Preview

Snow Falling On Cedars Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1249 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Snow Falling On Cedars Analysis
Module C Conflicting Perspectives Practice Response
Discuss how composers influence responses to events, personalities or situations through representations of conflicting perspectives.

Composers are able to evoke in the audience certain reactions to characters or events in their texts by presenting conflicting perspectives on different issues through the manipulation of the language forms and features of their medium, often communicating their own ideas about issues in question, which results in the creation of meaning within their texts. (?). David Guterson in his 1995 novel Snow Falling on Cedars (Snow) and Henry Bean in his 2001 film The Believer (Believer) demonstrate conscious choices made regarding structure and techniques in the
…show more content…
When Danny and his friends break into a synagogue, Daniel shows a surprising respect for his religion which clashes with those of the other neo-Nazis. This directly conflicts with Danny’s character established at the film’s opening, when he violently beats up a Jew for no apparent reason. Wearing a brown shirt symbolising the Nazi SA (brown-shirts), Danny’s dark costuming contrasts with the light coloured one of his Jewish victim, highlighting the evil in his nature. Bean, however, challenges the audience’s view of Danny in order to allow them to understand his conflicting identities. In one frame, Danny is in the foreground walking down an aisle, which is juxtaposed with the other Nazis vandalising the synagogue. Their loud, raucous whooping contrasts to that of Danny’s respectful silence, highlighting their different treatments of the Jewish culture. When one of the Nazis tears up a Torah, a sacred Jewish text, after much opposition from Danny, a reaction shot of him shows sadness and pain accompanied by melancholy music, underlining Danny’s unspoken deference for Judaism. Bean’s portrayal of conflicting perspectives on Jewish culture incites the audience to respond more sympathetically towards Danny, and to understand that his veneer is a product of cultural differences in his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    7. How do classic composers handle dynamic changes? It was dramatic, and they did not let themselves be held back by terraced dynamics.…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How did the composer;s music influence his or her contemporaries (use musical and visual examples):…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Composers use elements and characteristics of language to create voice in their texts to shape meaning and affect interpretation of the audience. This is demonstrated by the composers of the following texts; “The life and Crimes of Harry Lavender” composed by Marele Day, the 2010 film “never Let Me Go” directed by Richard Eyre and the novel “Wuthering Heights” composed by Emily Bronte…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Conflicting perspectives are an inevitable part of human existence as they arise from the complex interplay of individual experience, social and cultural background and influences. Representations of these discrepancies are fundamentally constructed through acts of deliberate selection and emphasis, enabling composers to manipulate audience’s conscious perceptions of truth and reality. David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars portrays the necessity of accepting the inexorable existence of nature, fate and prejudices within society. Likewise Alissa Ti’s modern painting with analytical article Perfect Harmony integrates art, music and literature to represent humans’ essentiality in moving on from the difficulties in life. Together, conflicting perspectives represented through art parallels the subjectivity of life and shows that there is no conventional definition for “the truth” as it depends solely within each individual.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Discuss the key concerns of your text and explain how the composer reveals these to his audience.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lots of symbolism is used within the novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. All the symbols are throughout this novel to help convey the storyline. Guterson constantly brings up the symbols to keep the story flowing as well as to develop several opinions and ideas about the different characters. The snowstorm, the cedar tree, the war are just three of the numerous symbols used in this novel. The snowstorm represents destruction, unpredictable events, along with innocence. Snow is a beautiful act of nature, yet it can go deadly in a matter of minutes. “The trees had closed the road in so that the sky was little more than an indistinct, drab ribbon overhead, but down here the dramatic expanse of it was visible, chaotic and fierce” (320). The islanders find the…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    David Guterson 's novel Snow Falling on Cedars undoubtedly holds high acclaim in its reputable attempt to show the prejudice between the Americans and Japanese after World War II and more importantly the prejudice that is unavoidably apart of human nature. The author of the criticism recognizes and brings to light the things done by Guterson throughout the novel. He refers to the animosity between people brought about by differences, the unwillingness to accept change, and also states that things end in a moral and justified manner.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Baroque Composers

