Snow Falling on Cedars

Throughout the film ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ the director Scott Hicks has used symbolism to convey a number of his ideas. He used the fog and snow to symbolise hidden secrets, the sea to represent life and death, and he used the Cedars to symbolise a place of secrecy and protection. By using these three symbols, Scott Hick’s ideas could be conveyed without anything being said at all.

Fog and snow are used in the film to symbolise hidden secrets and to convey the idea that nothing can stay hidden forever. The fog is first seen in the opening scenes when Carl Heine Junior died and throughout the film, the fog is seen covering the seas secrets. Like the fog, the snow also covers secrets but the snow covers the secrets on the land. It covers up Ishmael and Hatsue’s relationship, and it covers up the racism on the island. Both the fog and the snow look cold and lonely with no sign of life, but in reality, they act as a security blanket, covering up the islands secrets and keeping them safe. Fog and snow convey the idea that everything is being covered from someone or something and that it can’t stay protected forever. Fog and snow will slowly drift away and as this happens the secrets will be revealed because the snow won’t last forever.

Throughout the movie Snow Falling on Cedars, the sea represented life and death on many occasions and Scott Hicks was trying to convey the idea that one mans blessings can also be his downfall. The sea was a way of life for the fishermen, but it also proved to be the downfall to one of their own. During the movie, the sea was used to represent life and death by the fish washing up on the shore. As the fish were swept onto the land they slowly suffocated and died, and this is what happened to Carl Heine Junior when he got caught in his fishing net. The seawater was also very black, making it unable to see what was going on under the surface, leaving a sense of mystery. The sea can be a way of life for some, it can also be tormenting memories for others, and Scott Hicks was able to use this idea to show the sea as a means of life and death.

The cedar trees throughout the movie symbolised protection and Scott Hicks has used this to convey the idea that skin colour, size and race don’t make a difference