How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Hatsue stood with her long-handled hoe and said that she had learned from Mrs. Shigemura that character was always destiny. He would have to do what he must do, and she would have to do the same. (11.41)
Hatsue offers these thoughts when she hears Kabuo is going to war. He feels obligated to fight for the U.S. to prove his loyalty (and because that's just the kind of guy he is), which makes Hatsue think of Mrs. S.'s "character is destiny" wisdom.
Quote #2
He gave his whole soul to love; he allowed himself to believe that his feelings for Hatsue had been somehow preordained. He had been meant to meet her on the beach as a child and then to pass his life with her. There was no other way it could be. (12.4)
Long before Hatsue meets Kabuo and believes that loving him is her destiny, Ishmael thought that he and Hatsue were destined for a happy ending. We see that here in one of Ishmael's flashbacks to the days when he was absolutely, 100 percent convinced that he and Hatsue were MTB.
Quote #3
It seemed to her certain that she would suffer from the consequences of it, that no one could maintain such deceit for so long without paying for it somehow. (12.6)
Despite Ishmael's youthful confidence that things would end up all sunshine and rainbows between him and Hatsue, Hatsue always seemed to have a feeling that their relationship was somehow wrong or doomed, in part because she had to lie to everyone about it.
Quote #4
This storm might well be like others past that had caused them to suffer, had killed even—or perhaps it might dwindle beneath tonight's stars and give their children snowbound happiness. Who knew? Who could predict? If disaster, so be it, they said to themselves. There was nothing to be done except what could be done. The rest—like the salt water around them, which swallowed the snow without any effort, remaining what it was implacably—was out of their hands, beyond. (17.11)
The narrator describes the islanders' attitude toward the snowstorm that hits the island during the trial. They seem to view themselves as at the mercy of the elements, their fate (or destiny) being completely out of their control. Hmm, how do you think that attitude informs (and is informed by) their behavior toward other areas of life?
Quote #5
Here was the Jap he'd been led to inexorably by every islander he'd spoken with. (18.86)
This free indirect discourse relays Art Moran's growing certainty that all paths in Carl Heine's death lead directly and "inexorably" to Kabuo Miyamoto. Although there are a lot of alternate explanations for Carl Heine's death (including the real one, which had nothing to do with murder), Art seems to believe that bringing Kabuo Miyamoto the only way things could go.
Quote #6
And yet there were still accidents, despite everything. There seemed no way to prevent them. In a thick fog the light could not be seen and boats continued to come aground. The coast guard installed sounding boards along island beaches and anchored numbered buoys at intervals in the shipping channel, and these measures seemed sufficient to islanders until the next accident came along. A tug towing a diesel ferry from San Francisco broke up on the rocks a mile to the north; then a tug towing a barge full of peeler logs; then a salvage steamer working out of Victoria. News of such wrecks was received by islanders with a grim brand of determinism; it seemed to many that such things were ordained by God, or at any rate unavoidable. (23.2)
As noted elsewhere, the capriciousness of the weather has diminished the islanders' sense of control over their own destiny. That's kind of understandable, given that—regardless of their efforts to try to prevent or minimize accidents—they somehow keep occurring.
Quote #7
"I don't feel what God is," answered Ishmael. "I don't feel anything either way. No feeling about it comes to me—it's not something I have a choice about. Isn't a feeling like that supposed to happen? Isn't it just supposed to happen?" (24.20)
With all of the novel's meditations on faith and destiny, it's no surprise that it gets into some discussion of faith and God. Ishmael seems to believe that you either have faith or not, and that it's kind of preordained whether you're going to have that sentiment.
Quote #8
The tide drift had taken him down into the kelp, and he'd wasted four hours extracting himself so as not to rip his gill-net. Now, tonight, he would have to do better. He would need to have fortune on his side. (27.28)
The narrator is taking us inside Kabuo's thoughts when he heads out fishing the night of Carl's death. Apparently Kabuo is fairly superstitious, believing that he is at the mercy of luck and fortune in his pursuit of a good fishing night.
Quote #9
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nels pressed on, "perhaps there is such a thing as fate. Perhaps for inscrutable reasons God has looked down and allowed the accused man to come to this path, where his very life lies in your hands. An accident of some kind befell Carl Heine at a moment that could not be less propitious or less fortunate for the accused. And yet it happened." (29.11)
Nels suggests that, whether it's pure chance or a God-led vendetta, Kabuo has had forces beyond his control working against him. Of course, in a nice point of comparison and contrast, Kabuo's fate now in the jury's hands—not chance's, or God's—and Nels is encouraging them to make good use of that power.
Quote #10
The heart of any other, because it had a will, would remain forever mysterious. (32.81)
Reflecting at the end of the novel, Ishmael asserts that the only thing that isn't accidental in this world is the will of the human heart. It's interesting to consider how that will is supposed to work for and against all the accidents that life involves. What do you think the novel is suggesting?