"The Kitchen God's Wife"--A Review

Paper Summary:

This book review examines the nature of mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese immigrant experience as reflected in Any Tan's novel "The Kitchen God's Wife." The review discusses the common themes in Tan's novels, such as cultural conflict often seen between the generations. These themes are further analyzed in terms of the characters' personalities and experiences. The reviewer also considers some of the literary devices that the author used to illustrate these conflicts. The paper also cites various literary critics' opinions of the novel.

From the Paper:

"With these two elements in mind, this paper provides a discussion and analysis of the "immigrant experiences" of Weili and Pearl. While Pearl is already considered an assimilated member of the American culture, her identity as Chinese-American persists, making this 'immigrant experience' not only applicable to her mother, but to her as well. This paper posits that the immigrant experience is best demonstrated through two recurrent themes in the novel: cultural conflict and the persistence of reality over 'made-up' history, or fictional personal history."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Adams, B. (2003). "Representing history in Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife." MELUS, Vol. 28, No. 2.
• Dunick, L. (2006). "The silencing effect of canonicity: authorship and the written word in Amy Tan's novels." MELUS, Vol. 31, No. 2.
• Lee, K. (2004). "Cultural translation and the exorcist: A reading of Kingston's and Tan's Ghost stories." MELUS, Vol. 29, No. 2.
• Tan, A. (1991). The Kitchen God's Wife. London: Flamingo.
• Zeng, L. (2003). "Diasporic self, Cultural other: Negotiating ethnicity through transformation in the fiction of Tan and Kingston." Language and Literature, Vol. 28.

More papers on "The Kitchen God's Wife"--A Review:

• Analytical Essay # 65831 : "The Kitchen God's Wife"
• Book Review # 97235 : "Amy Tan's "The Kitchen God's Wife"
• Book Review # 97510 : "The Kitchen God's Wife"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: