Amy Tan and The Kitchen God’s Wife

Amy Tan is famous for her first novel Joy and luck club. The Joy and Luck Club is also the compulsory outside reading for high school students in the United States. She was born in Oakland, California. Both of her father and mother are Chinese immigrants. Amy Tan once said, “I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable.” And no mistake Tan’s life was totally changed after this novel became the international best-seller. Amy Tan once worked around the clock to meet the demands from her many high-priced clients, but she knew that she didn’t get any joy from her joy, and finally felt very frustrating and unfulfilled until the mid-thirties. She began to take up writing fiction. Today Amy Tan has already been the most popular Asian-American novelist. Her following books such as the kitchen god’s wife and the hundred secret senses also became the best-sellers. All of stories in her books mainly focus on the relationship between mother and children. The Joy and Luck Club is gonging to be made into a movie and became a commercially successful film.

This short essay mainly focus on The Kitchen God’s Wife, this novel also once become best-seller in the United States. And main story still focuses on dealing with Chinese-American female Identity like her works. And the story firstly start with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt who is an American born Chinese and both of her parents are Chinese. From her perspective, reader can know that Pearl has some conflicts and misunderstanding with her mother’s plan. Her mother, Winnie Louie requests her and her whole family to attend the engagement party of Pearl’s cousin Bao-Bao in San Francisco. After attending that party, she still need to Auntie Du’s funeral. Pearl is very reluctant but she has to burden this obligation. Finally, her Auntie Helen, Bao-Bao’s mother, find that she must help solve the problem between Pearl and Winnie by unveil the truth of the past to Pearl. Thus Helen makes up a story and lie that she is suffering from a malignant brain tumor and force Winnie to tell their past to Pearl in order to make Winnie and Pearl be honest with each other. Then the narrative voice is shifted to Winnie, and she is going to tell the story of her past happened in China to Pearl. Before Winnie reaching the United States, she was suffering from the horrifically physical, mental and emotional abuse. With the World War 2 coming, she lost many children. This situation is associated with Chinese fable about a man who as horrible to his wife no matter how much she did for him, which is also known as “The Kitchen God”. Winnie and Helen become friends in China during the war. Winnie told Pearl that she and Helen are only the friends who endure the hardship together. After Winnie married with Chinese-American father, Jimmie, help Winnie escape from her ex-husband in China, and finally also sponsor Helen immigrate to the United States. By the time Bao-Bao’s wedding comes around, the mother and daughter know each other better again and understand the each ideas and beliefs at respective position.

In The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan added many own experiences and traits to create this story. The basic idea of this story is inspirited by the early miserable experience of Amy Tan’s mother in China. She also likens the Pearl as herself because both of them have the same background that they are American born Chinese who married with an American husband. Furthermore, Amy Tan’s father and brother die from brain tumor, which make the feeling between the words more real and impressive. All in all, her own experiences make her novel more vivid. In every plot twist make the story more attractive. The marvelous understanding between mother and daughter make content more thoughtful. The theme of this story is also closely link to the stuff we learned in the women study class. it factually shows how women endured hardship in a pure patriarchal society. In a sense, it is going to awake current society to treat women equally. This is also a story happens between daughter and mother, so the motherhood also can be related to this essay. We can clearly notice the cultural construct of the gender role in our society. The notion of motherhood enable Winnie ask her daughter attend friend's party. All in all, I believe The Kitchen God’s Wife is one of her most readable books.