Analysis Of Kitchen By Banana

Different readers interpret and analyse texts differently. Each individual reader has different views and perceptions towards the aspects of life that evolve from either their experiences or lifestyle choices. A group of people may understand the world and its society differently from another group of individuals, because they have different cultural backgrounds, different lifestyles, or different experiences. Readers tend to understand texts differently mainly because of how they interpret the knowledge of the context within the text based upon their own past experiences or lifestyle.

In “Kitchen”, the idea behind the term modernity comes into play. It shapes the ways the target audiences can interpret the text. The novel, written by Banana

They will understand and view the world similarly to how Mikage sees her world. Furthermore, as the character who experiences loneliness and emptiness in the novel, Mikage understands the darkness existing within her life. Her experience of losing her grandmother leads her to a trap where she finds trouble looking for an exit. She struggles to find the path of joy as the effects of loneliness are blinding her perception. The character becomes desperate and is agonising for a resolution to escape the cycle of despair. For readers who went through such an experience as Mikage, they will overtly understand the theme of the novel and Mikage’s frustration. However, readers may alleviate their frustration differently from how Mikage escapes the cycle. Mikage mitigates her suffering by sharing her understanding towards the inevitable death to someone who understands her and share her acknowledgement. As for the readers, they may cope with their sufferings through different ways. For instance, a person who live his or her life solitarily may find joy through hobbies or

For instance, Mikage has an intimate relationship with kitchen of all types. Her interest in kitchens is explained through a description within the novel, “I love even incredibly dirty kitchens to distraction-vegetables droppings all over the floor, so dirty your slippers turn black on the bottom” (Yoshimoto, 1988). Her explanation towards a kitchen emphasises how the crucial factor that will save her from the doomed and renovated society is the company a kitchen can provide. The small particular activities that a kitchen provides, such as vegetables preparation or meats tenderisation, distract the character and allow her to temporarily step out of the cycle of despair. Readers who can relate to Mikage’s interest may share the same lifestyle as the character and may understand the theme of the novel mainly through this type of interpretation. Thus, readers who focus and interpret the text through analysing Mikage’s lifestyle, and how she utilises kitchen as a source of alleviation to her suffering, may absorb the context of gender role and the duties that female gender encumbers within the Japanese culture. Readers who acknowledge the context behind Japanese culinary art can interpret how food preparations and culinary techniques are crucially rooted within the Japanese culture. The author emphasises how often Mikage spends quality times