Simple Recipes Theme

Cisneros bring up conflict within herself, because instead of going to her father home on Sunday for dinner, she would rather stay home and write. “I feel like a bad daughter ignoring my father, but I feel worse when I don’t write. Either way, I never feel completely happy.” Cisneros is clearly explaining, that she could not please herself, if she were to give up writing. Cisneros also explain, that her and her father’s conflict does not get in the way of their relationship as father and daughter.

The family shows signs of being part of either a low or poor class based off the conditions of the household they are living in and the bareness of their apartment. For instance, the dining room is extremely small and the kitchen seems old and worn out. Correspondingly, the family members seem to lack personality due to to the simple clothing they are wearing. However, the bright colors found interior of the home create a contrast between the dreary environment of the household. This helps convey the message that although the family may not be as economically stable and live a dull life, they still happily interact among one another and come together every evening to have a meal together.

Amy Tan uses imagery in the short story “Fish Cheeks” in order to let the reader feel the way Amy felt at the table on Christmas Eve. For example, in the story it states, “ My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food.” This explains that Amy felt embarrassed that her family wasn’t realizing the fact that they had no manners at the table. Amy was completely embarrassed with the fact that, that was the way her family had acted while they ate. Everyone is put into a situation where they wished their parents or family members had not acted the way they did in front of them, and Amy Tan writing this story makes you remember those times.

“She seemed to always be repairing clothes that were ‘torn in the boat’ preparing food ‘to be eaten in the boat’ or looking for ‘the boat’ in our kitchen window which faced upon the sea (Macleod 3). Their life only revolved around the boat. Whenever father returned from work that’s what was always talked about, the boat. Another quote that set the mood of the story is when the narrator talks about his mother. He says: “My mother was of the sea, as were all of her people, and her horizon were the very literal ones she scanned with her dark fearless eyes” (Macleod 6).

He creates a playful tone towards the harsh environment described in the short story. He describes the lifelike house as if it were a simple minded living being. For example he gave the house features of repetition and used phrases like, “it repeated the date three times for memory 's sake!”. His choice of words are charming and lighthearted rather than unpleasant to the ear. He continues to use these such words throughout even when he begins to talk of the sick scene.

Also, the fish represent the obstacles that one may face while trying to reach their goal and shaping their ability to achieve it. This ultimately challenges them to decide whether to accept the task and grow or abandon their dreams by giving up. The girl’s the environment around her influenced her hard work ethic and her decision to have patience to accomplish her

Madeleine Thien’s “Simple Recipes” is not mainly about the father cooking food and his treatment towards his son, instead, the author uses food to symbolize the struggles her immigrated family experienced in Canada. While it is possible to only look at the narratives that food symbolizes, the idea is fully expressed when the father is compared with the food. The theme of food and the recipes are able to convey the overall troubles the narrator’s family encountered. Although, food is usually a fulfilling necessity in life, however, Thien uses food to illustrate the struggle, tensions, and downfall of the family. Yet, each food does represent different themes, but the food, fish, is the most intriguing because of the different environment

This has a symbolic connection with him transitioning to a new life somewhere else. The River of the Carp was where the lord of all the waters of the valley lived known as the golden carp, a king god. Thus, the drowning on the “bad” side has meaning, and it is not “good.” Likewise in "Woman Hollering Creek’s," the myth of La Llorona, known as the sobbing lady who suffocates her own children in the river that runs behind Cheofilas' home called La Gritona, symbolizes danger. La Gritona is believed to be unsafe for anybody who goes close to it.

While Maddy is in the YMCA regretting and panicking about getting back into water the thought of her fish help calm her nerves, “It calms me to imagine them swimming in their pH balance environment, the clown loaches looking around near the bottom of the freshwater tank, the Pearl flirting in a stand of bamboo plant. Tonight, for the first time, I'll begin to know what my fish have known all their lives; how to breathe underwater” (3). The reference to water here in order to show the reader how significant water is to the story. Water can be seen as a symbol of flowing, calm, cool, but others can see it as a fear. And since Maddy has seen it as fear the fish help calm those thoughts.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Here we Aren’t, so Quickly” is a unique piece of writing that manages to describe an entire life in a matter of pages. Rather than using strict ages, the passage of time is shown through important milestones in the narrator’s life such as marriages, deaths, and births. By examining these events the reader can detect three distinct time periods in his life: youth, middle age, and old age. There are subtle changes in the protagonist during each time period, which showcase his maturation and provide evidence of his character growth.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist, Offred, expresses her wish that her “story [is] different,” that it is “happier,” or at least “more active, less hesitant, less distracted” than it is ultimately portrayed (267). However, as her story is told, these characteristics are evident in the way she talks and acts, especially around those with authority. Hesitant to express her true thoughts and feelings, and distracted by memories from her previous life, Offred attempts to piece together her role in the society that has taken her freedom. The result is a compilation of moments, of memories, both from her present, her past, and even speculation about her future.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.

He descriptively tells the readers he grew up in a state of chaos due to war and that he did not have a peaceful childhood compared to normal kids. While he was afraid of the soldiers who are “strolling the streets and alleys” (line 8), the untroubled child in him was afraid of the “boarded-up well in the backyard” (line 4). Here, he contrasts the idea of home and foreign place by presenting different experiences that a child faced. He is showing an event that caused him to have fragmented self. He hints the readers lack of personal belonging because he has experienced war in his early youth.

The short story, Chef’s house, is written by Raymond Carver in 1983. This essay will include an analysis of the short story, a summary but mainly focus on the themes in the text, the style of writing and the effect it has. In the short story, we are introduced to Wes, a middle-aged man, and he has rented a house from another man called Chef. Wes – the main character, is a recovering alcoholic. He separated from his wife, Edna, and goes to live by the ocean, in a house he has rented from another recovered alcoholic, Chef.

While a child may laugh at the humorous image, the image represents the external conflict of the danger to the Fish. The Cat, at this point in the story, is representative of the Freud’s Id, “the part of the personality that contains our primitive impulses” (NCTE). The Cat represents the child’s primitive impulse to play, or have fun, without self-control or thinking of the consequences that might follow. If the Cat continues with this balancing act and slips, the items may fall, causing the house to become a mess, but the dander to the Fish is more substantial. The Fish, who cannot defend