LOSS Snow Falling on Cedars
“The trick was to live here without hating yourself because all around you was hatred. The trick was to refuse to allow your pain to prevent you from living honourably (p.175).
TASK You are the author of Snow Falling on Cedars speaking at a festival about positive psychology, accounting for the pertinence of the novel to this outlook.
By close reference, illustration and commentary, explain how the experiences of and reactions to loss by a major and minor character of the ideas below
1. affect a character’s psyche, ideological outlook and behaviour and
2. demonstrate the applicability of positive psychology
ie. how loss affects a character’s way
of thinking and behaviour
ie. how a character applies
positive psychology
having experienced loss
WHAT IS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY? When life is barren and meaningless, positive subjective experience, positive individual traits and positive institutions can improve your quality of life.
What are the qualities of positive psychology? Factors that enable us to flourish:
Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, perseverance, self-regulation, optimism
From the sentence outline:
Acceptance, self-autonomy, growth of self, self-perception, endurance, meaning making
CHARACTERS TO CHOOSE FROM
Major characters
Ishmael
Kabuo
Fujiko
Hatsue
Minor characters
Nels
Helen
Carl Jnr
Etta
WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE? Through a spoken presentation at a festival about positive psychology, you are trying to show how the characters you created in your novel Snow Falling on Cedars do the following:
Accept one’s situation and persevereDevelop resilience by being truthful to their inner philosophies and not succumb to despair
Constructively deal with lossDo not deal with loss in an effective manner and are defined by it or made introspective by it
LOSS CAN BE DEFINED AS: Damage or disadvantage from failure to keep, have or get Coming to be without something that one has had The accidental losing of something by defeat, or by failure to win
You are answering the question of how loss affects a character’s psyche, their ideological outlook and behaviour
DEFINITIONS
Pysche (the human soul, spirit, or mind)
Behaviour (appearance, actions ad interactions)
Ideological outlook (values, attitudes, positive psychology) a major influence on a person’s ideology is childhood experiences These experiences illustrate that loss affects people differently
EXAMPLES FROM THE NOVEL
A character shattered by loss (Ishmael)
A character supported in loss (Fujiko and Helen)
A character made introspective by loss due to murders at war, loss of personal freedom and loss of seven acres (Kabuo)
A character defined by loss (Etta, Hatsue, Nels)
HOW TO LINK TO POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Guterson’s construction of characters’ distinct experiences of and reactions to loss points to how people can be trapped, silent and suffering, by loss. But, in some cases, loss is a temporary condition which can lead to the transformation or restoration of a person into a greater wholeness.
How characters consider acceptance, self-autonomy, growth of self, self-perception, endurance or meaning making can determine their ability to move forward.
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