This description of Carl Heine's home, realistic as most physical descriptions exist, has a more cavernous meaning than simply a layout of property. The mention that his house offers "no affront,"" perhaps emphasizes Carl's own understanding of chivalry to the world that had foreseen his creation. On the other hand, Carl's home possessing no physically apparent inviting qualities may also hint at a preference of privacy. Thus the description of Carl Heine's home apparently alludes to his very character. The presence of setting, in its most transparent realistic form, swabs the otherwise blasé backgrounds and characters with hints or sponge-loads of romantic tinges, depending upon their corresponding importance in Snow Falling On Cedars. .
Subplot, as well as underlying qualms instilled by difference in cultural influence, plays an imperative role in the full understanding of David Guterson's novel, Snow Falling on Cedars. Many perspectives are possible in interpretation of the piece: for example, interpretation as a romance versus a mystery. Credited with instigating the versatility of the novel are countless trivial and more importantly three prevailing subplots: interracial tension, a love affair forsaken by the race gradient and obstructed by Hatsue's marriage to Kabuo, and finally Ishmael's twisted contemplation to avenge his own broken heart, placing Kabuo forever in prison and away from his one true love.
Tension subsists among the residents of San Piedro at the very introduction of the novel, as a blanket of silence has draped itself over the community subsiding there. This silence is not of hate present in the minds of the citizens, but rather of fear that interaction of higher frequency may re-catalyze the destructive feud that ensued nine years earlier, as the white citizens looked the other way when their fellow townspeople, the Japanese-Americans, were relocated to Japanese concentration camps in lieu of the ongoing Second World War.
