Gender roles are clearly defined for the characters in Snow Falling on Cedars. Men are the caretakers and providers, but women are responsible for maintaining the familial and social structure. Gender roles in the story are often most clearly defined by the relationships that the characters have with their parents and spouses.
Decision/Compliance. Women in both cultures have very little say in the decisions their spouses make concerning their families. Etta doesn't want to sell the land to the Miyamotos primarily because they are Japanese, but also because she believes the land will be worth more later. In exasperation, she tells Carl, "'You're the man of the house, you wear the pants, go ahead and sell our property to a Jap and see what comes of it.'" And he does. And indeed, the land is worth more when she sells to Ole Jurgensen a few years later. Still, even after Carl, Sr.'s death, Etta has to act quickly on her decision to sell the land: "Carl junior was away at the war, and Etta took advantage of this circumstance to sell the farm to Ole Jurgensen." In today's society, readers may find it odd that a mother would be beholden to her son, but in 1940s America, this response was typical.
Like her mother-in-law, Susan Marie Heine doesn't want to live on a strawberry farm. Although "she knew how Carl felt about the old place at Island Center and his passion for growing strawberries . . . she didn't want to leave the house on Mill Run Road." And yet the reader clearly understands that the fact that Susan Marie doesn't want to move has no bearing on Carl's ultimate decision to give earnest money to Ole Jurgensen. And when Susan Marie ponders growing older with Carl, "She didn't even want to think about that or to mull how one day they might have nothing except his silence and his obsession with whatever he was working on — his boat, their house, his gardens." Susan Marie is happy in her marriage and she loves her husband, but she has little say in the paths their lives together take.
