Review
Simple Recipes
A simple recipe is a book written by an author called madeleine thien that premiered in 2001. It is a short story that explains a lot about family issues and other conflicts that have made many families apart in the recent period. In a little history about the author and how she managed to write her book, many considerations should be observed for a better analysis. Madeleine Thien was born in Canada from a family of Chinese and Malaysian parents. Her parents were immigrants from China to Canada, where they settled and started a new life. Madeleine is the second born from a family of four members, and her only older brother is the only sibling that she has. She is a half cast of two Asian parents, and therefore, she does not remember the culture and belief of their people back in the home country (Horáková, 2016). According to the writer, her father is a stringent man regarding the preservation and maintenance of their culture. Since the writer was born in the Canadian soil, her father took a great responsibility to take care of the girl. Her father and the customs teach her many cultural aspects that her parents had been following.
In simple recipes, Madeleine has been depicted as one of the people who have been distressed by her family and the things that she sees her father doing to the rest of the family. Their family is very widely divided in terms of cultural beliefs and customs according to the Malaysian norms. Her father has focused very much on the preservation of Malaysian culture and is determined to instill it to her daughter, who is a Canadian born but from Asian Chinese parents. On the other hand, madeleine’s mother is doing contrary to what her father has been doing. She has been very busy assimilating to the Canadian culture, beliefs and norms while still learning from the Canadian people from time to time. Her brother, who has also been a reject to her father’s way of life, is often abused by his father for following other people’s culture and forgetting where she came. According to the writer, he was born in Malaysia before they had migrated to Canada. Thus his father expected that he should be very keen on following the home culture instead of assimilating and learning foreign culture, which would be very harmful to the future generation. Since she was born in Canada, her father has taken significant time in teaching her the ways of life back in Malaysia, cooking Malaysian food and recipes. However, she does not make it so seriously, and sometimes she finds herself forget.
Knowing more about the writer has helped me understand the flow of the story and materialize what I have just read to the things that have been happening in the modern world. Since the story is about family conflicts, cultural indifferences, and family violence, according to the writer’s life, it is very evident to say that it has helped me a lot in understanding the main themes and characters in the story. When you look at the author’s information, it reflects the issues that have been revolving back to her in her story. Violence has been one of the major distresses in the family and has ensured that the family could end up in constant conflicts and misunderstandings within the family (Gui, 2017). For example, madeleine is born from immigrant parents from Malaysia. Therefore, growing within the expectations of the Malaysian family will lead to more twists of the cultural value and customs. The author talks about what she has witnessed from the abuse of her brother by her father due to failure to observe Malaysian norms saying that he has neglected or chosen not to remember because h does not want to be reminded. At least, one as a reader of the short stories quickly identifies some of the literature concepts that have been used to show illustrations and how the flow was made. Madeleine was also not in good peace while seeing her father abuse her brother, and she says from the story that it is tough for her to keep the memories of how her father used to treat them. The mother and son chose personally do not follow the Malaysian norms and be assimilated in the streets of Canada.
Comparison between ‘simple recipe’ and ‘treading water.’
Literary devices
Literature refers to written words and expressions on how people try to explain their thought through different means of writing. They can be expressed through comparison with other character traits or exposition of specific themes that cover a story. In literature devices, not all people will understand the themes or the real meaning of the story. In contrast, others may end up interpreting the story otherwise according to their understanding of the concept. These two stories explain how families are affected by violence and how a family can easily be drifted away from its members without knowing day in day out. All the stories have outlined their effectiveness on the literal devices, and therefore, its use is limited to the frame of the story. The simple recipe is written based on the lives of Malaysian family immigrants who strictly believe in the conservation of the culture through the foods they eat and the practices. It is also based on several domestic violence actions by the father. On the other hand, treading water is based on a young boy who has a specific disorder that makes him smell like a fish every time. The disease is due to a lack of secretion of particular hormones, and therefore, it has led to him being excluded in the society, stigmatized and a misery love life.
According to the stories, the story concerning the simple recipe has been portrayed with a lot of literal devices compared to that of treading water. The author shows some flashbacks on how she went through a lot of a hard time with her father’s behaviour and the conflict between her brothers. In the story, madeleine explains how she feels about the kitchen whenever she remembers about her father treated her brother. The story has elaborated on several literary devices that are evident in modern society and families. Domestic violence has been witnessed, and her brother’s lack of freedom to choose what he thought was better for him (Pingley, 2017). The father of the writer used manifestation of their home country culture Malaysia to a foreign country against their wish. As the writer reiterates, she did not be any keen about what her father told her even sometimes she could have forgotten. Culture has been used in the story to show how the father of the writer was clung to country values and customs, mainly traditional foods and recipes. These are the effects of real-life situations in the current century. Children should not be limited alongside teaching them traditional ways.
Based on the theme
According to my choice of the two stories, the simple recipe and treading water, I would base my argument on the type and number of themes illustrated in the stories. Some of the themes in treading water is stigmatization due to disorder, misery life projected to the ever-annoying parents and his missing father, and unfortunate love life. On the other hand, a simple recipe story has three main themes: domestic violence, cultural indifferences and conflicts. In my opinion, the story about a simple recipe has conclusively shown the variety of themes that are diverse and common in the 21st century. In many societies, domestic and social violence has been widely witnessed and affects many people in the course. Madeleine’s brother was mistreated and abused by her father occasionally due to him not following the Malaysian people’s traditions and customs. These cases are prevalent in modern society, and therefore, the writer did an outstanding job of illustrating the fact of how people go about violence and conflicts at home.
The story ‘simple recipe’ has adequately elaborated on how modern society faces a lot of crises between families. The other theme that is used in the story is cultural indifferences between families. Here lies a lot of questions on whether to observe cultural practices of places where we visit or import how the previous culture. In the madeleine family, they are all divided into two groups: her mother and brother have engaged in the cultural practices of Canadian people and import their culture. They have left the home country culture and all they had believed. An example of this is that her brother does not like to eat Malaysian food that his father had taught her and liked the most. On the other hand, Madeleine and her father were busy learning about Malaysians’ culture and cooking traditional foods.
These conflicts are witnessed in every modern society; therefore, the simple recipe story has elaborated on the various causes that contribute significantly to disputes. Madeleine’s father abused her brother because he did not like eating fish (Omar & Omar, 2018). There was nothing she could have done at the moment, and when she remembers, it is a sad memory to her. Her father did not accept the fact that some had neglected the ways of society. It is what happens in the new community; children adapt to the environment they are exposed. There is a very high chance that, according to the information the writer has provided, her brother may be absorbed by Canadian culture. One reason is that he played American football, meaning that she had blended well with the other students and friends. Though her father taught her some essential rituals and recipes to cook food, she did not put a lot of effort as she says sometimes she cannot do as her father did. The simple recipe story has many important themes that show diversification compared to that of treading water.
References
Horáková, M. (2016). ” Liminal Spaces in Madeleine Thien’s Simple Recipes.
Gui, W. (2017). Short Story Collections and Crowded Selves: Madeleine Thien’s Simple Recipes and Jeremy Tiang’s It Never Rains On National Day.
Pingley, T. (2017). The impact of witnessing domestic violence on children: A systematic review.
Omar, S. R., & Omar, S. N. (2018). Malaysian heritage food (MHF): a review on its unique food culture, tradition and present lifestyle. International Journal, 1(3), 01-15.