Which side would you agree ?

It is okay to have secrets in There should be no secrets

between parents and their
a family. - Americans children. - Chinese
 MODERNISM PERIOD

THE KITCHEN GODS WIFE

AMY TAN
THE AUTHOR

Amy Tan Oakland California, 1952

John and Daisy Tan (Chinese immigrant
parents)
middle child of three; only girl between
two brothers
AN-MEI - blessing from America
Chinese-American
studied English and Linguistics
received her Masters in Linguistics
Was married to an Italian-American man,
Lou DeMattei
Business Writer
Full-Time Novelist
THE AUTHOR

Amy Tan LITERARY WORKS

The Joy Luck Club (fiction)

The Kitchen Gods Wife (fiction)
The Hundred Secret Senses (fiction)
The Bonesetter's Daughter (fiction)
Saving Fish from Drowning (fiction)
The Opposite of Fate (non-fiction)
The Moon Lady (childrens book)
The Chinese Siamese Cat (childrens
book)
"Mother Tongue (essay)
THE BOOK
The Kitchen Gods Wife is the second
novel written by the Chinese-
American author, Amy Tan. It was first
published year 1992 in California. It
deals extensively with Sino-American
female identity and draws on the story
of her mothers life.

Tans book was considered a largely a

commercial success making best
sellers lists in several countries
worldwide.
THE CHARACTERS

The Kitchen Gods Wife by Amy Tan

MAJOR CHARACTERS
WINNIE LOUIE (Jiang Weili) - The novels main narrator. The protagonist. Shes a
Chinese immigrant to America. A woman who had suffered so much in her life, - lost her
mother at a very young age and entered into an abusive marriage. She has lived her life
trying to keep the past out of her present.

PEARL LOUIE BRANDT - Winnies daughter, a child of Chinese immigrants. She is

married to an American man and feels more American than she does Chinese. She, just
like her mother, keeps secrets and did not even told her about her multiple sclerosis.

HELEN KWONG (Hulan) Winnies best friend. Helen is stubborn and also strong. She
had grown up in poverty, married into a higher class, survived the war, and, with Winnies
help, had immigrated to America. She has a selective memory, is an optimist, and is
always trying to fix situations.

WEN FU Winnies first husband. Referred to as the bad man or the antagonist in the
novel. He is self-centered, arrogant, ignorant, and ultimately abusive and cruel.
Throughout the novel he is the cause of Winnies sufferings.
CHARACTERS

JIMMY LOUIE Winnies second husband, whom Pearl acknowledged as her

father. He was madly in love with Winnie. He was a minister and a truly good
man, husband, and father, serving as a foil of Wen Fu.

PHIL BRANDT - Pearls American husband. He is a good father and husband but
often finds himself out of place among Pearls Chinese family.

TESSA BRANDT and CLEO BRANDT Pearl and Phils young daughters. Both girls
are being raised in an American way, and yet they love their Chinese
grandmother and her stories. Tessa is older and more confident; Cleo is younger,
gentler and more sentimental

AUNTIE DU - Helens aunt. She is one of the most self giving characters in the
novel. She is kind and sincere, and she loves Winnie so much that she is always
trying to help her.
LONG JIAGUO - Helens first husband. He is a good man, has a high rank in air
force but is always humble.

HENRY KWONG - Helens second husband. Henry loves his wife so much, and it is
important for him to look good and strong in front of her. He is not as he seems,
however, and is, in some ways weak. Nevertheless, he is a good man.

MARY KWONG Helens daughter. Married to a doctor/physician who treated

Pearl. She is careful around Pearl, somewhat too careful. This overly
sympathetic behavior deeply irritates Pearl. She is also a person who is very
concerned with appearances.

PEANUT The bratty, vain, conceited, selfish, and insecure cousin of Winnie.
JIANG SAO-YAN Winnies Father . He is a wealthy and powerful man, but ends
up weak with no memory and lack of will. He forced his daughter to live with his
brother and his wives so as not to be reminded of Winnies Mother.

WINNIE S MOTHER She disappears in the novel early on, and yet she plays a
central role since she mysteriously disappeared from Winnies life and changed it
forever. She had been a woman who wanted to marry for love and was forced to
take the position of second wife to a man whom she did not really care. Because
she was strong-willed and open-minded, she escaped her marriage and her
station in life, one way or another

SAN MA Jiang Sao-Yans senior wife; stubborn and sneaky. She carries herself
with arrogance and yet gives the impression of kindness as she shops with
Winnie for her dowry. She is full of gossip and jealousy. She believes that her
position with Winnies father gives her power.
PLOT SUMMARY

The Kitchen Gods Wife by Amy Tan

MAJOR CONFLICT
The abusive relationship between Winnie and Wen Fu
The tense and distant relationship between Winnie and her daughter Pearl

RISING ACTION
Winnie decided to fight Wen Fu and leave him. She suffered, grows and learns through
her abusive relationship with him and through the war. From an innocent teenager, her
circumstances forced her to become bold and strong.
The invitation to Bao-Bao's wedding; Helen pulling Winnie and Pearl aside separately and
telling them that they must reveal their secrets; and Winnie deciding to tell Pearl her life
story, which causes the two to become closer with each other.

