In, “Rhetorical Silence: “Seventeen Syllables”, “Yoneko’s Earthquake” and the “Legend of Miss Sasagawara”, Cheung talks about the silence of the main characters in the short stories. The silence of the characters is mainly due to their culture- in this instance Japanese culture which teaches both men and women not to show their emotion outwardly but rather suffer in silence. However in all the three short stories the author mentions that there happens a dialogue between the characters through physical actions rather than a verbal communication. Cheung focuses on the physical communication and says that instead of the verbal communication, the physical act of the protagonists brings out their actual emotions towards each other. In essence Cheung opines that even though the protagonists follow the tradition of maintaining a stoic silence in the face of adversity in the end it is too much to bear and finally reflects in a physical action. Cheung subscribes to the general belief that the actual situation of the Japanese women seep into their works and this reflects in the works of Yamamoto.
Silence is seen as the best course of action no matter what the turmoil in the family, but eventually the protagonists react. Be it the father burning the mother’s prize, the mother showing uncharacteristic emotion crying and begging the daughter not to marry or the daughter crying when she comes to terms with her own feelings and that of her mother.This can be seen in “Seventeen Syllables” , where the “effect of the ending, and of the entire story, is achieved through double telling and through the dramatization of non-verbal interaction (Cheung, 42).” Although the mother and the daughter talk, they do not really communicate with each immersed in their own world. It is when the mother finally loses her cool and the daughter cries that it provokes a physical action between them- an action that finally lets them communicate to each other what they are really going through.
All three short stories have two plots- the main plot, the story of the young protagonist who is discovering life and that of the parents who wage a silent struggle within themselves of which the child is oblivious to. Cheung makes an argument in her essay that this was the natural course of life for the Japanese who had been educated since childhood not to show emotions in public. Yamamoto she says, brings this generation gap in a new setting. The stories are set in America where the younger generation have been born and try to assimilate into and pits them against not only their parents with their views from another country but also against the people living in America. It is in this setup that the protagonists view themselves. In the Legend of Sasagawara however, there is no intimate knowledge to be gained about the title character in the story, whatever is the reader gets to know comes in bits and pieces from “assorted opinions (Cheung, 54)”. Cheung says that there runs a parallel thread throughout the stories, the silence of the women and the uneasy relationship they share with the men in their lives. In ‘Seventeen Syllables’, Rosie is able to talk to her mother, although a bit forced as they seldom understand each other. Rosie cannot understand the Japanese Haiku that her mother writes and her mother requires translation for the English Haiku that Rosie reads.
Cheung says that in “Yoneko’s Earthquake”, the silences between the lead characters are quite apparent. Although unhappy in her marriage and later over the loss of her unborn child and son, the mother does not convey her feelings to the daughter. The father does not tell them why they had to take the mother to the hospital. Oblivious to the tense atmosphere at home, Similar to Seventeen Syllables Cheung says that a physical action conveys to the characters what the others feel. “No explosive scene analogous to Mr.Hayashi’s burning of the prize picture takes place in “Yoneko’s Earthquake” but the description of the trip to the hospital reverberates with the parents (Cheung, 44).” The father runs over a dg and keeps going and the mother though in pain says it is irrelevant. But through their action the reader gets to know what has happened. I agree with Cheung that although the silence of the characters is predominant throughout the stories, a physical action eventually brings out to the surface the underlying disagreements and tension within the families.
Cheung finds a silent, rather cold father in the legend of Sasagawara too. Although the daughter is alienated, committed to an asylum and is the object of gossip among the interned Japanese community, there are no emotional interchanges between the father and the daughter. He remains and silent till the end and Miss sasagawara remains a mysterious, enigmatic figure till the end. By agreeing to the prevalent notion that it is the history of the author that reflects in the protagonists, Cheung might come across as being confirming. But I believe she brings out the fact that the stories contain a certain autobiographical element in them. In these stories it is the life of the author Yamamoto which is reflected through the characters. Taught to be unnaturally silent over anything that life throws at them, the Japanese resort to physical acts of violence occasionally to show how they really feel.
In, “The Space that Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif ”, Shanna Greene Benjamin discusses Toni Morrison’s short story and takes as the central character, ‘Maggie’ and through her explains how Morrison explains the issues of race, disability and memories. Maggie is presented as an intersection between the two races and the ‘Maggie thing’ referred to in the short story by the protagonists and their recollection of the event is a reflection of how race plays a part in their lives as well as their memories. Shanna says that although the protagonists are of a period where racism wasn’t too obvious, Maggie was and through her the two women recollect their memories. Shanna also pits Maggie as a collective memory of the two women even though the stories that the two women have is entirely different.
Shanna says that, “As much a case study as it is a short story, “Recitatif” deconstructs the black/white binary to reveal the limitations of America’s rigid racial discourse; furthermore, in challenging race as a literary trope, Morrison’s short story gracefully names the prerequisites for interracial humanist connection (Benjamin, 90).” Shanna’s interpretation of morrison’s short story is quite controversial as it does not delve into divining the race of the two protagonists which Morrison deliberately leaves vague but rather focuses on another character not spoken much about by other critiques. But by talking about Maggie, Shanna reveals the limitations of the racial discourse in America. She says that ascribing race to the characters which the author had deliberately left vague brings out the racist tendencies in the reader. Even avowed anti-racists would be tempted to figure out the race of the two women in the story and instead of focusing on that aspect of the story, Shanna lets it remain and instead focuses on Maggie who seems to embody the suffering of the less fortunate (black, poor and disabled).
Race forms the crux of all the four short stories. Cheung and Benjamin in their essays bring the various ways in which the characters try to assimilate into the societies in which they are a minority. Cheung talks about the silences of the Japanese which in incongruent with the society they have to adapt into and Benjamin talks about the different constructions of memory that would enable the protagonists to adapt themselves and fit themselves into the role that they have chosen to play in their lives. Although controversial, the two authors manage to bring into focus, through their essays, the taboo topics that are seldom evident to children but which are nevertheless a part of their life. I believe that the essays bring out the uncomfortable truths about assimilation.
Works Cited
Cheung, King-Kok. “Rhetorical Silence: “Seventeen Syllables”, “Yoneko’s Earthquake” and the “Legend of Miss Sasagawara” in Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa. London: Cornell University Press. 1993.
Benjamin, G. Shanna. “The Space that Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif ”. Studies in American Fiction. ( 2013), 40.1. pp 87-106.
