What's the importance of food in this essay?
I chose this question to write about because I feel that it is one of the main points of the story.
I feel that food is of importance in this essay because its the one thing that brought the boy and his mother together and created a bond; it brought there whole family together. Its was the one time in the day that they would all gather and be able to converse about there day.
When the boy was young he was always curious about what his mother had cooking in the
kitchen. Cooking was his calling, but his mother did not want to see that in his younger years, she did not think that cooking was for men. She thought it was for women, I think that was there culture; men in the field and women in the home. After a while she would allow him to watch her cook and ask questions about the meals that she would prepare, the boy would never write anything down, he would memorize what she did by memory. She would answer his questions, even if at time she thought that they were silly. I believe the deep inside she loved the fact that her child was so interested in her cooking and that it made them have some kind of special relationship.
Now that his mother had cancer, he took on the responsibility of the cooking in the home when he came home from school, it saved there family in a way, I think this because if it was not for the boy now a man, taking on the cooking who knows what state the family would be in, would they all live together? Would they even have a relationship at all?
Since he prepared all of the meals, even though his mother could not swallow the food, only taste it, it made her happy that her son would cook the meals that she used to make, it gave her a reason for living, she was proud and possibly did not feel so guilty after so many years of sending her son off to boarding school. I think that it was almost like a relief that he was so intriged by her cooking and took on her legacy.
Her son was her whole life, he is the reason that she lived, and she even told him so. So the importance of food in this essay his that it gave his mother and the boy a purpose; and later on in there lives, peace. She passed knowing that her son was going to prepare her meals for as long as he could, and he made sure that is was aware of that before she passed away.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteYour post has me thinking about the very first time I read this essay. I assumed the narrator was a female, and I made this assumption based on the fact that the narrator spends so much time in the kitchen cooking the mother's recipes. It remember being confused when I first read the scene you write about in which the mother tells the narrator to get out of the kitchen. The scene made me reflect on my assumptions about gender roles. I've always considered myself progressive, and yet I found myself unconsciously holding on to these outdated notions that the kitchen is a woman's place.
I like your point that cooking gave the narrator purpose and peace. I think you're right that it gives him something to do; it helps him cope with his mother's illness.
Thanks for giving me more to think about.
Take care,
Lauren
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI like how he made such efforts to cook like his mother or even have the food to taste as close to his mother's. It's shows how much love he had for her. It's his way of coping.
I think if I dealt with the same issue as Lee himself, I would be in the kitchen all day. My mother loves the kitchen, its her favorite area in the house. She would be up at 4 a.m. and already whip up breakfast. It's like she should have her own cooking show. So if anything, the kitchen would be a reminder of my mother.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really like that you made the point about cooking being concidered a woman's job. When I frist read the essay I though the author was female because of all the time he spent in the kitchen, even though I hardly spend time in the kitchen even though I'm female.
Hello Emily,
ReplyDeleteI also was under the assumption that the writer was female until towards the end of the article. Once I had realized that the writer was a male, I reread the article of this in mind and it help to grasp the meaning. I enjoyed reading your response. I think food was a comfort and created a bond between son and mother. I also think that talking about food was their way of communicating and the means of their closeness.
Mandy Ericson
Hello Emily, I also wrote about the food in my blog. I found it very interesting that we had completely different ideas when it came to the mom claiming the kitchen as her territory. I thought she didn’t want the author to be in the kitchen because this is the place where she felt useful for the family and didn’t want anyone else to do her job. The mom had a lot of trouble adapting to the American society and mentions many times that she feels ignorant, leaving cooking as the only thing she is capable of doing. I never thought of the idea that maybe she asks the author to step out of the kitchen because this is the women’s job in the Korean culture.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the purpose and the peace part. I really never thought of it that way until I read what you wrote. I like that the mother even though she really had lost her will to eat that she still made an effort for her son.
ReplyDelete