What is "One Book, One Campus?"
David Guterson, A Brief Biography
Finding a Copy of
Snow Falling on Cedars
What is "One Book, One Campus?"
The goal of this project is to get everyone on the UMF campus to read Snow Falling on Cedars, the award-winning novel by David Guterson. For those unfamiliar with this book, Snow Falling on Cedars has to do with prejudice and injustice against Japanese-Americans during World War II. During the war, thousands of Japanese-Americans were systematically rounded up by the U.S. government and forced to relocate to internment camps. Even after their release, these American citizens often were still treated with hostility and racial discrimination. With this "One Book, One Campus" program, we hope to increase awareness of the treatment of ethnically diverse Americans throughout history in this country.
We feel that prejudice against "non-white" Americans, as portrayed in Snow Falling on Cedars is particularly timely given recent events. We have been horrified to hear of incidents in this country where Arab and Muslim Americans have been harassed and detained because they happen to look like the "enemy." Although, the situation has not reached the same level, it hauntingly reminds us of what Japanese-Americans had to endure during World War II.
George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Many people on this campus were not alive in the 1940s when so many Americans were persecuted because of their cultural background. We want to remind the UMF community of what can result from stereotypes, fear, and suspicion. The novel focuses on racial prejudice, but we hope to broaden that theme to help foster an atmosphere of respect and appreciation for diversity, whether the difference be race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.
By having everyone on campus reading the same book at the same time, we hope to get the campus excited about reading and talking to one another - to bring our diverse campus together with a shared common reading experience. We want to provide our campus community with the opportunity to discuss a piece of literature with each other, reflect on the themes, and come away from the experience having learned a little more about ourselves and others.
The Mantor Library's PRISM committee is very excited about the opportunity to offer this program to the UMF community. We hope that you will help us make it a success through your participation.
This program is being made possible through a generous grant from the UMF Diversity Committee.
Copyright © 2002 University of Maine at Farmington
Mantor Library -- 116 South Street Farmington, Maine, 04938
Phone: (207) 778-7210 FAX: (207) 778-7223 TDD: (207) 778-7000
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Last updated 01/11/2007