Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto
Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto
Writing about integration into a completely different society and, even a completely different world, is, in my opinion, very difficult. To be able to really well describe all the feelings and conflicts which, unfortunately, are present while speaking about such an issue, one needs some own authentic experience, and since the author of this short story is of Japanese origin, there is a very good chance of reading a great piece of work.
“Seventeen Syllables” is really worth reading because of a few reasons. First of all, one can really get into the world of immigrants. Not only to get to know their way of living but one can also learn about other cultures (in this case Japanese), getting to know their habits, social structure and traditions.
Conditions of living for the Japanese in the USA Since speaking about Japanese people in the USA, there are also some historical facts to be mentioned in order to understand all the story layers later. [1]According to enotes.com Asian immigrants were welcomed in the USA from the end of 19th century. However, in 1924 there was the Asian Exclusion Act, due to which the immigration had to stop. There were a lot of single Japanese men in the USA who were working hard to earn enough money before they got married. Since these men wanted to keep the tradition of a Japanese marriage, most of the them did not know their brides personally. This is why many marriages could not be regarded as happy ones and in many cases, unfortunately, the children were often the main “victims” of such an unhappy marriage. Another law which disadvantaged the Japanese immigrants was The Alien Land Act of 1913. According to this act the Japanese were not allowed to buy a land and keep it for more than three years. This law was quite harsh also because of the fact that there was a big number of Japanese families being dependent of farming. Therefore, most of the people were forced to move after this
Writing about integration into a completely different society and, even a completely different world, is, in my opinion, very difficult. To be able to really well describe all the feelings and conflicts which, unfortunately, are present while speaking about such an issue, one needs some own authentic experience, and since the author of this short story is of Japanese origin, there is a very good chance of reading a great piece of work.
“Seventeen Syllables” is really worth reading because of a few reasons. First of all, one can really get into the world of immigrants. Not only to get to know their way of living but one can also learn about other cultures (in this case Japanese), getting to know their habits, social structure and traditions.
Conditions of living for the Japanese in the USA Since speaking about Japanese people in the USA, there are also some historical facts to be mentioned in order to understand all the story layers later. [1]According to enotes.com Asian immigrants were welcomed in the USA from the end of 19th century. However, in 1924 there was the Asian Exclusion Act, due to which the immigration had to stop. There were a lot of single Japanese men in the USA who were working hard to earn enough money before they got married. Since these men wanted to keep the tradition of a Japanese marriage, most of the them did not know their brides personally. This is why many marriages could not be regarded as happy ones and in many cases, unfortunately, the children were often the main “victims” of such an unhappy marriage. Another law which disadvantaged the Japanese immigrants was The Alien Land Act of 1913. According to this act the Japanese were not allowed to buy a land and keep it for more than three years. This law was quite harsh also because of the fact that there was a big number of Japanese families being dependent of farming. Therefore, most of the people were forced to move after this