Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

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Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

• Class Notes V. Holmes
  IB English III

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What emotion is created by this image?
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How would your emotions differ if you were alone?
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Is it possible to feel lonely in a city this
size?
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Is it possible to feel isolated here?
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Historical Context

• Tokyo in the 1980s
• Population Over 8 million people
• One of the most expensive cities in the world to
  live
• Crowded, with cramped living conditions
• Industrial economy with reliance upon exportation
  of automobiles and electronics to the West

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Cultural Changes

• In Japan, Yoshimotos generation is called the
  shinjinrui, a generation that has grown up in a
  wealthy, technological society exposed to
  American values. After WWII, western ideas and a
  free market changed a more traditional-minded
  Japan.

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Changes

• Before WWII women were socially and economically
  subordinate to men and marriages were arranged by
  families
• At the turn of the last century, women did not
  have the right to ask for a divorce. By the
  mid-1980s more women filed for divorce than men
  in Japan.
• The novel as an art form is new (imported from
  Europe in the late 1800s)
• Tanizaki Junichiro, wrote in 1932 that European
  literature liberated the concept of love for the
  Japanese. The idea of marriage changed from an
  economic arrangement to a romantic possibility
  between two people.

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Kitchens

• A few generations ago, food preparation was
  considered a lower class occupation.
• By the mid-1980s, it had become a respectful
  career as well as an art form.
• The kitchen has become a showcase of consumer
  wealth.

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Gender Role Changes

• A popular theater company for Japanese girls is
  the Takarazuka, in which an all-female cast acts
  out roles of both men and women in a dream-like
  atmosphere that challenges gender boundaries.
• In the 1980s women held one of every 40
  management positions, and the Japanese workforce
  was about 35 women. Today, women hold one in 25
  management positions, and the workforce is about
  40 women.

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Existentialism

• Mikage does not have a religious belief system,
  so she turns to her friends and herself for
  meaning.
• Existentialist heroes in literature often are
  plagued with despair and profound loneliness.
  Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
  suggests that one must acknowledge that despair
  may automatically accompany existence. Personal
  freedom comes at the expense of going against the
  mainstream crowd.
• Mikage feels that she will never know the
  happiness that seems to come easily to other
  people. This happiness is living a life
  untouched as much as possible by the knowledge
  that we are really, all of us, alone. Mikage
  instead desires to continue living with the
  awareness that I will die.
• Eriko tells Mikage undertaking the care and
  feeding of something. Doing this one begins to
  understand freedom, or your own limitations.

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Characters

• Mikage (MEE-ka-gee Sah-Ko-rye) protagonist and
  narrator
• Yuichi Tanabe (Yoo-EE-chee Tah-NAH-bee) young man
  who befriends Mikage (love interest)
• Sensei (SEN-say) cooking teacher
• Sotaro (soh-TAH-roh) Mikages old boyfriend
• Eriko (Eh-REE-koh) Yuichis mother/father
• Okuno (oh-KOO-no) Yuichis girlfriend at school
• Chika (Chih-KA) transsexual head girl at
  Erikos club
• Kuri (KOO-ri) works with Mikage and Nori at the
  cooking school
• Nori (NOUGH-ree) proper young lady at the
  cooking school

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Free Will and Personal Responsibility

• Mikage makes the statement
• People arent overcome by situations or outside
  forces, defeat invades from within.

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Climax

• As Mikage climbs the hotel balcony, she
  contemplates the concept of free will.
• Before she comes to this realization, she states
  that we have so little choice, and that we
  live like the lowliest worms.
• At the end of the novel, despite believing in
  premonitions, she believes in the individual
  freedom of constantly making choices.

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Themes

• Cooking and Cuisine
• Death
• Gender and Identity
• Loneliness
• Love
• Meaning of Life

• Nurturing and healing
• Theres always death around us.
• Crossing boundaries introduced
• Embrace the loneliness and courage of
  independence
• Provides strength and healing
• Provided through relationships loss, pain, and
  suffering are an important part of life. Without
  pain, how can we know joy?

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Style

• Climax Mikage climbs the balcony to face Yuichi
  about their relationship
• Narrative structure chronological order and
  flashbacks
• Point of View lst person
• Symbolism
• Kitchens places of contentment, safety, and
  healing
• Cooking way to overcome feelings of
  meaningless and despair (creativity)
• Food a way to reach out, a way to express love
  or a way to experience oneself
• Voice urban, sensitive, young, feminine, open

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