The Mother Daughter Relationship in The Kitchen God's Wife

3313 Words7 Pages

The Mother Daughter Relationship in The Kitchen God's Wife

Relationships mold people's thoughts and the way they live their lives. One very important relationship is the relationship between parents and their children. Parents are the first teachers of children. The most significant lesson one learns from them is love. When a baby is first born it instantly will feel love from the mother. A mother loves and nurtures her baby while it is still in her womb making the relationship between a mother and her child stronger than any other relationship. Only a woman can nurture her baby by using only her body. The bond between the mother and daughter is even more intense because they share the same femininity. A mother and daughter can bond like no other. Girls grow up looking up to their mother and wanting to resemble them when they grow up. Daughters seek their mother's to give them advice when they need help throughout their lives. When a girl is struck with a problem the first person she will turn to would be her mother. However some women are unable to have strong relationships with their mothers, this can be seen in then novel The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan. Unfortunately Jiang Weili wasn't able to have a powerful relationship with her mother. Because of her mothers absence Jiang Weili wasn't able to find her own identity and isn't able to have a productive relationship with her daughter. Pearl feels alienated from her mother however, Jiang Weili only believes she is doing the best for her daughter. Pearl and Winnie prove that the mother daughter relationship is essential for a girl to become a woman. The lack of such a relationship is severely detrimental to a girl growing up.

Jiang We...

... middle of paper ...

...gic comedy with a happy ending. The novel is a love story but not with a male and female but with a mother and her daughter.

Work Cited

Chapman, Jeff and John D. Jorgenson, eds. "Tan, Amy." Contemporary Authors Vol.54. Detroit: Gale, 1997.

Graham, Judith, ed. Current Biography Yearbook Vol. 1992, New York: The H.W Wilson Company, 1993

Gray, Paul. "The Joys and Sorrows of Amy Tan." Time Magazine 19 February, 2001:72-74

Hunter, Jeffery W. and Timothy J. White, eds. "Amy Tan 1952- ."

Contemporary Literary Criticism CLC 120. Farmington Hills: Gale, 1999

Kim-Chan, Hyung, ed. "Amy Tan (1952- )." Distinguished Asian American: Biographical dictionary. Westport: Greenwood, 1999.

Kramer, Barbara. Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club. Spring Field: Enslow, 1996

Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God's Wife, New York: Ivy Books, 1991

Open Document