Snow Falling on Cedars: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

It’s 3:00 p.m., and the jury leaves the courtroom to begin their deliberations. Hatsue goes to Kabuo and tells him that he’ll be free: the jury will do the right thing. Kabuo tells her that regardless, he loves her and their children. Nels packs up his papers; Ed Soames leaves the courtroom open to the public, as the storm has given them no other warm place to go; Ishmael looks at his notes.

Ishmael looks at Hatsue from across the courtroom. He thinks about her testimony, and about how his private knowledge of her allowed him to understand “what each expression [of hers] suggested, what each pause signified.” He really wants to hold and smell her. He wants to have a different life. He feels the coast guard’s log that is still in his pocket. He knows all he’d have to do is tell Ed Soames he needs to speak to Judge Fielding and he’d have done the right thing.

Ishmael thinks back to Nels Gudmundsson’s closing statement, remembering how he’d reminded the jury that Hooks’s case had assumed that the jury would act on their prejudices, how Hooks “is counting on [them] to act on passions best left to a war of ten years ago.” But, Ishmael thinks, 10 years isn’t really such a long time ago, and he doesn’t know how to let go of his feelings for Hatsue—the same way he still feels pain in his phantom limb. He thinks about the horrors he witnessed in the war.

Ishmael looks at Hatsue again, examining her physical attributes. He thinks about “all the times he had touched her body and the fragrance of all that cedar…” Ishmael leaves the courtroom just as the lights flicker back on. Ishmael celebrates the return of the electricity with Nels, who tells him how much he liked Ishmael’s father. “Arthur was one admirable man,” says Nels. Ishmael agrees and parts ways with Nels.

Ishmael passes Hisao Imada on his way out. Hisao thanks him for his help with the car the other day. Ishmael buttons his coat and again feels Milholland’s coast guard’s log. Hatsue again tells Ishmael how unfair Kabuo’s trial was. She tells Ishmael he needs to write about it “in [Arthur’s] newspaper.” Ishmael says it’s not “[his] father’s newspaper.” It’s his newspaper. He tells Hatsue he’ll be at his mother’s if she wants to talk to him.

Ishmael walks outside and sees that the snow has stopped. He continues to walk and sees some cedars along the road. He notices that the town’s docks are under water from the storm and thinks about how “such destruction could be beautiful.” He connects this scene to the failed battle 10 years ago in which he’d lost his arm: “He was reminded of Tarawa atoll and its seawall and the palms that lay in rows on their side, knocked down by the compression from the navel guns.” He thinks about this often. He is both disgusted by and attracted to his memories of war.

Ishmael continues to look at the destruction the storm has wrought on the harbor and knows that he is different from other men because of the destructions he witnessed during the war. He feels Milholland’s coast guard’s notes in his pocket and doesn’t know what to do about them. Nothing in the world can tell him what to do about it. Ishmael looks at the destruction of the harbor and realizes there is no inherent rhyme or reason to why things happen the way they do.

Back in the courthouse, the members of the jury are in the midst of their deliberations. All but one of the twelve jurors have decided that Kabuo is guilty. Alexander Van Ness, the sole unconvinced member, stubbornly holds his ground. He wants to heed Fielding’s cautions about reasonable doubt.

Other members of the jury suggest that there’s always room for doubt in life: “Nobody ain’t ever sure about nothing,” says Harold Jensen. Others believe the physical evidence found on the boats is damning. Others cite Kabuo’s supposedly guilty demeanor; they think he’s a liar. “Then […] what’s he hiding?” asks Van Ness. Van Ness maintains his doubts.

Members of the jury craft hypothetical situations in which it would be necessary and expected to make an imminent, necessary choice despite the presence of some uncertainty. For example, suppose a comet crashes down through your roof, Burke Latham poses to Van Ness; does Van Ness move to another place in the room, or does he take his chances and stay where he is? Certainly it’s reasonable to have doubt there—you can doubt everything. But, you still have to make a decision. Van Ness argues it would be unreasonable to move his position, as he’d run the same risk of being hit anywhere. Van Ness acknowledges that the hypothetical situations the other members of the jury pose are interesting, but not applicable to the specific matter at hand—they don’t relate to whether Kabuo should hang or go free.

The jury continues to mull over the evidence presented in court, and to craft hypothetical situations to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable doubt. Many still just don’t believe in Kabuo, personally. Alex Van Ness maintains that he is open to hearing what the other members of the jury have to say, but he still holds his ground. He refuses to rush a decision where a man’s life is on a line, especially in light of the abundance of reasonable doubt present in the state’s case against Kabuo.

The jury continues to deliberate. Ed Soames announces that the jury will resume their deliberations the next day, since they haven’t yet reached a verdict.