autumn than June is, so by having the two come together at the end of summer, bordering on autumn, Hosseini once again uses the seasons to parallel Laila’s life.  Laila is not able to leave with Tariq because of her father, but Hosseini also uses the time of the year, the end of summer, to demonstrate that the passion and the love between the two is slowly coming to an end, which it does because Tariq leaves the very next day.  Hosseini also uses spring in the beginning of the novel to parallel Mariam’s life, although somewhat ironically.  At first, having Mariam’s fifteenth birthday in spring parallels her youthfulness and her innocence.  However, the use of spring is ironic because she discovers Jalil’s true nature and when she gets home, “…Mariam caught a glimpse of what was beneath the tree: the straight-backed chair, overturned.  The rope dropping from a high branch.  Nana dangling at the end of it” (34).  Therefore there is a sense of irony with the use of the seasons as well since spring is supposed to mean a time of fertility and innocence, but instead there is a cold awakening to the truth and a death. 

            Foster teaches readers that in order to fully grasp and understand a piece of literature, one must read not with his own eyes, but of someone understanding of the time period and culture of the novel.  The reader should not look at most works of literature from the perspective of a twenty-first century person living in a first world country but instead with the eyes of someone either during that time period.  By doing so, the reader can look beyond the surface of the novel to try to understand the message the author is trying to make by using a different social, historical, or cultural background.  A Thousand Splendid Suns takes place in Afghanistan and requires readers to understand that even during a time of war, these are still people who have families and aspirations.  Americans in particular have to read with the eyes of someone who was born and raised in Afghanistan and have learned that Americans are the enemy.  Americans should not take offense when Hosseini writes about America being evil and being the enemy.  In addition, the reader should read with the eyes of not a feminist of the twenty first century, in which women should be equal to men, for throughout the novel, time and again the idea that women are less than men is presented.  Instead, the reader should read with an open mind and an understanding about the culture of Afghanistan.  During the time, women married young, with little girls knowing the harsh truth, such as with the case of Hasina, one of Laila’s friends during childhood.  Although Hasina and Laila are not even teenagers at the time, “…in two or three years [Hasina’s father] would certainly give her away.  Hasina had told Laila, in one of her infrequent serious moments, that it had already been decided that she would marry a first cousin who was twenty years older than her” (104).  In America in the twenty first century, it is highly looked down upon to marry a relative, whether the relative be a first or second cousin.  In addition, there is an unspoken rule in many cultures about the right age for people to become married and for the age difference between a couple.  Therefore, instead of seeing the novel through a twenty first century American, one must read the novel from the perspective of someone from Afghanistan during the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  During that time period, it was normal for young girls to have an arranged marriage to a much older gentleman.  Once again, the audience should not read from the eyes of a feminist, from almost any country because during the time period of the novel, women had pretty much no rights at all.  When the Taliban had taken over, the reader must understand that women were inferior to men and that there was pretty much nothing that the reader can do to change that ideology.  Hosseini writes some of the rules that women must follow, which include “You will not speak unless spoken to.  You will not make eye contact with men,” as well as “Girls are forbidden from attending school…Women are forbidden from working” (248-249).  Women had little to no rights at all during the time period that the novel was placed in.  Hosseini does ask a lot out of modern day men and women to understand the cultural and historical background of the novel, but in doing so, the novel becomes that much more meaningful and heartbreaking as the reader grows alongside Mariam and Laila.

Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson

            In the first chapter of the novel How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster writes about quests that may or may not seem like quests within works of literature.  Foster writes that in order for there to be a quest, there must be a quester, a stated place to go and reason for going there, challenges and trials during the trip, and a real reason for going on the trip, which is typically for self knowledge.  Although the novel, Snow Falling On Cedars is focused on the case of Kabuo Miyamoto and the past memories that the court case brings up, Ishmael is the “quester” in the novel.  He is unhappy with his life and is unable to move forward because of his memories from the war and his inability to accept that he and Hatsue can never be together romantically.  He is not too old to learn and realize his mistakes, especially since he remains stuck in the past.  Ishmael begins his quest with the intention of visiting his mother during the heavy snow storm and to bring her a can of kerosene.  Since his mother lives on the outskirts of the island at South Beach, he travels back and forth between his mother’s home and the courthouse.  Ishmael faces multiple struggles, starting off with having to get chains on the tires of his car in order to drive to his mother’s house.  The next challenge that Ishmael has to face is that he has to drive in the rough terrain created by the heavy snowfall, noticing that there are multiple abandoned cars on the road.  Before going to his mother’s house, Ishmael goes to the lighthouse to find information about the storm for an article, but instead stumbles upon a critical piece of information for Kabuo Miyamoto’s murder trial, creating yet another internal struggle for himself.  Instead of immediately turning over the piece of evidence to the sheriff or judge, Ishmael withholds the newfound information, sitting in the court room as “[the] truth now lay in Ishmael’s own pocket and he did not know what to do with it” (Guterson 428).  As the novel progresses and Ishmael continues to go to his mother’s home, he recognizes his mistakes and slowly begins to realize that even though the war traumatized him and took away his arm, the war has affected practically everyone on San Piedro island yet everyone else has been able to move on except for him.  He accepts the idea that he is just like his father and understands that, like his father, he must move on from the war, open up his heart to others once again, and continue to live his life.  By the end of the novel, Ishmael realizes that “[his] trips to South Beach, he understood now, were as much for his own head as they were for [his mother’s]; he had fooled himself for years into thinking otherwise” (443).  Somewhat ironically, Ishmael has his moment of enlightenment while in the cedar tree that enclosed him and Hatsue from the rest of the world.  In addition, Ishmael “…came to recognize that he did not belong [in the cedar tree], he had no place in the tree any longer” and that “the world was silent and cold and bare and that in this lay its terrible beauty” (443).  Therefore, by the end of the novel, Ishmael has come to understand that he must not let himself remain stuck in the past, whether it be the war or in his delusional love for Hatsue.  Although the reader does not know for sure if Ishmael will have a happy ending, the novel ends with a hope that Ishmael will begin to really live his life instead of letting the trauma caused by the war suffocate him because time and the world moves on, waiting for nobody.

            In chapter seven of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster writes about how many pieces of literature allude to the Bible in some way, whether it be through titles, names, or symbols.  Foster writes that even if a person is not familiar with the Bible, if a part of a novel seems to resonate within itself, then there is probably a deeper meaning behind it and one can therefore assume there is some sort of allusion.  Ishmael received his name from part of the Bible; his personality coincides with the Ishmael of the Bible.  In the Bible, God told Ishmael’s mother that “…[Ishmael] will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren” (Genesis 16:12).  In the novel Snow Falling On Cedars, Ishmael grew up in the wilderness, picking strawberries in the fields and meeting Hatsue in their secret place within the cedar tree in the woods.  In addition, Ishmael inherited from his father, Arthur, not only the love for literature but in his view of humankind since “‘[Arthur] loved humankind dearly and with all his heart, but he disliked most human beings….You’re [Ishmael] the same, you know.  You’re your father’s son’” (Guterson 36).  Ishmael, like his father and the Ishmael of the Bible, has a strong dislike of human beings and often holds himself at a distance from others that his heart becomes small and cold.  There are other allusions to the Bible, such as the loss of innocence.  The novel recounts the tragic time when Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes for camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Although Carl Heine Junior may not have realized he loses his innocence, he does when “[Carl Junior] came back and stood in the doorway.  There was a bite taken out of one of the apples….He was eighteen….He took another bite from the apple” (129).  At age eighteen, Carl was a legal adult, and the fact that he ate three apples signifies his loss of innocence just as Eve did when she took the apple.  Although the garden Carl grew up in is not nearly as perfect as the Garden of Eden, it is a garden nevertheless.  Carl loses his innocence when he loses his friend, Kabuo, due to the American government requiring the relocation of all Japanese Americans.  Finally, the number three continually comes up within the novel.  For example, Kabuo’s trial takes three days until Ishmael comes forward with the new evidence and sets Kabuo free.  The trial taking three days correlates with the number of days before Jesus’ resurrection, with Kabuo as Jesus in the sense that he is returned to the world, his home, and his family after three days of being in court.

