Breaking The Silence:an Interpretation Of The Kitchen God’s Wife From The Feminist Perspective

Amy Tan, who undoubtedly ranks among the most celebrated Chinese American women writers, bounded into fame after the publication of her first novel, The Joy Luck Club. The Kitchen God’s Wife, published in1991as Tan’s second triumph, soon became an immediate best seller and received warm applause from both critics and readers.The Kitchen God’s Wife narrates the ways by which women can empower themselves to protest and break the silences despite various obstructions. Women’s awakened rebellious consciousness, the sincere motherhood and the sisterhood as spiritual bond are greatly embodied in the novel.This thesis applies the method of Feminism to explore the unique womanhood, motherhood, and sisterhood embodied in the novel. The main body of the thesis embraces three chapters. Chapter One is mainly illustrated from two aspects. On the one hand, by analyzing the inhumane lives of the three silenced women victims, the thesis’s author aims at pointing out the fact that patriarchy is the devastating root which silences women’s voices. On the other hand, through the analysis of the protagonist—Winnie and other women characters in the novel, the author comes to the conclusion that women’s awakening and rebellion are important means to break the silence. At the end of the chapter, the author points out that the title and the narrative of the work prove Tan’s deconstruction of patriarchy. Chapter Two gives detailed analysis of the mother-daughter relationship between Winnie Louise and her mother and that of Winnie and her daughter Pearl, which aims to illustrate that silence-breaking is an effective way to help them seek culture and gender identity by regaining intimate mother-daughter relationship and reaching mutual understanding. Chapter Three firstly states the feminist background of sisterhood, especially the indispensable role it plays in the second wave of feminist movement. And by discussing the sincere friendship in Winnie and her women friends, the author points out that sisterhood as spiritual bond awakens women’s feminist consciousness as well as rebellious spirit and pushes them to form alliances to fight against patriarchy by group therapy and speaking out their stories.It henceforth concludes that The Kitchen God’s Wife is a feminist work. Moreover, the womanhood, motherhood, and sisterhood embodied in the novel indeed highlight the feminist theme of silence-breaking.