"Sbow falling on cedars"

Task 2

In the novel “Snow falling on cedars“ changed the kind of love from Ishmael to Hatsue a lot. By comparison these 3 phases of love there are some contrasts and also similarities.

The first phase is, when they were kids. As a kid Ishmael loves Hatsue as a friend and the love grew more and more from day to day. Ishmael got his first kiss from Hatsue, but they had big problems due to their different nationality and so they couldn’t be friends in the public. Her Japanese culture says that she is only allowed to have a Japanese boyfriend and her parents and friends wouldn’t approve their relationship. They met every day in a secret cedar where they could hide their love relationship of the public. But after a time, Hatsue couldn’t do this anymore and would like to break up the relationship because she didn’t want to offend the sensibilities from her family. She didn’t know how she could tell Ishmael that their relationship has no future, because inside she still loved Ishmael and didn’t want to hurt him.

While Ishmael was in the war, Hatsue wrote a letter to him where she told him all the truth. Ishmael was totally devastated. Hatsue was his big love, and now it’s over. After the war was finish he looked for her, because he didn’t want to give up. But meanwhile Hatsue had married a Japanese man to get over Ishmael. He missed her so much in that long time. He couldn’t forget her and couldn’t start a new live because she was his live.

During the trial Hatsue avoided Ishmael. Ishmael detected that Kabuo wasn’t the real murderer of Carl, it was an accident. He told the evidence nobody, because he thought that Kabuo would get arrested and than Hatsue would come back to him. Finally he told it to the judge, because he only wanted the best for Hatsue. He recognized that there is no chance for him and Hatsue. At the End of the novel, Ishmael referred to her for the first time as “Mrs. Miyamoto”, signifying Ishmael’s growth and changing in their relationship.