Firstly, the writers both explore the social and cultural boundaries that can thwart adolescent love. In Snow Falling on Cedars Guterson shows how cultural boundaries cause the division between Hatsue and Kabuo. Hatsue says to Ishmael the reason for her “emotional reserve” was something she couldn’t help and that she had been brought up so that she avoided “effusive displays of feeling”. Hartley also explores the same idea that both social and cultural boundaries have on adolescent love in his novel The Go Between; his method of doing so is more effective than Guterson’s. The class boundary between Marian and Leo is used to show the effect on adolescent love; Leo is naïve and doesn’t see the divide between his class and that of Marian’s, such as he doesn’t see other obvious events that are going on around him “I carried messages between them and I couldn't always understand”. Although the older Leo describes Maudsley as “a snob” the younger Leo, although perhaps realising the class division between him and the Maudsley family, doesn’t acknowledge the implications this has upon him and is under the delusion that he is the same as them. Similarly he doesn’t see the gap in age between himself and Marian as any problem in thwarting his admiration for her. Roger Ebert commented that the 1970 film interpretation of The Go Between is “terribly observant about nuances of class”, he went on to discuss Mrs Maudsley as the typical matriarchal woman of her time, who supported the British class system and was determined that everyone should stay in their correct places within it. This matriarch is likewise a very powerful upper class woman a “stately” figure and maintains the same ideals in the original Hartley novel, this idea of hierarchy is why it would be frowned upon for Marian and Ted to be together.
Snow Falling on Cedars and The Go Between consider the consequences for the individual of their failure to become a man, the numbing of feeling, isolation and loneliness. In Snow Falling On Cedars Ishmael is cold and almost empty of feeling “he didn’t like very many people anymore, or very many things either”. He returns from war wounded both physically (the loss of his arm) and mentally (he is self-pitiful and weak) because of his experiences. This is not the correct way for the “island man” to be; his father maintained his positive outlook when he returned from war and remained strong. Likewise in The Go Between, Leo is affected to such an extent by what he sees, the shadow “like an umbrella” opening and closing and the consequences of this that he’s unable to live a fulfilled life and “shrank into myself”. The main indicator of Ishmael’s pain is shown by Guterson through dialogue, for example with his mother, it shows just how pessimistic and hurt Ishmael is. His beliefs that “emotions just float away” signify how cold he has become to the outside world. This contrasts with The Go Between which uses a prologue and an epilogue, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” this shows that Leo has endured his pain for over 50 years and it is still vivid. Comparatively Ishmael’s suffering to some extent ends in the novel after a decade when he helps to find evidence to clear Kabuo’s name.
Ishmael Chambers could be contrasted to the Ishmael in Moby Dick by Herman Melville. As critic Jennifer Bussey explains “Ishmael [Chambers] keeps himself closed off from the world” this is apparent when he turns to his mother for help and tells her that he is “unhappy” and she explains that there is no way that she could “understand what it’s been like for you”. Bussey goes on to explore further the way in which the two Ishmaels are very different and how Ishmael Chambers doesn’t fit the archetypal American male ideal as he sees himself “as a victim of the world” and not “as a part of it”. The Go Between as a novel is described as not only being nostalgic but “it is about nostalgia” in the Penguin introduction by Douglas Brooks-Davies. Brooks-Davies goes on to say that Leo’s “memories are not only personal (and it turns out deeply painful) but collective and cultural.” The idea in both novels that neither Ishmael nor Leo have been able to become fulfilled men is due to the impact that their adolescent love had upon them. If society hadn’t condemned Ishmael and Hatsue’s relationship because she was of a different race, Ishmael may have had the opportunity to be fulfilled. Similarly if it wasn’t for the nuances in class between Marian and Ted, which were socially unacceptable in 1900 England, Leo wouldn’t have had his “breakdown” and may have gone on to live a more complete life.
Both writers show the impact that time and place can have on adolescent love that crosses boundaries. Snow Falling on Cedars is set on San Piedro Island in 1954 after the Second World War. This is extremely significant in the structure of Snow Falling on Cedars as we are often shown flashbacks of Ishmael’s fighting in the war “Ishmael saw Eric Bledsoe bleed to death”. The period of time in which Kabuo’s trial is taking place falls after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour which is what evoked such hatred and racism against the Japanese race. The Go Between is set in England in 1900; at this time society and the class system were very rigid and boundaries were not to be crossed, this could be the moral cause of Ted’s shotgun suicide. During 1900 many Britain’s were away fighting in the Boer war, although on face value this seems to have little effect on Leo, it is a strong background to some of the attitudes and events in the novel. In a sense Brandham Hall is an Island as is San Piedro, they are both isolated in their own ways and contribute to love across boundaries resulting in unhappy consequences. This idea is explored further in Snow Falling on Cedars with the idea that Hatsue and Ishmael were unable to “speak freely because they were cornered” by the water, “a limitless expanse of it in which to drown”
Snow Falling on Cedars is better at showing the effect that time has on adolescent love that crosses boundaries over a period of time since Ishmael realises that “Hatsue had been taken from his life by history, because history was whimsical and immune to private yearnings”. Flashbacks and vivid war scenes are used to emphasise the affect that time has, “the bone cracked jaggedly into a hundred splinters that were driven up against his nerves…” Ishmael and Hatsue were separated not by choice but by fate, they were together at the wrong time and in the wrong place and were ultimately separated because of the bombing of Pearl Harbour in1941 and then Hatsue being sent away to the Internment camp. Hatsue feels that she doesn’t belong, she isn’t “part of them” – the “people seeking union with the greater life”. Hatsue has no choice; she is physically moved away from Ishmael because of war. Hatsue is sent to the internment camp and in the meantime Ishmael is left to continue with life, until he is called to fight for his country where he sees a man being “shot through the spine with a shell that ripped open his shirt front and dropped some of his guts onto the beach”, perhaps these experiences show why Ishmael has developed into such a cold person and to a certain degree go a way to justifying his being. However, as critic Jennifer Bussey states Ishmael “is already bitter and cynical”, Bussey looks on the war as an opportunity for Ishmael to learn from his experiences but because he is already so bitter and cynical he doesn’t do this. Whereas in The Go Between Leo’s love for Marian is affected by time, but only over a condensed period thus intensifying his love. In both novels it’s ultimately the date and the time that passes which causes the failing of love, as nowadays it would be much more acceptable to have relationships across both race and class boundaries.
