In her short story “Seventeen Syllables,” Hisaye Yamamoto depicts an ambitious Japanese woman who strives to express herself by writing a haiku, but this ambition ends up disrupting her family and causing his disappearance. Tome Hiyashi, a traditional Japanese mother, finds it difficult to express herself through writing haiku due to strict traditional Japanese values. Her husband and daughter do not understand her reasoning and her pleasure in writing haiku. This confusion between her and her family causes tensions to form between Tome and her husband. Tome's participation in writing haiku benefits herself by feeling important to society, but it ultimately causes overwhelming tension between her and Mr. Hiyashi. Indulging in haiku benefits Tome because it gives her the ability to transform from a traditional housewife into an intelligent woman and the ability to gain independence. Before writing Haiku, Tome was just a traditional wife and mother who “kept house, cooked, washed…did her significant part of picking tomatoes,” embracing haiku allows her to participate in intellectual conversations (Yamamoto 2). For example, when Tome and her family go to their friend's house to talk, she is able to have a logical conversation with Mr. Hayano. Even though this meeting doesn't please her husband, she still manages to get feedback and practice her craft. Traditional Japanese values ​​prevent Tome from expressing himself, but haiku gives him the opportunity to venture out and seek pleasure. According to critic Ming L. Cheng, writing haiku allows Tome to gain independence because she ingeniously creates her haiku poems without her family. (Cheng). For example, after fulfilling all her initial responsibilities, "Ume H...... middle of paper ...... if the fact that she appreciates haiku does not push Mr. Hiyashi beyond the limits , but she doesn't give importance to their tomato. the farm causes the disappearance of his other character. Tome's actions cause Mr. Hiyashi to destroy the prize she won, but more importantly destroy her ability to venture out and express herself. Works Cited Cheng, Ming L. "The Unrepentant Fire: Tragic Limits in Hisaye Yamamoto's 'Seventeen Syllables'" JSTOR. JSTOR, 1994. Web. February 25, 2012. McMahan, Elizabeth. Literature and the Writing Process. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. Mistri, Zenora ““Seventeen Syllables”: Studies in Symbolic Haiku. mother of Issei, the stories of Nisei's daughter: the short fiction of Hisaye Yamamoto". Studies in Comparative Literature 33.East-West (1996): 1-14..