Seventeen Syllables

“The first Rosie knew that her mother had taken to writing poems was one evening when she finished one and read it aloud for her daughter’s approval.”

The opening sentence of the story establishes the story’s point of view and defines the relationship between its new two main characters. Unusually, the mother seems to lack agency through Yamamoto’s use of the passive voice (“taken”). Also, Rosie, in a moment of role reversal, has the option to approve or disapprove of her mother.

“English lay ready on the tongue but Japanese had to be searched for and examined, and even then put forth tentatively (probably to meet with laughter).”

Yamamoto personifies the languages of English and Japanese to illustrate how, for Rosie, English is familiar, while Japanese is more like a stranger. It is something so foreign that it must be “examined.” In this case, Japanese is also a source of anxiety or embarrassment for her.

“It was so much easier to say yes, yes, even when one meant no, no.”

This sentence, with its parallel structure, defines Rosie’s choice as either “yes, yes” or “no, no.” The unusual repetition of the word in both cases suggests that there is something more going on here than simply yes and no. The sentence also establishes one of the central conflicts of the story: Rosie’s failure to communicate with her mother.