An analysis of chapter 16 of "Snow Falling On Cedars"

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An analysis of chapter 16 in “Snow Falling On Cedars” by David Guterson.

This chapter focuses mainly on Ishmael Chambers and his past and begins by talking about his experiences of the war. The first paragraph describes how Ishmael became ill during training as a marine rifleman. When Guterson uses the phrase, “Other boys came and went, but he stayed,” this is symbolic of how he felt since he received Hatsue’s letter in the previous chapter, it shows how his life is on hold now, and he is watching others live their lives while he watches his pass him by.

“It was the kind of suffering, after all, he’d yearned for during the last five months, since receiving Hatuse’s letter. It was an easy, sleepy kind of languid fever, and so long as he did not try to move too much or exert himself unnecessarily he could live this way indefinitely.” This shows that he has felt broken since he read the letter. He feels that, although he knew in his heart that Hatsue did not love him, now she put it in such direct terms, that there is no hope for them now, and now he appreciates the opportunity to feel nothing, to keep out the pain that has been eating at him ever since she sent the letter to him.

The chapter then stops talking about Ishmael’s feeling for a while, and concentrates on the war, and the effect of it on the people involved. When the chapter describes the actions of Private Gerald Willis, when he had propped up a dead Japanese boy’s penis and thrown stones at it, and boasted after, Guterson is trying to show the extent that the war had corrupted these people and caused them to become almost animal-like. Guterson repeatedly refers to the people as “boys,” emphasising the fact that they are all young, barely more than children.




Ishmael is said to be “numb to it all, uninterested in drinking and pool and other people, and the more drunk he got the more lucid his mind was and the colder he felt toward everyone.” This shows the extent to which his depression has progressed, he cannot see the point of anything anymore, he does not feel anything for anyone, and furthermore, does not feel anything for himself. “He did not understand the laughter of his companions or their ease or anything else about them.” This shows how detached he is from the rest of the world and his peers. It shows how he is trapped in his own head, and is unable to understand anything about anyone else.

The chapter goes on to tell us how Ishmael attempted to write Hatsue a letter, then ripped it up, along with the one he wrote to his parents. This is another example of how detached he is to everyone else, he has no idea what to say in his letters and therefore decides not to bother with them, despite how much his parents would appreciate it, it is Hatsue that he would like to write to, because he is angry at her, and because of this pent up anger he feels, he cannot write to his parents either.

The chapter then talks about what is going on with the war. It says how one of Ishmael’s peers was writing a letter home and he then tells Ishmael that he “better write one” himself, because it will be his last chance. Ishmael replies that there is no one that he would like to write to. This shows that Ishmael feels totally alone, disorientated. However, the other man convinces him to write one so he goes to get his pad of paper and “composed a letter to Hatsue.” It tells us that Ishmael was watching the other men writing intently, so perhaps only not to stand out, he writes to Hatsue. He tells her that he has to been sent to “kill people that looked like her” and that he “hates” her. He said that he hates Hatsue “with everything in his heart” and “it felt good to write in just that way.” This is a kind of release for Ishmael, this is the only way he can vent out the anger he feels inside. He wrote “I hate you, Hatsue, I hate you always.” However, the fact that he cannot send it and throws it into the sea, shows that he does not hate her, he just feels incredibly angry and betrayed.

Ishmael asks Ernest Testaverde if he would like a drink “before we die.” He says this in a light-hearted manner, almost as is he does not care that this could happen. He feels that he has lost everything already. The chapter basically then describes the men preparing to go off to fight. Once they go off to war, it describes their journey. One man says, “Shit, a goddamn shell. I don’t believe this shit” and all Ishmael replies is, “Me neither” again showing that he is not particularly bothered by dying, showing more so, the extent of his depression. “I thought they blew the shit out of this place… I thought they dusted all the big guns off before we had to go in. Jesus fucking Christ.” All this swearing shows that the other men are panicking about the prospect of dying, but when Ishmael talks about it, there is no panic in his voice, he talks in a totally deadpan tone, showing he does not care. Once he realises that most of the men are dead, Ishmael says “Fucking Japs.” He blames all off this on the Japanese, and we can tell my the way he spits out the words how much he hates the Japanese, but this is not just due to the killings, it is because of Hatuse. For him, everything is the fault of the Japanese and therefore the fault of Hatsue. This is not rational, but he is not in a rational state of mind.

We are told of how Ishmael had to have his arm removed and how he was not fully anaesthetised, how a handsaw was used to do the job, how it was done unevenly so that it would not heal as quickly or as neatly as it would otherwise have done. This shows how terrible the conditions at war were. It was simply a case of getting the job over and done with as quickly as possible. There was no time to make it neat, or for pain relief, you simply got on with it. We are told that Ishmael “would still dream of that, the way his own fingers curled against the wall, how white and distant his arm looked… a piece of trash on the floor.” This shows how he is still haunted by his experiences of the war, and this is ten years on, and we see no signs of him getting over it soon. The very last sentence in the chapter was, “...that fucking goddamn Jap bitch was all he could think of to say.” He started off by saying “the Japs are… The fucking Japs…” but he could not finish the sentence, he could only say “That fucking goddamn Jap bitch” and this shows that deep down he does not hate all Japanese, but only Hatsue. She has hurt him in ways she will never understand. He hates her for what she has done to him.



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