The High Heeled Shoes, A Memoir
What role does Margarita, the seven-year-old girl who brings flowers on page 2, play in this story? What significance does she have to the larger point the story is making?
The criticism of Gandhi is notable in the story for it being written in 1948, the year that Gandhi was killed. Gandhi and his beliefs are certainly not beyond reproach, but I had a perception of these criticisms as having developed over decades after his death, as more recent reevaluations. Knowing that this story, questioning his ideas, was produced in the same year the man died, is a good reminder that even in times where social norms were very different, people held and expressed ideas that would still be progressive today.
Seventeen Syllables
I’m not sure what purpose the visit with the Hayano family (beginning on page 9) serves aside from an early hint at tension between Rosie’s parents. Does this scene have another function in the story? Does it need one?
This story being the one that gives the book its title suggests some special significance about it. Why is it that this story is framed as “more important” this way, or do you agree that it is?
The Legend of Miss Sasagawara
Miss Sasagawara’s poem seems unquestionably important to the story. What is it that that the poem reveals, about its author or otherwise?
The only lasting relationship Miss Sasagawara has in the camp is with her father. We don’t see any interaction between the two of them, and yet their relationship is made a focal point in the ending. What did you think of the way this was handled? Does leaving this element almost completely unspoken make it more or less impactful?
Wilshire Bus
Esther in the story has to confront her own feelings about her ethnicity when faced with a man harassing a Chinese couple and finding her own first response to be something of a prideful feeling at the fact that she isn’t Chinese. This sentiment between people of different Asian-American ethnicities lies at the center of the story.
On page 37, the woman on the receiving end of the harassment is described as responding to Esther in a way that is “expressionless yet hostile.” What do you think of this moment between the two?
The Brown House
Similar to the previous story, this one touches on the issue of racism between marginalized groups in America. Mr. Hattori’s racism towards a black man is the critical moment where this comes up. Interestingly, Mrs. Hattori seems downright hospitable to the man by comparison.
The other core component of the story is Mr. Hattori’s treatment of his wife. It’s an abusive relationship to say the least. Yamamoto’s depiction of this relationship reads like a strong condemnation of what a woman is expected to put up with in her marriage.
Yoneko’s Earthquake
The title of the story refers to a moment wherein Yoneko undergoes something of a crisis of faith and decides she no longer believes in God. The reverse happens with Yoneko’s mother, who after having an abortion and then losing her son, begins attending church and establishes her faith. This would set the story up as one about how people handle matters of trauma differently, and how it affects their beliefs.
Given the likelihood that the ring Yoneko receives from her mother was in turn given to her by Marpo, its brief mention at having been lost in the end is part of a recurring series of symbols for the development of this relationship. The collie that is killed on the way to the hospital, without remark from anybody, similarly mirrors the abortion that the family silently endures.
Morning Rain
The idea put forward by the story that communication is “what living is” (page 58) is interesting. Would you agree with this idea?
This story is one of miscommunication between parent and child, representative of a growing distance between generations. The issue is particularly felt in the experience of nisei, as in this story, and the tension between keeping traditional values from your parents and assimilating into a new culture.
Epithalamium
What do you think of the recurring significance of literature in this book? In this story alone we have Madame Marie as an autobiographer, and Yuki thinking of poetry often. The title apparently refers to a poem written in celebration of marriage, all of that on top of earlier instances of literature serving as an element in several of these stories.
The feelings of doubt and anxiety brought on by the weight of your parents’ expectations play a large part in this story as well. Yuki marrying a non-Japanese man is one of several ways she feels she isn’t living up to the standards that were expected of her, bringing up again the tension between conforming to your parents’ culture and trying to form or fit into a new one.
Las Vegas Charley
On page 80, Charley comes to the conclusion that, given the choice, he would prefer to keep living in the camp. The inclusion of this perspective is an unusual one, as you almost always imagine that people would desire to be free, naturally. What is Yamamoto’s intent in writing the character this way?
In what must be the most recurring element in all of these stories, this is yet another tale of intergenerational relationships within a Japanese-American family. Rather than a child failing to meet their parents’ expectations however, this is a father who must struggle with the feeling of disappointing his son, reversing the roles from what we’ve seen before, illustrating that these relationships are not so simple as to all be the same.
Life Among the Oil Fields, A Memoir
The use of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in the story goes hand in hand with the Great Depression era that it takes place in. Yamamoto obviously does not mean to suggest that her brother was literally run down by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but what does her invoking their names insinuate?
Per the title, the oil derricks stand in as another symbol of the pursuits and lifestyles of the wealthy and powerful, the hardships that people faced when the Great Depression set in, and the people like Yamamoto’s family who had to live in the middle of it all and make the best of a very poor situation.
The Eskimo Connection
While being largely a story about a prison inmate, the story declines to detail in specifics what crime Alden may have committed, though Emiko speculates at times. What is the motivation for this decision, and how does it effect your reading of the character?
Yamamoto shows herself as being very forward thinking, especially for her time, throughout the book. Even in this story we get hints of a prison abolitionist’s mindset through Emiko. That being the case, the homophobia that arises in this story feels intentional, even if less is made of it compared to the other social issues being dealt with. Is this written for intended effect (what effect?), or is it possible that this really is just a hang up of the time period?
My Father Can Beat Muhammad Ali
Once again, we have here a story about the generational gap between traditional Japanese parents and their American born children. The mention of Muhammad Ali fighting a sumo wrestler is a particularly adept choice for this story, of one of America’s most revered athletes going up against an emblem of one of Japan’s oldest athletic traditions, unfairly as Henry would argue.
This story feels most similar to Las Vegas Charley, in that it tells of a father struggling to impress his children and dealing with the feelings of inadequacy he is left with in the wake of his failure.
Underground Lady
The racist inclinations of the titular character portray the realities of existing as a Japanese-American, that encounters like these will almost certainly occur at some point. Particularly the woman’s assumptions about the Onodera family, despite them apparently having been nothing but kind to her.
The other major element of the story is a commentary on homelessness and potentially mental illness as it’s treated in America. The woman is never stated outright to have a disability, only speculated, so that’s harder to speak to in this case, but the neglect of homeless individuals is a persistent problem in the country.
A Day in Little Tokyo
Chisato’s encounter with the one-legged man is written to be the focal point of the story. What significance did you get out of this moment between the two?
Chisato recalls people in the area of Little Tokyo that she knows but doesn’t feel especially familiar or comfortable with them herself, so much as they are merely family friends. She doesn’t seem to understand why they even are friends necessarily, despite knowing that they came from the same village in Japan as her own parents. This stages the story as something of a feeling of alienation from their heritage on the part of the children of Japanese immigrants.
Reading and Writing
The title of this story calls back to the importance of literature throughout the book. With that importance in mind, what do you make of Hallie’s illiteracy here, and what it represents in comparison to the many writers Yamamoto was herself writing about before?
Generations are the other consistent recurring element throughout the stories in this book. In this story this is best conveyed with Hallie and Angela, where in the end we see that Hallie was able to provide for her daughter the opportunities she lacked, with Angela visiting to show her diploma the very same day her mother dies.