Mineko Pride Above All Summary

I gained a better understanding of the Japanese phrase “pride above all” from Mineko’s story because it showed that when people started bullying her she kept her cool and didn’t tell anybody about it and she showed everybody that there is nothing they could do from stopping her from being the best. One example on page.183 talked about a man who humiliated Mineko by dragging her on the floor and lifting her kimono wounded her pride and she help a knife against him and told him to never ever do that to someone again. Another example, on page 177 when her Onesan, Miss K, flicked the ashes of her cigarette on Mineko’s hand. Mineko remained calm the whole time and didn’t even yell at her for doing that because of her pride. This showed how pride
is very important to Mineko and Japanese culture. I think Yaeko rejected the concept “pride above all” because she doesn’t really care about anything that happens to Mineko or herself. In addition, all the other men who tried to molest Mineko had no pride in themselves to do such a degrading act.