"Seventeen Syllables"
by Hisaye Yamamoto

This was an interesting story about a Japanese family who is struggling with each other's goals and ambitions, and daily life in general. I think this story was centered around a romantic narrative, but it wasn't a positive one. The husband and wife are an average, working class, migrant family with the exception that the wife happens to be interested in haiku poetry, and pursues her writing by contributing to a local newspaper. It's obvious from the start that the father is not supportive of her endeavors, and takes his disapproval out on her and his daughter in a number of ways. I think this disapproval stems from the basic, common narrative of men being insecure with women's interests that aren't necessarily "traditional women's duties". Writing, for example, is not directly beneficial to the family in the way that say, cooking and cleaning are. Therefore, while the mother is creating the haiku's, I got the sense that the father disapproved because he was insecure with her doing something "outside the box".

Traditionally, everyone is aware of the fact that men are supposed to be the "head of the household", or basically just superior to women, and this system has provided men with the option to do express themselves artistically. They're free from the mundane routines of keeping a house and caring for children, and thus able to express themselves in other ways at will. If this woman hadn't been married, she would've been more free to write poetry without fear of repercussion from her husband. In the end, the mother reveals to Rosie the real reason she had married her father, and the strict nature of their relationship begins to make sense. Even from the beginning, the woman makes it clear that she didn't marry him for love; she married for stability and to escape the tragic events that had just occurred in her life in Japan. A marriage that doesn't even begin with out of love and understanding will almost never evolve into one that does; therefore when the mother tried to express herself emotionally, it's no wonder that she came into conflict with a husband who took a different angle on their relationship, and wasn't willing to budge or compromise or accept the fact that his wife had outside interests.

And I shouldn't forget to mention Rosie's role in this story, and her blooming relationship with Jesus. It's sad that while she is experiencing honest, brand new emotions with a male for the first time in her life, her parents are acting out the opposite of what that love could turn out to be; cold, distant, and demanding. I think it's important to be aware of the contrasting relationships in this story, and realize how they shed light on each other's positive and negative qualities.


"Men in Your Life"
by Alice Childress

It took me a while to get used to the way this story was written. From what I can tell, it's a passage where two women are discussing men; their behavior, their good and bad traits, how to raise a boy to become a good man, and sharing specific stories of their encounters with men on dates and such. The first few pages are where the women describe all the bad qualities of the men they've known. The last half of this passage is a woman recalling all the reasons she likes a man named "Eddie", as opposed to all the other unworthy men that she has dated. Not only do they compare what they consider 'good' and 'bad' behavior for the men in their own life, but they discuss a friend's husband and their disapproval of him as well. Basically, these women are comparing their own experiences in relationships as well as others' experiences and trying to come up with some kind of "solution" for who is the correct type of man to forge a commitment with. I think this, in itself, is a type of "romantic" narrative; how to choose a mate based on certain criteria. This passage seems fairly contemporary, and so the women's discussions are more or less relatable to every day life in today's world. The funny thing I noticed about the description of the undesirable character in the first half and "Eddie" from the second half, was that the two men seemed to possess some similar qualities. For example, she says (about Eddie):

"But what I really like about him is that sometimes when I ask him to do a lot of things, one comin' right after the other, he will say, "You runnin' a good thing in the ground, and furthermore I don't feel like it, what do you take me for?" I'm glad when he does that, too, 'cause just like I don't want nobody walkin' all over me, I sure wouldn't have any use for a man that's gonna let people trample him!"

and then says about the "other" guy:

"Neither had I told him to pick out a expensive restaurant, so I went ahead and ordered me some spring lamb chops with a salad on the side! I can stand a broke man but I dearly detest a cheap man! And he was just pure cheap!"

There is something similar about these two descriptions. Even though she's recalling an event from a person she loves and admires, and a person she didn't like at all, there is still a parallel in the men's behavior. Eddie and the other guy have both voiced their opinions to her about something. Eddie didn't want to take orders, and the other guy didn't want to pay a lot of money for dinner. In fact, the other guy seems like he was probably more polite about his request than Eddie was. However, the difference here is the woman's own opinion of each man. She likes Eddie, therefore she sees everything he does through rose-colored glasses. She was not fond of the other guy, therefore she described everything he did as just another reason why he was "cheap" or otherwise undesirable. Why she decided to describe these (probably) similar behaviors so differently was probably the most interesting thing about this story to me.