Seventeen Syllables

This story by Hisaye Yamamoto is a very interesting story that keeps the reader thinking. At first the story describes a big conflict that lies between Rosie and her mother. Rosie is able to speak English while she struggles with Japanese because it is harder for her. She doesn't always understand her mother because of her mother's lack of English. The two struggle to communicate and thoroughly understand one another. The sad part is that sometimes Rosie pretends to understand and either her mother buys it or resigns out of frustration.

Then the story then almost turns into a love story between Rosie and Jesus Carrasco. He asks her to meet him because he has a secret for her. The secret turns out to be that he wanted to kiss her, which he does. Then in a shocking reveal her mother tells the story of how her and Rosie's father got married. She once was in love with another man and became pregnant. When the baby was stillborn she was cast away from her love because he was high in society. To alleviate the problem her Aunt arranged a marriage between Rosie's parents. Her mother was clearly unhappy. He mother desperately tries to get Rosie to promise never to marry. This is interesting as it comes immediately after her kiss with Jesus. I thought the story was a nice read and that it dives into the cultural differences of generations in families and races.