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages

    2. Choose one of the composers discussed in the unit and listen to several of the composer’s works. Which works did you listen to? How would you describe this composer’s music? Why do you…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the passage be ginning "They had picked…" from the novel Snow Falling On Cedars, the author, David Guterson, uses many techniques to give the passage a depressing, and frightening mood. He uses vivid imagery to describe Carl's dead body. He also uses figurative language, such as metaphors and similes to show the severity of the situation. Finally, his diction shows the reader how reading about a crime scene can seem real if the word choice is right. All the techniques Guterson use help the reader to feel as if they were actually at the scene when Carl's dead body was found in the ocean.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Back in the present, we are now in the office of the headmaster of Danny's school, Dr Robert Sweeney and his tutor Mr Murray who are discussing an essay set by Mr Murray on civil rights. Danny has done his essay on 'Mein Kampf' - Hitler's ideological book that he had written while in prison in the 1920s. Mr Murray is appalled and believes Danny is like his brother - lost and unable to turn back. Dr Sweeney refuses to give up on Danny and dismisses Mr Murray's attempt to have Danny excluded from school. Dr Sweeney calls Danny in and tells him that 'Mein Kampf' is 'rubbish' and throws it into the bin threatening to expel him. Sweeney decides that he himself will be Danny's history teacher and the lessons called 'American History X'. He sets Danny an essay to be handed in the next morning in which he should analyse and interpret all the events leading to Derek's incarceration and Danny's own views of life in contemporary America. If he doesn't submit the essay Danny will be thrown out of school. Danny decides to go home and think about the essay but while in the male toilets a white teenager is being attacked by a black gang led by 'Little Henry'. Danny comes out of the cubicle and is…

    • 5834 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    to kill a mockingbird

    • 852 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Choose 2 of the texts we have studied and explain how each composer has successfully communicated their message to the responder.…

    • 852 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Othello and Related

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Discuss this statement, showing how composers of texts represent their ideas in relation to identity. In your response you must refer to Othello and one other related text.…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Danny is an actor who has his own beliefs and followedthem no matter what anyone thinks. Danny was brought up in a Jewish background but he rebelled against his own religion because he didn’t believe in the beliefs of the Jews. When Danny was a child he began to rebel against his own religion because he felt that the Jews had deserved their punishment in the Holocaust. Danny joined groups that hated the Jews. One of Danny’s goals wasto influence people to hate the Jews as he did. His main goal was to “Kill Jewish People”. He had very strong beliefs from a young age and he wouldn’t listen to anyone who was against what he was doing. As time went on in the movie he started to change when he started to talk to more people. The…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power; fate. An indifferent power that predetermines the inevitable events and outcome of our lives; fate. A simple four letter word that controls so much more than we, human beings, truly come to realize in our lifetimes; fate. In the novel Snow Falling on Cedars, most of the citizens of San Piedro Island also fail to conclude that this powerful force is either working against them, or determining the outcome of their future. Given the fact that Guterson relates the entire novel to how a Japanese-American man, Kabuo Miyamoto, is accused of murdering a white fisherman by the name of Carl Heine, there are many instances in which fate is the reason behind the outcome of events. The whole reason that Carl actually died was because of chance; his death was a mere accident, not a murder. Similarly, the disastrous snowstorm that hits the island of San Piedro during the trial of Kabuo is also a prime example of fate because it controls how the trial goes on for the many characters involved. Likewise, Kabuo’s fate is decided for him, the final verdict being either life or death. In the end, whether the citizens of San Piedro realized it or not, fate was the main force that decided how the events and lives of those living on the island would turn out.…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The source of Danny 's rage towards Jews seems to stem from his lack of respect for their passivity in regard to their worship of God and their lifestyle choices. From the opening scene, where Abraham 's submission to God is voiced by Danny as an extremely embarrassing base for Judaism, to the sensitivity meetings where the seeming indifference of the Jewish father over the death of his 3 year old son at the hands of the Nazis enrages Danny, he perceives Jews to suffer with no attempt to oppose their persecution. As a child Danny even says, "all that Jews are good at is being afraid, at being sacrificed!" It is this anger that drives Danny away from Judaism and into his life as a neo-Nazi. Never quite forgetting his former life, though, he is constantly presented with situations that challenge his seeming innate beliefs. The irony of this is that while Danny tries to run from submission to a higher power, he inadvertently runs right into it again. Near the end of the movie, Danny says that "the Nazis followed Hitler; Jews follow the Torah." This blind compliance with the Torah is what makes Danny hate his fellow Jews even as a…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays