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Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Snow Falling on Cedars is a courtroom drama that also fits into the genre of historical fiction. In historical fiction, authors set stories in a real historical period. Though they may make up locations and characters, they also use accurate historical details to frame the stories they are telling. This genre often explores how people living during those times navigated big historical events like wars or pandemics.
The story of this novel includes direct references to the internment of Japanese Americans, the emotional toll World War II took on people all over the world, and the way past events tend to linger in the closed social world of a small town. The setting is not just a backdrop; it’s the source of most of the pressure Guterson describes in the novel’s present.
A courtroom drama centers its plot around one or more legal trials. Stories in this genre concern themselves with how people behave in courtroom settings, as well as the circumstances that led to them being there. Authors who write in this genre often pay careful attention to moral ambiguity, focusing on how legal truth can differ from what people believe or remember. The structure of Snow Falling on Cedars follows a murder trial that forces its participants to engage with questions they avoid in everyday life. The legal structure remains in place as a framing device, but the novel actually focuses more on how people understand each other and themselves when the real truth is uncertain.
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