See also my How to Read notes, issued at the start of the course and available on this site; and do not forget the importance of the very last sentence, when Ishmael has realised that he can take control of his emotions.
·
consider
the quotations Guterson places at the start of this novel: the first is a clue
that the central figure (ie, Ishmael, as it turns out) will face a moral
dilemma, a life crisis where ‘the straight way was lost’; the second points
to the thematic concern with living together and why ‘harmony … is the
exception’ AND, in the simile, provides a clue to the solution to the novel’s
murder (a following breeze causes a boat to move fast, creating
turbulence in its wake).
·
how
do we decide how to make the morally correct choices in life?
·
how
do we live together, as individuals and communities, in harmony?
·
ethnic
/ racial differences, frictions and injustices
·
depersonalisation
(links with above)
·
growing
up / maturity / rites of passage into adulthood
·
adjustment
to / adoption of the lifestyle and beliefs the individual is comfortable with
·
love, marriage and family life/relations
·
tolerance and forgivemess
·
appearance and reality - the real ground is under the
snow, just as the real prejudice hides under the veneer of courtroom justice
·
justice/injustice/punishment/guilt
·
war:
its legacy for individuals and communities
·
lost
innocence (ch 1: ‘He hoped it would snow recklessly and bring to the island the
impossible winter purity, so rare and
precious, he remembered from his youth.’; find also Art’s thoughts as he sees
the children playing near the start of the novel.)
·
loss
and redemption (Ishmael and Hatsue lose each other, but, more importantly, lose
innocence; Hatsue is redeemed by
self-realisation and marrying Kabuo, Ishmael by accepting he is his
father’s son and the community’s conscience, and by revealing the Corona’s movements.)A simpler way to put this would
be: growing up (apart from, into or influenced by your parents?)