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Discuss the parent and child relationship in

Discuss the parent and child relationship in "Snow Falling on Cedars".

One of the most important themes in the book "Snow Falling on Cedars" is the parent-child relationship. Parents' believing and past experiences will influence their children, they wish their beliefs can help their child to be a better person who holds his own dignity and values. Each individual's behaviour and their way of thinking or jugdement is therefore, affected directly or sometimes indirectly by their parents' beliefs in this book.

In 1954, after passing through the time of World War II, most people were still holding strongly to their traditional thoughts. While her daughters were growing up, Fujiko, Hatsue's mother, was wary of hakujin, the word she used to refer to white Americans. In addition to her past sufferings and experiences in life, she urged her young daughters to follow their Japanese cultural traditions and roles, and did not want to see them act like white Americans. She told her daughters about the Seattle rooms she had cleaned , the sheets on which hakujin had vomit blood, the toilet full of their excrement, etc. Fujiko stressed that her life had long been difficult under the world of hakijin. Fujiko even sent her daughter to Mrs S

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Nearly the end of the story, when Ishmael went to visit Helen to share with her about the trial of Kabuo. higemura, who told Hatsue to avoid white men, claiming that they treated Japanese girls without respect. Ishmael draw strength from it, as the Arthur's legacy of moral authority had definitely exerts great influence on Ishmael, so that Ishmael could still preserve his nobility and righteous even going through those emotional struggles when he came to the final decision. The San Piedro Review, a four-page weekly, was the invention of Arthur Chambers, Ishmael's father, early twenties. Ishmael with all his internal sufferings, strived hard to do the same, in order not to upset his father's will. Therefore, I believe Helen's word may alert Ishmael and remind him to put away the cold remorselessness in him, which was a product of his experience in the war that was something which he should forgo and get over the psychological wounds in order to enjoy his life. At the very moment when Ishmael tried to have sex with her, Hatsue pushed Ishmael away and refused his request for a marriage. She learned more from her mother, and was influenced entirely by Fujiko's beliefs. I think Helen's words may also create a power to push Ishmael to face the reality, and this may lead Ishmael to reveal the truth, so that he could live up with the nobility and righteous, which his father and mother should have always hoped Ishmael to have. However, Hatsue, still in her young age of eighteen, with the growth of her own independent thinking and the influence of Western culture from her hakujin school mates, she disagreed the beliefs of her mother, arguing that people should be judged as individuals rather than stereotyped as members of groups. Hatsue became closer to her family, she learned from Fujiko's cultural heritage, to accept injustice and harship, which were part of living. Hatsue started to believe in her mother's fatalistic view of the world. As Hatsue was once crowned as the Strawberry princess, and she was living harmony with her school mates, she thought that her mother was exaggerating, and she did not see any differences between the white and Japanese, she saw herself more America than Japanese. This is because he did not feel that he fits into the chair, that he had not lived up to his father's reputation.
Approximate Word count = 1527
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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