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Conflicting Perspectives HSC English Essay Snow Falling on Cedars

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Conflicting Perspectives HSC English Essay Snow Falling on Cedars
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. Guterson depicts conflicting perspectives on humanity’s response to the ungraspable forces of nature and fate by selectively contrasting Western and Eastern philosophies through Ishmael and Hatsue’s past and values. Ishmael figuratively views life as “one whole ocean”, floating between his inability to “let go” his past “war veteran” and “unconditioned” love memories for Hatsue symbolised in his unwillingness to “denervate” his “amputated arm” to its “stump”. In juxtaposition, Hatsue represents an Eastern perspective considering life and the relationship with Ishmael as an “ocean [that] won’t mix”, separated by racial prejudices from her unavoidable traditional values. Guterson affirms Hatsue’s recognition that “there’s no point perpetually grasping for something” as she symbolically “learn to play her” life “like an instrument” in “harmony”, emphasizing that humans should accept a ‘greater truth’ than individual desires by acknowledging “death, injustice, hardship”, as “part of life”. Guterson then metaphorically summates humans as “dust in
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