            Foster points out that the Greeks provide a lot of subject matter for future authors.  The Greeks have provided writers with the four great struggles of the human being, which include the struggle against nature, the divine, other humans, and with oneself.  The people of San Piedro, for the most part, are farmers and fisherman just like Homer’s characters.  Like Homer, Guterson tests the characters’ nobility while also reminding readers of basic characteristics of human nature.  As Foster points out, Homer provides future authors, such as Guterson, basic human instincts such as “the need to protect one’s family,” “the need to maintain one’s dignity,” “the determination to remain faithful and to have faith,” “the struggle to return home,” and with the “four great struggles of the human being: with nature, with the divine, with other humans, and with ourselves” (Foster 71).  Guterson depicts the need to protect one’s family in the Japanese Americans being forced to leave their homes, drawing on pathos to force the audience to realize the injustice that America placed upon the Japanese Americans during World War II.  Guterson illustrates the need to maintain one’s dignity in the very first line of the novel, when he writes that “[the] accused man, Kabuo Miyamoto, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms placed softly on the defendant’s table – the posture of a man who has detached himself insofar as this is possible at his own trial” (Guterson 1).  Instead of allowing himself to succumb to the unfairness of the trial, Kabuo does not allow others to see his discomfort at being accused of something he did not do, instead sitting up proudly at the defendant’s table with an impassive expression to maintain his dignity.  Hatsue remains faithful in her husband throughout the entire trial, maintaining her faith in him even though nobody can attest for Kabuo’s innocence, leaving Kabuo with no confirmed alibi, and the evidence definitely makes Kabuo seem incriminating.  Kabuo is faced with the struggle to return home since he has been stuck within a jail cell, accused for first degree murder, for three months.  Ishmael has to deal with at least three of the four great struggles of the human being.  He definitely struggles with nature, other humans, and with himself.  Ishmael, as well as all other characters in the novel, must struggle with nature due to the cold created by the dreary snowstorm.  Ishmael has issues with other people, as depicted with the use of his name and with his inability to open his closed off, cold heart to others after the war and after Hatsue realized that she does not love him.  Finally, Ishmael struggles with himself because of “…the chilly recklessness that had come to waylay his heart” created by the war and his heartbreaking love for Hatsue (428).  However, Ishmael is not the only character having to deal with the struggles of the human being; Hatsue, along with all of the other Japanese Americans relocated to camps, had to deal with the struggle against other humans and with themselves.  Guterson recreates the inner turmoil within Japanese Americans during World War II, causing readers to understand the confusion that the Japanese Americans had to endure during the time period.  The Japanese Americans must have felt confused, especially those born in America, for they see themselves as American, and yet they are being relocated by the American government for their descent.  At the same time, the Japanese Americans, as demonstrated through young Hatsue, begin to hate themselves and their heritage because even though they feel and act as if they are American, there is nothing they can do to change their outside appearance to make themselves seem one hundred percent American and not just Japanese.

            Foster points out that the weather plays a critical role in a work of literature.  Whether it be for plot development or for a democratic reason, rain, snow, or fog plays a significant role in literature.  In general, rain can bring about enlightenment and restoration and snow can bring abstract thought.  What an author does with rain, snow, or fog in the novel can signify a change in character or parallel the atmosphere or what is happening in the novel.  The setting of Snow Falling On Cedars includes heavy snowfall to the point that cars are being left on the side of the road.  By using snow, Guterson creates a reason for so many people of San Piedro to come to the courthouse to witness Kabuo’s trial.  Not only is the murder case unique, but the snow causes “…Judge Fielding’s courtroom [to be] filled with citizens who were thankful for the heat from the boilers” (270).  Guterson uses the snow as inhospitable in order to create the necessary setting for the bleak trial.  In addition to snow, Guterson uses fog for the night of Carl Heine’s death, signifying that what really happened that night was unclear, since Kabuo has his perspective on the story while the prosecutor, Alvin Hooks, creates a story of how Kabuo supposedly killed Carl.  Throughout the trial, the snowstorm is harsh and cruel to the inhabitants of San Piedro Island, but near the end of the trial, the snowstorm ceases, leaving a scene of beauty and chaos.  The snow creates a blanket over everything, so when Ishmael goes for a walk near the end of the novel, all he sees is snow, which can be used to indicate abstract thought.  During his walk around the woods, Ishmael “…listened to the world turned silent by the snow; there was absolutely nothing to hear.  The silence of the world roared steadily in his ears while he came to recognize that he did not belong here, he had no place in the tree any longer” (443).  Guterson’s use of the blanket of snow over everything allows Ishmael to think about everything and nothing at the same time until he realizes that he needs to move on from his past with Hatsue, which is symbolized by the cedar tree that Ishmael becomes enlightened with the truth.

            Foster writes that almost anything in a piece of literature can be a symbol.  However, what symbols mean depends on the reader’s personal past and experiences, so there is an unlimited number of things a symbol can mean instead of one symbol having only one specific meaning.  The cedar tree in the woods becomes the symbol of Ishmael and Hatsue’s intimate past and relationship.  Only Ishmael and Hatsue knew about that specific cedar tree, and “inside their cedar tree, for nearly four years, [Ishmael] and Hatsue had held one another with the dreamy contentedness of young lovers….[the cedar tree] inspired in them the temporary illusion that the rest of the world had disappeared” (171).  The cedar tree came to symbolize Ishmael and Hatsue’s secret affair when they were young.  However, the fact that the tree was broken and on the floor symbolizes that although the two seemed to be in love, their relationship, like the fallen tree, will never grow or develop and will eventually die.  Another symbol is Ishmael’s lack of an arm.  Not only does the missing arm create an individual, special mark on Ishmael, but it also symbolizes his distance from the world.  When Hatsue left Ishmael, he was “…a handsome boy with one arm outstretched, beckoning her to come back” (215).  Ishmael only had one arm outstretched towards Hatsue and even though Guterson does not write which specific arm Ishmael has outstretched, one can think that the arm Ishmael had out was the same arm that was amputated.  In doing so, Ishmael’s amputated arm signifies his lost relationship with Hatsue and that he will not be able to have another romantic relationship with her again.  In addition, the fact that it is Ishmael’s left arm that is amputated can signify and heighten the isolation of his heart.

            Foster points out that a novel would not be the same novel if it was not for the setting and geography.  Geography can mean a variety of things, ranging from people to setting to theme to symbol.  Geography can be used to develop a character as well, particularly if they are going on a trip or going south, in which case they are probably going south to “run amok,” but either way, by having a character leave one place for another can determine whether or not a character grows.  Geography is very important within a novel, for the geography can help to explain the plot or the people within the novel.  San Piedro Island creates an isolated setting so that practically everyone knows one another or is connected with one another in some way.  The setting also helps to create a typical type of person on the island, helping to explain the attitudes of the characters on the island, such as when Guterson writes “…they were lonely men and products of geography – island men who on occasion recognized that they wished to speak but couldn’t” (39).  By creating the isolation factor of the setting, the audience can better understand the meaning behind the silence and allows for the author to inject the past smoothly without losing focus of the main story.  The silence signifies that the characters of the novel do not speak of the harsh realities of life during World War II in America, but when Kabuo and other people are forced to bring up the past, the entire past is brought in.  Therefore, without the isolation of the island, there would not have been silence, and if not for silence, Guterson would not have been able to smoothly bring the audience into the heartbreaking truth of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.  San Piedro Island is a Northwest part of the United States.  When Hatsue and her family are relocated to a camp, they must travel south to Los Angeles.  When they reach the camp, “Fujiko saw that [Hatsue] had gotten older in the three weeks since they’d left San Piedro.  Her daughter was suddenly grown up, a woman, weary from the inside.  Her daughter had suddenly grown hardened” (23).  As Foster points out, by going down south, Hatsue runs amok because she battles with her subconscious and comes to the conclusion that she can never be with Ishmael.  In doing so, she “runs amok” because she breaks young, innocent Ishmael’s heart.  At the same time, she also grows up and realizes the harsh reality of being Japanese American during World War II, becoming an entirely new person and losing the innocence she had while on San Piedro.

