Kitchen

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The hybrid narrative is multimeaningful. The story about a tiny kitchen depicts a clear way in which the Japanese people overcome hardship together. In the adorable plots of Mikage and Yuichi, it seems that they are in love; in fact, the relationship between them is just human care, which is greater than any form of romantic love. The fact that Yuichi invites Mikage to stay at his house comes from a genuinely humane gesture during her hard time. Therefore, when Yuichi’s mother dies, Mikage switches her position with Yuichi to help him with the same suffering. From Kitchen, the readers can realize that humans usually have to overcome challenges that are out of their control. During this lonely time, one always needs some form of caring from other people to light up the dark paths. This perspective influences the whole story. Both Yuichi’s lover and Mikage’s boyfriend cannot determine what kind of relationship exists between the two protagonists. These two supporting characters are simply selfish: they are not capable of comprehending the protagonists’ hardships. People also need to respect the pricelessness of humane care more than the daily love stories of immature young people. The hybrid narrative expresses the hesitation in artistic thinking between tradition and postmodernism. In Kitchen, the female writer interweaves traditional elements in postmodernity and vice versa. She points out that loneliness, disaster, the multiplicity of life, and the desire to escape, which existed long before, are now exploding in the postmodern era. People need to seriously consider their behavior so that life is not destroyed by human greed and carelessness. Maybe YAs would relate to the characters better than I did (I have no idea), but I'd be reluctant to recommend it to them because of the next problem... Mikage the orphan is lonely, having no one to lean on and no motivation to live on. At that time, her life is filled with emptiness. While losing her will to live, a “prince” Yuichi appears. The flow of the plot appears to be similar to a fairytale set in a peaceful kitchen. Life/nature’s blessing: Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow The sudden deaths of beloved others also appear in many of Banana’s other works. Traditional Japanese writers are keenly aware of the mortality of humans. In Lid of the sea, the death of the grandmother drastically changed the fate of Hajime or in The Lake, the narrator Chihiro, a woman going on 30, also felt very sad after the death of her mother. Banana expresses Chihiro’s haunting loneliness in a thoughtful and simple style, just as Orthofer observed, “Presented in typical Yoshimoto-fashion, the style deceptively artless, the account seemingly straightforward and simple, the characters adrift” (Orthofer, 2011).

There's something about Japanese writers. They have the unparalleled ability of transforming an extremely ordinary scene from our everyday mundane lives into something magical and other-worldly.During the time that Mikage spends with Eriko and her son, Yuichi, the latter who appeared to be a quiet unassuming person, was slowly transformed into a soul-mate of Mikage which rather stunned her. She felt he knew her very soul. The next day, she offers to cook a feast for Yuichi to cheer him up. Yuichi is enlivened by the idea and rushes out to get the ingredients. Suddenly, Mikage feels heavy as visions of Eriko’s face torment her. Not knowing what to do, Mikage starts to clean the kitchen. As she cleans, she starts to feel better. Continuing the topic of death, hurt, and overcoming, Banana uses her characters to reflect that “you could take the negative view and live in fear: Will it happen again? But it won’t hurt so much if you just accept it as a part of life” (Banana, 1993, pp. 139–140). The next story in Kitchen is Moonlight Shadow with four characters: Satsuki, who has just lost Hitoshi, her lover, and Hiiragi, Hitoshi’s younger brother, who also has just lost someone, Yumiko, his girlfriend; both of the deceased died in a car accident. The survivors are in a relationship with these dead people. Satsuki goes jogging every morning to lessen her heartbreak. Hiiragi, on the other hand, keeps wearing the uniform of his dead girlfriend to class with the hope of keeping her by his side. This is also a connection between the two stories in Kitchen. While Mikage’s story is about her trying to connect with Yuichi, this story of Satsuki is about her trying to find the silhouette of Hitoshi. I truly empathized with Mikage from the beginning of this story to the end. A tale that on the surface appeared to be simple and even trite at times, but which soon uncovered a multi-faceted kaleidoscope of human emotions which I had never seen expressed in this way before. Banana tells the story of a kitchen, but the main idea is about the overcoming of loneliness and unhappiness in the postmodern era, where humans may even be absolutely free but still have their own troubles. Kitchen is not a very romantic setting for a love story in the unconsciousness of many Eastern cultures, especially the Vietnamese and Japanese. It is a romantic story between a couple who fall in love or seem to be as such. In short, they are highly likely to develop feelings for each other. They both love the kitchen, not just one that is clean but also whichever one has basic functions, even when it does not seem that clean. Two lonely people meet in a lonely kitchen. This kind of “Banana loneliness” seems to represent the Japanese people who view life as so meaningless that all effort to put their life together appears to be futile act.

