High Heeled Shoes

It’s an interesting perspective, to have mixed feelings about how the man is approaching her. On one end, she’s disturbed because a stranger using a phonebook to talk with women. But on the other hand, she “worries” about what is happening to a man that has this sense of desperation.

Margarita is almost a parallel to the man. Someone who has no one close to her (nuclear family) but carries a sense of innocence. The man, who is alone and trying everything in his power to meet someone, a sort of lack of innocence.

Seventeen Syllables

There was an interesting theme of fathers being distant from their families in the previous movies and texts. This seems to translate over into Yamamoto’s stories, not all of them, but the spousal relationships or relationships between parent and child seems to carry tension.

Marriage was an alternative to suicide. Although Rosie’s mother might not be happy or content with her relationship with her husband, but she had no other option. She is now stuck in her current situation, but otherwise she would have been dead.

The Legend of Miss Sasagawara

From the beginning of the story, Miss Sasgawara was hinting towards crazy. It makes the conditions of the camps see almost normal compared to the actions of Miss Sasagawara.

The complete 180 of Miss Sasagawara was unsettling. Perhaps, the return to the camp after being abroad at school, represents the narratators return to poorer conditions? Or maybe it follows the theme that the concentration camps were “not as bad” as the other camps, so there is this kind of ignorance of her own condition.

Wilshire Bus

Esther feels this tension that is directed to her Chinese seat neighbor. Even though she is not Chinese she feels like she’s been lumped into the matter. She’s questioning whether she passes as Japanese or Chinese to the other passengers.

She feels betrayed when the man with the “I AM KOREAN” button flashes it before her. She goes from feeling like she was a part of the group to feeling shut aside because she was not Chinese of Korean. It feels like a sense of betrayal when the other distance the thing that she shares in common with them.

The Brown House

The brown house is alluded as being a gambling den. There are other instances where father deal with gambling problems in other stories by Yamamoto. Is this an issue that sparked up in the Japanese communities?

Is the way that the parents are addressed connected to the relationship between them? “Rosie’s mother” vs. Mrs. Hattori. This seems to remain consistent with more of Yamamoto’s writings.

Yoneko’s Earthquake

There is a perceived racism towards Filipinos in this story by Mr. Hosoume and eventually her. She defaults back to it when her faith in Marpo is diminished. This comes out of both of them when their connections to Marpo is a negative one. They were initially praising him.

Morning Rain

It is a little unsettling to see Mr. Endo in relation to her describing her father. It almost places this barrier between father and daughter. It hints that the relationship between Sadako and Mr. Endo as distant, especially since Harry is referenced by his first name.

There is a calm tone to this story. That tone is then disrupted when she is brought back into the atmosphere of reality. The sound of rain becomes apparent, and then she realizes that her baby is screaming and that she was shouting.

Epithalamium

Yuki had to hide her miscarriage from her own community. If she had come forward with what she had been doing, then she would have brought shame upon herself and her community. But it appears like she was only the latest out of many.

Yuki is stuck between love and doubt. She knows that he is bad for her. Yet she cannot understand why she still “loves” him or why she feels like she’s required to love him.

Las Vegas Charley

Although Charley doesn’t live an ideal life, where he gambles, drinks, and constantly works. But he feels like he is doing the right thing. He lives his life the best he can, even though it wasn’t “healthy” to him.

He doesn’t want to be a burden. So, he sacrifices his own needs, and very important ones, in order to help those around him. Whether or not it is actually helpful is not important to him, but he endures a lot in order to try and appease those around him.

Life Among the Oil Fields

There is a sense of beauty mixed in with a danger/ugly environment. The descriptions feel like everyday life, but there is a somewhat distorted lens that we have as an outsider looking in.

Scott and Zelda are Scott Fitzgerald, the author of books like The Great Gatsby, and his wife. One of those collisions that they had missed by inches was Jemo, the narrators’ little brother. I wonder what the quote of the beginning of the story has to do with the perspective of Yamamoto.

The Eskimo Connection

I wonder if the idea of “society that is easier to be good” would be a better idea than prisons, is one that Yamamoto carries herself? I wonder if most of these ideas are hers?

Neither one of them gets to see the other. There is this illusion that both of them have. We as readers, know about the same as Emiko about Alden.

My Father Can Beat Muhamad Ali

I had a teammate on the baseball team that had a similar issue when it came to sports. He was a great short-stop, but because he was under 5’ 5’’ and a lefty, no one was really scouting him. Although my coach said that he deserved it. It reminds me of Henry.

Why is Henry Addressed as Henry, and not Mr. or Dirk/Curt’s father? There seems to be a change in how Yamamoto expresses the relationship between parents and offspring. The way it is used on this story, puts their dad at an equal or even lesser level then than his sons.

Underground Lady

Instead of anger towards the women, the narrator is more interested at the relationship that the “bag lady” had with her Japanese neighbors.

The narrator brings up the idea that the fantasy that the “bag lady” had was made up to have people feel sympathy for her. But she believes that it is true, instead of the more realistic option that it was a ploy.

A Day in Little Tokyo

Chisato is battling with these ideals during her time at the car. When the two men come up to her and give her some money, she starts to realize that she is complaining about things that she could have instead of thinking about what people can’t have. When she’s in the crash, that feelings is still transparent, that she was in a better situation than others in and around her life.

My mom would use the same trick on me to take me places I didn’t want to go. She would always say we could do it later. Unfortunately, I caught on and realized that whenever she said that, we probably wouldn’t do it later.

Reading and Writing

Similar to previous stories, the perspective of the narrator/main character is looking upon what others do not have, and not what they are missing or their troubles. This is an interesting theme. Does it relate back to what we had heard in class about Japanese not wanting to talk about their past after internment?

Death seems to pop up in Yamamoto’s stories in interesting ways. It doesn’t always seem negative; in fact, it feels like it is just the way that the story should end. It is less somber and more just a fact.