Reading Literature that Explores Another Culture Serves as a Vast Learning Experience

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Reading Literature that Explores Another Culture Serves as a Vast Learning Experience

Reading literature that explores another culture serves as a vast and

positive learning experience. By providing material that not necessarily

relates to the reader's background, a multicultural curriculum opens up

the opportunity for a reader to absorb the material as is, without the

interference of previously gained information or prejudices. Such

materials have a tendency to immediately interest and captivate the

reader, and therefore can easily integrate in the book cultural and

historical facts that will be remembered. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy

Tan is a perfect example of a fictional novel in the American Literature

curriculum that expands the students' knowledge of Chinese culture. The

novel contributes to the reader's understanding of pre-World War II

Chinese customs and exposes to the reader information about political and

social events in China during the World War II time period. While

providing a wealth of information, the novel still manages to retain a f!

ictional plot that keeps the reader entertained and interests him or her

in continuing the reading.

The Kitchen God's Wife opens up as a simple modern day narrative

about a family to which a modern day reader can relate. The story leads

into a flashback, which almost immediately begins to shower the reader

with examples of Chinese culture and intricate explanations of Chinese

customs. This overwhelming amount of cultural information is closely

woven into the plot, which combined allows the reader to, without

realizing it, understand and remember facts about Chinese ways.

Immediately the reader is wrapped up in a world where polygamy and

polytheism are commonly accepted practices, and where all customs are

believed to be practical. As the story unwinds, the reader is bombarded

with all these multicultural facts, and virtually without realizing it, he

or she is exposed to a wealth of information.

Not only cultural but also political and social events are

presented throughout the book. The war between China and Japan is

constantly mentioned, remaining in the background during most of the book.

References to Japanese and Chinese tactics, meetings, bombings, and

American help are constant. All the time battles are mentioned as well as

a chronology of the events of the war. Important facts such as city

takeovers are noted and in some cases details are given. For example,

counts of casualties were presented during a discussion of Japanese

destruction of a Chinese capital city - the information goes almost

unnoticed by the reader, yet it remains the back of one's mind and serves

as a fact which in widens the reader's scope of knowledge.

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