While sleeping on the sofa, Mikage has a dream about Yuichi being a princess and talks about how he wants ramen. In the morning, Yuichi also talks about the dream and they realize they had the same dream and the same kitchen.Banana Y (2017) Nap bien [Lid of the Sea] (trans: Hoa DT). Writers Association Publishing House, Hanoi Silent as they might be, they understood their partner's feelings as if they were communicating with one another through an invisible telephone. Wong C (2016) Banana Yoshimoto’s improbable literary journey from waitress to writer. https://theculturetrip.com. Accessed 15 Jan 2022

Yosimoto es minuciosa en el tratamiento de temas escabrosos y delicados (muerte, soledad, familia, sexo…) y lo hace de manera natural, sencilla, nada soez. Y, aunque su visión es realmente pesimista, parece que al final deja un rayo de luz para la redención. I thoroughly agree with her and that magical quality transforms what could have been a rather banal book into a great one. Can cooking help you cope with the despondency you feel from loss? I’m not talking about wolfing down garlic mashed potatoes from a pan; I’m talking about a multi-course gourmet meal that you are willing to toss out if it’s not perfect and start all over again. That’s the theme of Kitchen. Our main character is a twentyish-woman who lost her father at an early age and then her mother. She went to live with grandparents but her grandfather died, and then her grandmother, and now she has no living relatives.In the first part of Kitchen an orphan needs to leave her home. She is taken in by a boy and his trans parent, who works in clubs and bars. Loneliness and loss play major parts, and overall I got strong Tokyo Godfather vibes, in the sense that Banana Yoshimoto presents us a story of outcasts bonding together in a rather inhospitable, normative world. Telkens als ik met hem had afgesproken gebeurde hetzelfde: dan werd ik verdrietig omdat ik was wie ik was

In Freud’s theory, deep in the unconsciousness, artists have been affected by this kind of living environment, especially in the form of mental trauma. Maybe when writing, Banana did not think of these disasters, but she unconsciously cannot escape from the enchanting thought of death while writing her fiction. “Loneliness” and “sudden death” are similar to Japanese archetypes in this mindset. This fact can be suggested by the works of many famous writers from this nation known for its cherry blossom, from Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki, Abe Kobo, Mishima Yukio, and Yasunari Kawabata to Haruki Murakami. They all write about disasters that are sudden and inevitable, that have barely understood causes or that are unpredictable. Like an anime, focussing on feelings of loneliness and loss, and the human spirit that tries to find its way regardless. The last part of the book feels bolted on, but the overall message touched me Lost in Translation – what planet was everyone else on? This was a snoozefest. If you haven’t seen it, count yourself fortunate From this point, it can be concluded that Banana describes traumatic events to let her characters escape and live the life of human beings. The banana creates a series of hardships for her characters to force them to fight for their lives. This is much like prominent writers worldwide, namely, Ernest Hemingway, “But man is not made for defeat. […] A man can be destroyed but not defeated” (Hemingway, 1965, p. 95) or Kobo Abe in The Woman in the Dunes: sand cannot beat human beings (Abe, 1991). Placing humans in hardship is merely a means to make them assert their values. Life has too many pitfalls to prevent people from faltering, but these hardships only make them move faster toward the beautiful destinations of their lives. Still, this helpfully explains that losing a partner is even worse than losing a dog or a bird! So I've learned something.Her admittance of that causes her so much pain because she knows that naiveté is dangerous, but the other side of this is freedom. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge, understanding, is freedom. Yet, with all of that knowledge, in her selflessness she still hopes to avoid others feeling what she feels . She admits that, while she is wise, perhaps it’s easier for some not to be, to avoid the pain. Just when one can't take anymore, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that.’ Although one may notice a certain Western influence in Yoshimoto's style, Kitchen is still critically recognized as an example of contemporary Japanese literature; The Independent, The Times, and The New Yorker have all reviewed the novel favorably. One day, Eriko is gracefully watering the plants and telling Mikage about the time when Yuichi’s biological mother died. Eriko tells Mikage that life can be very hard, but those who never suffer can never understand joy. Mikage is comforted by Eriko’s words and thinks to herself that she’ll experience many moments of pain in her life but knows that she’ll keep going and won’t let her spirit be broken.