Snow Falling on Cedars Lesson Plan

What does the title mean to you at the novel's outset?

Kabuo, in watching the snow fall, meditates upon what we know to be the title of the book. "Snow falling on cedars" gestures toward a traditional Japanese poetic aesthetic, which distills natural images to provoke an emotional experience. In the case of "snow falling on cedars," the emotional response, as green is made white in the midst of the winter season, is serene and sorrowful.

The action of the snow echoes a covering over, a burial, erasure, or purification, further indicating the variety of feelings that are perhaps within Kabuo himself, as well as the island community gathered to meditate upon a dead man....