David Guterson used many things he experienced in his life in his books and showed his beleifs in his books. An example of the is Snow Falling on Cedars. Drawing on his personal experience in the Pacific Northwest and eight years of careful research, Guterson vividly portrays the culture of San Piedro, a socially isolated island. The novel details how San Piedro's Japanese American residents, long the victims of unarticulated prejudice, find themselves at the …showed first 75 words of 813 total…

…showed last 75 words of 813 total…killing of three people, and the paper saying that he did this to them and that to them, and then a month later he was aquitted of all charges because there was no physical evidence. And I thought to myself, they wanted him to pay, pay for something he didn't even do, just because he was Japanese they were going to punish him." This event inspired him to show and expose the racism in society.