I like the questions Jana found to help us find greater depth in "Twilight." Here are some possible considerations for "The Kitchen God's Wife" that I found online.
Reading Guide for this book:
What is Helen’s role in the novel?
What is the significance in Winnie having given Pearl a box in which to keep her secrets, for Pearl’s tenth birthday?
How are the female characters in the novel different from the male characters?
Suggested Essay Topics
Discuss the significance of cleaning and sweeping in the novel. What does it mean that Winnie comes home to clean her house after Helen tells her she must release her secrets?
Discuss the novel as a feminist text? Is Winnie Louie a feminist? Is Amy Tan?
How did Winnie’s mother disappear? Did she commit suicide? Did she simply abandon her marriage? Did she fall ill and die? Does the reader ever have an answer to this question and is the answer to this question important?
Discuss the differences and similarities between Helen’s children and Winnie’s children. What are their shared experiences? What separates them?
Discuss the role that Phil, Cleo, and Tessa play in the novel.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the questions!
ReplyDeleteMy book (well, Jana's book) is still missing! I have no idea where it went and I want to read it! =(
ReplyDeleteI'll loan you mine as soon as I'm done.
ReplyDeleteThe book has been found!
ReplyDeleteFinished the book so I figured I would answer some of these. I might not get all of it done right now though. I gave the book back to Jana so I can't really check things like the way names are spelled. please forgive me!
ReplyDeleteReading Guide for this book:What is Helen’s role in the novel?Helen has an interesting role. At first (in the "present" her role is to be the catalyst that pushes Winnie and Pearl to open up to each other. Helen seems to have both positive and negative roles in Winnie's past life. She is always there as a friend but sometimes she doesn't help Winnie in the way she would like or feels she needs. I think she helps bring Winnie down to earth a bit by being a less refined person and giving her a different perspective. Also keeping her on her toes with the arguments they have.
What is the significance in Winnie having given Pearl a box in which to keep her secrets, for Pearl’s tenth birthday?I think that it definitely is interesting for her to give her daughter this secret box, being that she has so many secrets herself. Secrets are a part of life and she is inviting her daughter to live the same way, keeping secrets. It might be an interesting idea of trust as well, especially as Winnie goes and finds the box and opens it without permission though it is many years later. In the beginning when Winnie opens the box it seems to foreshadow the "box" of secrets that will be opened from mother to daughter in the book.
How are the female characters in the novel different from the male characters?We certainly get into the heads of the female characters much more. The male characters have different roles but are not necessarily portrayed positively. It definitely feels like a women's story focusing on the experiences of Pearl and especially Winnie that have a lot to do with their gender. Winnie's whole life and conditions and outlook have been shaped by her role as a woman in Chinese society. Men like Wen Fu are cast as evil and bad influences on her life while others like Jiagou and Jimmy Louie are kind of saviors at times. In the end it seems to have an empowering message for women, though. Winnie has to do things for herself. No one is going to just make her life better for her. She has to be the one who is finding her own way out of her bad situation and making her life better.
Larissa had some excellent answers for these questions. I'll try to give them a shot:
ReplyDeleteWhat is Helen’s role in the novel?
-I think that Helen helps Winnie to see herself more clearly. As we watch their friendship change throughout the novel, we also see Winnie make observations about life and herself in relation to Helen. In many ways, Helen is what Winnie does not want to be. Sometimes she even seems to hate Helen. But these two women need one another and come to rely on each other. Sometimes, the best friends are the people who are with us through the worst times, who know our secrets. And sometimes, we do not even get to choose our friends. Situations push people together, like Winnie and Helen, even though they would not have chosen each other.
What is the significance in Winnie having given Pearl a box in which to keep her secrets, for Pearl’s tenth birthday?
-Like Larissa said, I think it is almost as though Winnie is inviting her daughter to keep secrets, or at least allowing her to. Perhaps Winnie believes that women NEED to be able to keep secrets, because in her experience it has been something she thought she had to do. Secrets, though, are not exactly healthy. They hurt the person keeping the secret as well as those around the person. We should not be surprised that Pearl tries to keep her secret from her mother, since she has been taught to keep things to herself.
How are the female characters in the novel different from the male characters?
-There is not a major focus on the male characters. We hear a lot about what men around Winnie are doing, but I feel that we are meant to really look at the female perspective, to see relationships between women. It is also about independence, as Winnie frees herself of an awful marriage and lives the life she desires. Pretty much Larissa nailed this question, so I'll leave it alone :)