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Simple Recipes Theme

714 Words3 Pages

The theme of the short story Simple Recipes by: Madeleine Thien is: change. Whether the change is through a person or moving to a new country with a different culture, it is clear it is the main theme of the story. The author, Madeleine Thien tells a story through cooking, of her family's journey immigrating from Malaysia to Vancouver, and their transition to the new culture and country. She discusses how the journey didn't just mean a new lifestyle, but a change in her family, a hard one. This cauliflower represents the scene where Madeleine's brother spits and chokes out the cauliflower his father has prepared. The dish was from their original country back in Malaysia. However, the new culture doesn't cook the cauliflower the same way. Her brother is getting used to the change in culture …show more content…

This made the story all the more understandable and meaningful because we are hearing firsthand how hard it was for Madeleine's family to transition into the new country and culture. “I see my father holding the bamboo pole between his hands. The pole is smooth. The long grains, fine as hair, are pulled together, at intervals, jointed. My brother is lying on the floor as if thrown down and dragged there. My father raises the pole into the air.” (Thein 92 - 93) You can feel how sad and scared she must be of her father, the monster who went so low as to try and beat the Malaysian culture back into her brother. The conflict in the short story helps to develop the theme of change as the conflict was quite literally the change from Madeleine's parent's home country of Malaysia to Vancouver. The family immigrating meant they had to fight the battles against the new society's lifestyle, opinions, clothing choices, and culture, to keep their old culture around. This change caused her father to turn to brutality, creating more tension and conflict because they weren't used to the new culture, and her father couldn't accept them adjusting to

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