            Foster writes about the importance of season within literature.  He writes that authors can either use the seasons for their intended meaning or they can use them with irony, which many modern writers do.  The original meaning behind the seasons are: spring meaning youth, fertility, and innocence, summer meaning passion, love, and adulthood, autumn symbolizing tiredness, harvest, and decline, and winter meaning old age, anger, resentment, and death.  Writers can also use the seasons’ original meanings with a sense of irony to accentuate a certain characteristic or point during the novel.  The present time in Snow Falling On Cedars is placed during winter to parallel the anger, resentment, and hatred that the past brings as witnesses recall either the night of Carl Heine’s death or the years during World War II.  Ishmael holds anger within him at both Hatsue and for the war because he lost his arm and his purpose to live life to the fullest.  Ishmael continues to maintain bitter towards Hatsue even though she has learned to move on, settling with “the strain between [Hatsue and Ishmael] the hostility he felt – it was better than nothing, he decided.  It was an emotion of some sort they shared” (326).  Ishmael’s bitterness is aimed at Hatsue and because of his losses caused by the war.  He remains angry with the idea of him never being able to be with Hatsue and resents the war because of the standards that the war created, such as looking down upon a relationship between a white American and a Japanese American.  On the other hand, Hatsue hates that her husband is being accused of first degree murder and that she can’t really do much to ensure that he will not receive the death sentence.  She may have accepted that there is nothing she can do to change the fact that she is a Japanese American, but she is absolutely furious with the case because Kabuo became the number one suspect simply because he was Japanese.  Therefore, the winter season reflects the anger the case brings up, whether it be self-loathing or just frustration directed at the world in general.  The novel travels back and forth between the present court case and the past.  Although Guterson does not directly state that it is summertime during a flashback, one can conclude that the time is at least early summer because “Hatsue sat on the moss in her damp summer dress, her broad-rimmed picking hat beside her” (110-111).  During the flashback scene, Hatsue and Ishmael begin their young, innocent romance before the war tore the two apart and reality set in.  Once again, the season reflects what is actually happening within the novel because summer represents romance and passion which parallels the young, naïve romance blooming between Ishmael and Hatsue. 

            Foster teaches readers that in order to fully grasp and understand a piece of literature, one must read not with his own eyes, but of someone understanding of the time period and culture of the novel.  The reader should not look at most works of literature from the perspective of a twenty-first century person living in a first world country but instead with the eyes of someone either during that time period.  By doing so, the reader can look beyond the surface of the novel to try to understand the message the author is trying to make by using a different social, historical, or cultural background.  The verisimilitude within Snow Falling On Cedars causes the readers to understand the tragedy that happened to so many Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor as well as the young men who fought in the war.  The novel requires the reader to look at the novel not only from someone during the war and immediately after it, but of someone of the present time as well in order to understand the injustice placed upon the Japanese Americans during the war.  During the time period of the war, many Americans “…‘lost their grip on their senses while in the grip of war hysteria’” (192).  Americans became disillusioned about people they have known for years, people they have lived next to, people they have worked alongside with, simply because the war creates a wall between people of different races.  The Japanese Americans became the “enemy” even if they were born and raised in America because of how they looked, regardless of where their loyalty lay.  The reader needs to understand that during the time period of the war, especially after being suddenly attacked by the enemy country, Americans are going to be particularly careful and can forget that their Japanese American friends and neighbors are not the enemy.  Americans can lose their ability to reason, become racist people, and lose their sense of self.  On the other hand, in order to see that people should not subject themselves to war hysteria, the reader needs to look at what is happening in the novel from the present time in order to prevent the same tragedies from happening again.  World War II was a terrible time for most everyone because practically every person was connected to the war in some way whether they are young men entering the army, they have a loved one entering the war, or even just rationing food, the war became at least some aspect of everyone’s lives.  To understand the full tragedy happening within America, the reader has to look at what is happening from the perspective of a Japanese American during the war.  The Japanese Americans, especially those who were born and raised in America, must have felt so confused and frustrated with themselves because they feel stuck.  Hatsue reflects the inner struggle that so many other Japanese Americans must have felt during the time period, questioning who they are, because “if identity was geography instead of blood – if living in a place was what really mattered – then Ishmael was part of her, inside of her, as much as anything Japanese” (206).  Hatsue is both Japanese and American, but she begins to question who she is and whether she is a part of either, one, or both worlds.  When the Japanese Americans were relocated for doing absolutely nothing, they must have felt so confused and out of place because they do not want to align themselves with the enemy country and yet the country that they feel bound to is turning its back on them.  Those who were born in America must have felt particularly stuck because they are torn since they considered themselves to be Americans their entire lives yet they cannot deny their ancestry either.  In order to receive the full impact and one of the many messages of the novel, such as understanding the heartbreak that so many Japanese Americans must have faced and the injustice placed upon them, the audience needs to view what is happening whether it be during the war or the trial from the viewpoints of both white Americans and Japanese Americans alike.