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Snow Falling On Cedars Analysis

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Snow Falling On Cedars Analysis
Module C Conflicting Perspectives Practice Response
Discuss how composers influence responses to events, personalities or situations through representations of conflicting perspectives.

Composers are able to evoke in the audience certain reactions to characters or events in their texts by presenting conflicting perspectives on different issues through the manipulation of the language forms and features of their medium, often communicating their own ideas about issues in question, which results in the creation of meaning within their texts. (?). David Guterson in his 1995 novel Snow Falling on Cedars (Snow) and Henry Bean in his 2001 film The Believer (Believer) demonstrate conscious choices made regarding structure and techniques in the
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When Danny and his friends break into a synagogue, Daniel shows a surprising respect for his religion which clashes with those of the other neo-Nazis. This directly conflicts with Danny’s character established at the film’s opening, when he violently beats up a Jew for no apparent reason. Wearing a brown shirt symbolising the Nazi SA (brown-shirts), Danny’s dark costuming contrasts with the light coloured one of his Jewish victim, highlighting the evil in his nature. Bean, however, challenges the audience’s view of Danny in order to allow them to understand his conflicting identities. In one frame, Danny is in the foreground walking down an aisle, which is juxtaposed with the other Nazis vandalising the synagogue. Their loud, raucous whooping contrasts to that of Danny’s respectful silence, highlighting their different treatments of the Jewish culture. When one of the Nazis tears up a Torah, a sacred Jewish text, after much opposition from Danny, a reaction shot of him shows sadness and pain accompanied by melancholy music, underlining Danny’s unspoken deference for Judaism. Bean’s portrayal of conflicting perspectives on Jewish culture incites the audience to respond more sympathetically towards Danny, and to understand that his veneer is a product of cultural differences in his

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