Snow Falling On Cedars Character Analysis

Kabuo and Ishmael Trauma Essay In the novel “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson, readers are shown a series of different emotions with all the different characters. Two characters in particular being Kabuo Miyamoto and Ishmael Chambers. These two characters showed the most emotion, trauma, and signs of post traumatic stress disorder throughout the novel. As they both shared some of the same characteristics, they each had a different way of dealing with them. Kabuo Miyamoto suffered from a few different symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder from the war. He suffered from symptoms such as emotional trauma, difficulty sleeping, recurring memories and nightmares, guilt, and flashbacks. Kabuo lives with these trauma symptoms everyday and always has a constant reminder all due to his memories of the war. Kabuo suffers from all the trouble some memories of killing people during the war. The memories are a constant reminder of what he has done and he has to live with the haunting memories.
In the book, Kabuo seemed to deal with the trial by being a bit accepting about it. He knew he did nothing wrong to Carl, however it says that Kabuo believed in karma. “He was a Buddhist and believed in the laws of karma, so it made sense to him that he might pay for his war murders: everything comes back to you, nothing is accidental.” Kabuo thinks that he …show more content…
They each had their own ways of handling it. Ishmael seemed to handle his more by trying to win Hatsue’s heart. Although he did not succeed, he tried to by contemplating on whether or not he should help free Kabuo from his trial which he eventually did do in the end for Hatsue. Ishmael coped with his feelings more through emotional numbingness, avoidance, and helping free Kabuo for Hatsue because of how much he cared for her. Kabuo coped through general and emotional numbingness, as well as avoidance and accepting what he had done in the