Kitchen Banana Yoshimoto Analysis

Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen explores the mistreatment of LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and more) people often seen in Japanese culture, especially in the 20th century. In Japan, being part of the LGBT+ community is frowned upon and sometimes ridiculed, leading to a feeling of intolerance within the culture. One of the main devices that Yoshimoto implements in her novella is dysphemism – the use of offensive phrases, even if its not meant in an offensive way – which shows how the negative treatment of LGBT people is normalized in Japanese culture. Understanding the attitudes towards the community, especially in Japan, allows for the understanding of Yoshimoto’s novella.Yoshimoto first introduces the idea of the LGBT+ community in her novella on page 13, “-she’s a

Finally, Yoshimoto portrays how the negative effects of the treatment of those in the LGBT+ community can affect the people around them with the use of caesura, hyperbole, and metonymy. An example of this displays on page 45 when Yuichi says: “My mother … or, uh, father, I should say, was killed.” Yoshimoto uses a caesura here to reveal to the reader a reluctance within Yuichi, demonstrating his sadness surrounding the death of Eriko, showing how the poor treatment of those not conforming to society trickles into the emotions of their loved ones. Furthermore, Yoshimoto implements this to clarify Yuichi’s emotions and why he distanced himself from Mikage as a coping mechanism. Yoshimoto also includes Mikage’s reaction to Yuichi’s news in the quote, “I felt like my insides had been gouged out.” (Yoshimoto 45) This use of a hyperbole reveals to the reader that Mikage feels physically bad after learning that Eriko died, thus explaining how Yoshimoto implements the poor treatment of those not conforming to society can find its way into the emotions of their loved