Snow Falling on Cedars Theme of Fate and Free Will

Many of the characters in Snow Falling on Cedars seem to feel tangled up in fate's fishing net, unable to move forward or exercise control over what is happening to them. Take, for example, Kabuo Miyamoto, who feels that he's experiencing a truly impressive run of bad luck and prejudice as part of some karmic retribution for killing other people in combat.

Meanwhile, for most of the novel, Ishmael feels completely at the mercy of his feelings for Hatsue and brutalized by her decision to cut him out of his life. His paralysis almost has devastating results; he's got his head so far in the clouds, or back in the past, that he considers withholding evidence that would exonerate Kabuo. The good news is that he gets it together and decides to put his heart and free will to better use, using it in the service of justice instead of mooning over his married ex-lover.

1. What do you make of the fact that so many of the characters (Kabuo and Ishmael in particular) start out feeling so powerless? How do those feelings evolve or change throughout the novel? How does their paralysis affect your view of these characters?
2. How is the notion of destiny presented in the novel? Is it affirmed as a "real thing," or does it seem like an excuse for characters not to take responsibility for their actions? Or somewhere in between? What parts support your choice?
3. The novel makes a big deal out of accidents. How do those fit into the novel's larger concern with destiny vs. free will?

In this book, destiny is ultimately rejected as a foolish (and maybe even dangerous) concept. While there are certainly things that remain hopelessly out of the characters' control, 90 percent are flukes or accidents rather than "destined" or ordained events. The conflict that structures life, Ishmael suggests at the end of the novel, is between free will and accident (with destiny nowhere to be found).

The novel leaves the door open for interpreting events (for example, the bizarre series of misfortunes and bad luck that put Kabuo Miyamoto on trial) as the work of—wait for it—destiny.