The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
"The Kitchen God's Wife" by Amy Tan is a poignant exploration of the complexities of mother-daughter relationships within the context of Chinese American culture. The story centers on Pearl, a young woman grappling with her identity and her strained relationship with her mother, Winnie. Pearl views her mother as an outdated figure, unaware of the profound secrets that shape Winnie’s life. As the narrative unfolds, the novel reveals Winnie’s tumultuous past in China, including her difficult marriage to a cruel husband and the loss of her children. This dual storytelling allows Pearl to uncover not only her mother’s history but also the hidden struggles she faces with her own health, including her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. The title symbolizes the evolving bond between mother and daughter, particularly as they share their burdens and secrets. By the end of the novel, Pearl gains a deeper understanding of her mother, leading to a more meaningful connection. Ultimately, Tan's work highlights the importance of acceptance, heritage, and the power of storytelling in healing familial relationships.
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Subject Terms
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
First published: 1991
The Work
The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan’s second novel, is concerned with a young, Americanized Chinese American woman’s quest to accept her heritage, and in so doing accept her family, especially her mother. The first section of the novel, told from the daughter Pearl’s point of view, concerns Pearl’s difficult relationship with her mother, Winnie. Pearl perceives Winnie only as an old, unfashionable woman with trivial concerns. Pearl is troubled by a secret that she believes she cannot tell her mother. Pearl has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but dreads her mother’s reaction, her reproaches, her list of ways Pearl could have prevented her disease.
Pearl comes to recognize that her mother has secrets of her own, which Winnie finally decides to share with her daughter. Most of the novel, which is also the part that has received the most critical praise, is Winnie’s first-person account of her childhood. The reader discovers along with Pearl that her mother has not always been the penny-pinching part-owner of a dingy, outdated florist’s shop. Instead, Winnie has had a life of tragedy and adventure before immigrating to the United States. She lived another life in China, complete with another husband and three long-dead children. Winnie’s mother disappeared when Winnie was a child, leaving her with her father and his other wives, who promptly sent her to live with an uncle. That uncle married her to Wen Fu, a sadistic, adulterous pilot, and Winnie soon began the nomadic life of a soldier’s wife during wartime. By the end of the war, Winnie found love with the man Pearl knows as her father, the Chinese American serviceman Jimmie Louie. Wen Fu had Winnie imprisoned for adultery when she tried to divorce him, then raped her upon her release. Pearl learns the secret her mother has been hiding—Jimmie Louie, who died when Pearl was fourteen, is not her biological father after all. When Pearl learns these secrets about her mother’s past, she is finally able to reveal the secret of her illness.
The title refers to an altar that Pearl inherits from a woman Winnie had known in China, and it symbolizes the growing closeness that Winnie and Pearl develop after sharing their secrets. The final scene shows Winnie buying her daughter a deity for the altar. This statue, whom Winnie names Lady Sorrowfree, the kitchen god’s wife, represents Winnie and her care for her daughter. By the end of the novel, Pearl achieves a greater understanding of her mother and of their often trying relationship.
Bibliography
Burkhardt, V. R. Chinese Creeds and Customs. 3 vols. Hong Kong: South China Morning Post, 1953-1958. Illustration of the Kitchen God and description of the male ritual connected with him (no females may participate) are included in “The Twelfth Month.” The account describes both the celebration of the Chinese New Year and the gifts given to gain the good will of this capricious but powerful god.
Dew, Robb Forman. Review of The Kitchen God’s Wife. New York Times Book Review 96 (June 16, 1991): 9. This review commends the epic proportions and domestic detail of this compelling but bitterly humorous story.
Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. This first book-length study of Tan’s work focuses on the mother/daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Hundred Secret Senses. A short biographical chapter plus individual chapters exploring each novel in-depth make this ideal for students of Tan’s novels.
Iyer, Pico. Review of The Kitchen God’s Wife. Time 137 (June 3, 1991): 57. Iyer sees the book’s main theme as forgiveness: To understand the miseries of Winnie Louie makes it difficult to judge her.
Kim, Elaine H. Asian-American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Context. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982. Although the book does not discuss Tan’s work, it is a useful guide for those who want more background on the tradition from which she springs. It focuses on the interwoven immigrant experiences of the Japanese and the Chinese in the United States. It details both the stereotypes of Orientals in American literature and early attempts by Asian Americans to combat them.
Shapiro, Laura. “From China, with Love.” Newsweek 117 (June 24, 1991): 63-64. This review of The Kitchen God’s Wife applauds Tan as a storyteller who touches the heart of the reader but criticizes her characterization and thematic development as superficial.
Tan, Amy. “Angst and the Second Novel.” Publishers Weekly 238 (April 5, 1991): 4-7. In this essay, Tan dissects the problems facing an author who has to live up to a huge first-novel success. Cautioning other writers about publishing a second book, she warns that critics are harder on a second effort. She also discusses the generally useless advice she received when writing a second novel and details her false starts as she worked on The Kitchen God’s Wife.
Tan, Amy. “Double Face.” In Home to Stay: Asian-American Woman’s Fiction, edited by Sylvia Watanabe and Carol Bruchac. Greenfield Center, N.Y.: Greenfield Review Press, 1990. This anthology includes a selection by Tan taken from The Joy Luck Club. The excerpt is prefaced by a statement by Tan that tells about her own extraordinary life, which was more unconventional than that of her characters. The anthology also has generous selections from other Chinese American female writers whose work can be read to locate Tan’s work within a developing tradition.
Tan, Amy. “Lost Lives of Women.” Life 14 (April, 1991): 90-91. Using a group photograph, which she calls “a picture of secrets and tragedies,” Tan narrates a microscopic version of the genesis of her novels.
Yglesias, Helen. “The Second Time Around.” Women’s Review of Books 8 (September, 1991): 1, 3. The universal appeal of The Kitchen God’s Wife lies in the immigrant’s experience: the contrast between the rigid class structures and male domination experienced by the female in China and the culture shock of the nonspeaking Chinese wife and mother in America.
Young, Pamela. “Mother with a Past.” Maclean’s 104 (July 15, 1991): 47. This discussion of The Kitchen God’s Wife focuses on Tan’s problems writing a follow-up book to her first spectacular success. Tan made false starts, such as beginning and abandoning books on the San Francisco earthquake and on immortality. Young compliments Tan on her second book, which, the critic argues, shows incredible deftness at switching styles to capture different types of scenes.