17 syllables

In the story "Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto, Mrs. Hayashi is an avid writer in a form of poetry called Haiku. Haiku consists of three lines in the form of 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line and 5 in the third line which total to 17 syllables. The number 17 is also representative of the son which Mrs. Hayashi has had out of wedlock who would have been 17. Her Haiku acts as an escape to her marriage which was an alternative to suicide for her because she is in love with someone she could not marry because he was in a higher class than hers. 17 represents all of the things she can not have contrasted with the Haiku which is the only thing she has.

Tiffany Noojin