Both writers use techniques such as frame narratives, flash backs and pathetic fallacy to explore adolescent love. The frame narrative in Snow Falling on Cedars differs significantly from that used in Hartley’s novel; however both are effective in their own ways. Snow Falling on Cedars uses the courtroom as a frame narrative; this should signify justice rather than prejudice. Few feelings are portrayed by Ishmael during the courtroom scenes, and this makes the flash backs more potent and obvious thus emphasising the adolescent love that he had for Hatsue. In The Go Between, Hartley uses a prologue and an epilogue as a frame narrative, “the past kept pricking at me and I knew that all the elements of those nineteen days in July were astir within me” this shows how important the impact of time is in the novel.
However, the device that is used most effectively by both of the authors is pathetic fallacy. Guterson uses the cold and snow to show how Ishmael has become inside, and Hartley shows the soaring temperatures of summer that intensify as Leo’s love for Marian grows. As Leo’s love for Marian and the tension towards Ted and Marian’s relationship intensifies, it could be an allusion to Icarus’ myth; Leo is flying too close to the sun - Marian. Hartley shows the heat as something beautiful and shows it’s positive effects for example the water is described as “green, bronze, and golden” towards the beginning of the novel. However as Leo becomes more involved with Marian, further on in the novel, the heat’s impact becomes negative and because it has dried out the water “ghostly, corpse-like” boulders appear. This demonstrates how effectively Hartley uses pathetic fallacy – the heat is like Marian, beautiful and alluring, but leads to negative consequences.
Both writers use pathetic fallacy as a way of foreshadowing what is to come next, in Snow Falling on Cedars all of the lights go off in the court room when it gets to a dramatic stage in the trial “the courtroom lights flickered in the storm, flickered again, and went out.” In The Go Between on Leo’s birthday (when Ted and Marian’s relationship is discovered) there is a huge storm - thunder and lightning “an orange trickle, down a primrose-coloured sky”, foreshadowing what Leo and Mrs Maudsley will find.
The writers both use symbolism, significant global events (such as war) and memory to explore the pain of adolescent love, as you would expect in a love story, physical appearance is given prominence in both narratives. In Snow Falling on Cedars there is some emphasis placed on symbolism, the idea of the cedar tree as a symbol of homeliness for the young Ishmael and Hatsue (however it could also be seen as a symbol of constraint). Hatsue and Ishmael “spoke of everything in the intense and inwrought manner of teenagers” in their cedar tree, this shows how it was their home, the only place that they could go and talk together, their home. In addition to this as critic Barbara Bleiman explores the title “Snow Falling on Cedars” in a sense symbolises what the novel is about “the word “falling” has connotations of sadness and despair…” it is “suggestive of a mood of loss”. However more prominence is given to the senses in this novel than to actual physical things “what he wanted, he realized now, was to drink in the smell of her and to feel her hair in his hands”. In Guterson’s novel nature is something to be embraced and admired, it is similarly the way in The Go Between, but he shows that although nature is beautiful and should be embraced it can also be poisonous.
Symbolism is explored in Hartley’s novel through the deadly night shade (Atropa Belladonna) although Leo knew “that every part of it was poisonous” this didn’t make him see it as any less beautiful, in Hartley’s novel the deadly night shade represents Marian. In addition to this when Mrs Maudsley leads Leo to find Marian and Ted towards the end of the novel, we learn how the deadly night shade has been reduced to a stump “lying on the path, limp and bedraggled” this indicates that Marian is also going to be reduced to nothing. In The Go Between, the importance given to symbolism is apparent from very early on in the novel during the prologue where the reader learns of Leo’s fascination for the star signs and how he creates his own curses. In the novel Marian could be seen as Virgo (the virgin), Ted as Aquarius (the water carrier) and Trimingham may represent Sagittarius, we learn that Leo is not actually Leo’s real name, but a name that he has taken because of his captivation with the star signs.
In conclusion, the various ways in which both of the authors explore the relationship between adolescence and society in love relationships that cross boundaries are effective in the novels. However, in my opinion Hartley’s way of showing the effect that adolescent love has had on his protagonist is more effective than that of Guterson. He shows the long lasting impact that society’s view to love that crosses boundaries can have on the individual and ultimately how this made Leo sink into himself and become a recluse.
Bibliography:
David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars
L.P Hartley, the Go Between
Roger Ebert, The Go Between – film review
Jennifer Bussey, Snow Falling on Cedars - review
Douglas Brooks-Davies, Penguin introduction to The Go Between
Barbara Bleiman, emagazine essay – An exquisite hybrid- Snow Falling on Cedars
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