Using the first paragraph of chapter 27 as a starting point, write about the ways Guterson uses the weather and the environment in the novel 'Snow Falling on Cedars'.

Essay by jlaHigh School, 12th gradeA+, January 2004

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Using the first paragraph of chapter 27 as a starting point, write about the ways Guterson uses the weather and the environment in the novel

The first paragraph of chapter 27 is very descriptive. The use of senses creates detailed imagery in the mind of the reader. The first sentence uses a detailed description of the sounds describing how "The storm winds battered the courtroom windows and rattled them in their casements so vigorously". The way the weather is described at this point in the novel links to how the characters are feeling. It is pathetic fallacy as while the wind howls outside, inside the courtroom the characters are made to feel "irritable and impatient." The penultimate sentence says how "everyone wished unconsciously that it would come to an end and grant them peace." This is talking about the storm, however there is a strong link here to how the characters are feeling about the trial in general and Guterson uses the storm to portray this.

There are other places within the novel when the weather seems to link with how the trial is progressing. "The noise of living things became not so much muted as halted". This image makes it seem that time has stopped. The main characters are in the courthouse, which seems a separate world now and the rest of the world does seem to halt while the trial continues, away from the storm. At the end of the novel when everything is about to be resolved "the storm had passed" and the roads are described as "snow-dazzled." This more positive image of the weather when Kabuo is about to be freed is another example of pathetic fallacy showing the positive weather and positive, hopeful mood of the characters.

The reader learns about the feud between the...