Simple Recipes

The unnamed narrator of “Simple Recipes” is an observer. As a second-generation Canadian, she doesn’t have the same cultural conflicts as her brother or parents do, since they were born in Malaysia and immigrated. At the same time, she has her own conflicts unique to her identity as a second-generation child of first-generation parents.

This narrator is also a character who takes the reader through the conflicts in her family related to cultural issues. What she demonstrates is that each character has their own relationship to the various attitudes about immigration and cultural identification. The narrator, as the only second-generation member of the family, has the easiest time with assimilation. Yet she still has conflicts, as shown through the way she makes the rice compared to her father, the way she keeps her home, and the surprise and unease she feels over her father’s beating of her brother.

When she rejects the gift of a rice cooker or admits to her sloppy cooking in contrast to her father’s meticulous care while he cooks, she demonstrates the ease with which she can occupy what to everyone else in her family is a foreign country.

In keeping with the theme of home in this story, the main character also reveals the differences between her and her parents’ ties to their cultural heritage by discussing the differences in their homes; theirs is greasy and smelly, while she keeps the windows open and the fan on when she cooks.