CLIMAX
Winnie is finally able to escape Wen Fu, after she is raped by him for the last time
Winnie tells Pearl that Wen Fu is her real father

FALLING ACTION
Pearl tells her mother about her multiple sclerosis
Winnie gives her daughter the statue that she created for her and she called it Lady
Sorrow free, a version of the Kitchen God's Wife.
The novel opens with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt, The American-born
daughter of a Chinese mother and a Chinese-American father, living in San Jose,
California. Pearl's mother, Winnie Louie, has called her to request that she and her
family come to San Francisco, to attend the engagement party of Bao-Bao, her
cousin. Later, Pearl receives another call from her mother telling her that her
elderly Auntie Du has died, with her funeral being arranged for the day following
Bao-Bao's party.

Upon her arrival in San Francisco, her Auntie Helen makes a demand: she insists
that Pearl must tell Winnie that she has multiple sclerosis, something which
everyone else in the family knows except for her mother, Winnie. Helen claims that
she is suffering from brain tumor and does not want to die knowing that Winnie is
unaware of her daughter's illness. Afterwards, Helen has a similar conversation with
Winnie, telling her that she must reveal the truth of her past to Pearl.
At this point the novel switches to the narrative voice of Winnie Louie, telling the
story of her past. Before reaching the United States, Winnie experienced a life of
turmoil and suffering. She was abandoned by her mother when she was still young
and did not fully understand her mother's mysterious disappearance. She was
forced to live with her uncle and his two wives, never feeling as loved as her uncle's
daughter, Peanut. Nevertheless, when the time came, Winnie's aunts arranged a
traditional marriage for her, and her father provided a large dowry, since he was an
educated and well-established man.

The marriage to Wen Fu, who first courted Peanut but transferred his attentions to
Winnie when he learned about her father's wealth, turned out to be a disaster.
Winnie suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband, losing
many children along the way.
It was during the war that Winnie met Jimmy Louie, whom Pearl acknowledged as
her father; He was a good husband, a good father, and a minister in the Chinese
Baptist Church. He died when Pearl was a teenager, a time when Pearl became very
angry. Winnie explains to Pearl that she met Jimmy Louie in China, at an American
military dance. The two fell in love and he began to help escape her abusive
marriage. In order to gain a divorce, the paper has to be signed by two witnesses
which Grand Auntie Du and Helen agreed to sign. Wen-Fu had previously tore the
papers from her first attempt, and Winnie went to him again to get the papers
signed. At this second meeting Wen Fu raped her. Winnie explains to Pearl that she
has always loved her even knowing that she is Wen-Fu's daughter.

After Winnie tells her story, Pearl reveals the secret of her disease. By the time the
wedding of Bao-Bao comes around, mother and daughter have come to know each
other better. Winnie goes into a local shop, finds an altar with an unnamed
goddess. Winnie named it "Lady Sorrowfree" the wife of the Kitchen god, who has
endured all, received no credit for the work she has done, and is still strong. At the
end of the novel, Helen reveals that she is planning a trip to China, with Pearl, and
Winnie.
 ?
Why is the story entitled
The Kitchen Gods Wife?
THEMES, MOTIFS & SYMBOLS

The Kitchen Gods Wife by Amy Tan

 THEMES SYMBOLS

The Difficulties of The Greenhouse

Bicultural Life
Statue of Lady
The Female Struggle in Sorrow free
a Patriarchal Society
 STYLE
FIRST-PERSON NARRATION

The novel has two narrators. The narration begins with Pearl
Louie Brandt, but the bulk of the novel is narrated by Pearl's
mother, Winnie Louie. Winnie talks about both the past and
the present. The structure of the novel, with the mother and
daughter as the speakers, suggests indirect communication
between the two of them through the reader. Of course, by
the end of the novel, this has become direct communication
as the two women share the secrets they have hidden from
each other.
Personal View
Even when the novel showed in its earlier chapters
that women there are taught to be submissive and
understand the feelings of others, I would always
love how it showed in the end about women
empowerment; that its not always men who will be
dominant and strong, but can also be the women.
Each character and story has a deeper meaning and it
helped me understand why there are so many
immigrants that are having a hard time adapting to
cultural changes.
 Own Reflection
Many of us, especially young people, we sometimes think
that sharing secrets to our parents is somewhat not
comfortable to the feeling, so what we do is we just keep it
on our own or we share our secrets to our friends (just like
in the story, Winnie tells everything to her best friend Helen
but never to her daughter). We even think that our parents
are already old so even if we share them our problems or
secrets, since they are our parents, we know that they will
really listen, but the reason why we are afraid and shy is that
they might not really understand the whole situation and
what we really feel about it which is why we keep secrets to
them.
 Own Reflection
We should start thinking that once in their life they were
also young and they also had encountered problems and
circumstances, just maybe not the same as what you are now
experiencing. The most important is, THEY ARE OUR
PARENTS, so since you share the same blood, whats the
sense/point of not telling them your problems? Parents are
the only ones who can really understand and help you in
whatever situation you encounter.
Books were my salvation. They save me from being miserable. - Amy Tan

End of
Presentation
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