What Is Snow Falling On Cedars Critical Lens Essay

Martin Luther King Junior stated that, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” In other words you never really know a true person until they are put in an unwanted, hard situation. A person could state their values and opinions, but you can never really truly know how they feel until they are put in a hard “live or death,” situation. If a man stays true to his values in a time of conflict, then you could truly say that he is a good man inside and out. In Snow Falling on Cedars Kabuo Miyamoto, and in 1984, Winston Smith can both relate to this quote, but in very different ways. I very much agree with what this quote is saying. Anyone can speak and agree, but when it comes to actually acting on your beliefs, that’s the hardest part of all. In the novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, there are several character that can relate to this quote, some of them did not stay true to the person they claimed to be and other did hold on tight to their beliefs. One of the characters that did stay true to himself in times of hardship was Kabuo Miyamoto. Kabuo is a Japanese
Inside he believed he was jumped at being the murderer because he was Japanese. He could have once again “rebelled,” and started hating his town and his country, but he still kept his values. He told nothing but the truth, he did what was right and told the court the whole story exactly. You could see his kindness when he helped out Carl at sea. “‘You’d do the same for me.’ ‘I might do the same for you,’ said Carl.’” (404) Even though he had a sort-of feud with Carl over his families land, he would always put helping out someone in need over silly family feuds. According to Martin Luther King Jr. these hard situations are when you see a person’s true opinions and you can see if he is truly a good man, and Kabuo Miyamoto definitely