losed her heart. Hayashi came to the United States and became a first generation Japanese-American mother, leaving behind a broken relationship with a man of higher social class and her country. By having a relationship with a man of higher social standing, she defies the traditional role and value expected of a Japanese woman. Even though I think such a social stratification is preposterous, it is the way it has always been for thousand of years. Hayashi, who is a wife and a mother, develops an identity outside both of these roles. By writing Haiku, she is entitled to a new role beyond being a wife and a mother; her creativity moves her beyond the traditional family role given to her by the society and her husband. Hayashi's creativity helps to free herself from her social role, but it is clear that she does not take pressure from society alone, but also from her husband. It is very obvious that her husband is discontented with Hayashi's new identity because she had not been kind of a loving and caring wife he wanted her to be. As his frustration level increases, his anger gradually builds up and eventually reaches its pinnacle, where he takes the award brought to Hayashi for her achievements in Haiku, and breaks it up and burns it. Upon destruction of the award, he completely destroys her dignity, sense of self, the marriage, and her identity.
             My attention and thought, for a moment, was completely riveted on the conversations between Rosie and her mother both at the beginning and at the end of the story, which was the only access the readers had to Hayashi's life in the past and her passion for writing. For instance, when Rosie is being asked close to the end of the story by her mother why she married her father, she thinks to herself "It was the most frightening question she had ever been called upon to answer. Don't tell me now ... tell me tomorrow, tell me next week, don't tell me today" (...