From The Kitchen God's Wife To Lady Sorrow Free

Amy Tan. the famous Chinese American writer, was awarded many prizes and received plenty of tributes both from abroad and at home since the publication of her first novel The Joy Luck Club in 1989, which was an instant success. The studies on her first novel are still blooming, while those on her second novel The Kitchen God's Wife in 1991 are fewer. My thesis concerns the theme of self-identity in The Kitchen God's Wife and makes an analysis of the text based on Satre's "existentialism". My thesis aims to demonstrate how the individual value of the heroine can be achieved in different culture backgrounds and to stimulate people to reflect upon both Chinese and American cultures in different periods, in other words, how a person achieves the so-called self identity.Satre's existentialism will be applied in my thesis to help explain Tan's dealing with the problem of identity and the double meanings embodied in the title The Kitchen God's Wife. Through the description of the changeable rejuvenescence and diversion of the heroine varying with different environments and times, it becomes clear: an individual can choose freely and changes with environments; Individual activity embodies personal value. The thesis discusses the heroine's fate and her realization of self from a "forgotten" victim in feudal society to a woman warrior combating her own rights and freedom, and then from a woman warrior to a great mother in her adopted country—Lady Sorrow Free, that is the way she lost her "self and regained a new identity; the way she chose to live along with certain self-identity, both in pre-communist China and America. The relationship between environment, choice and value is revealed together with the complexity of self-identity.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is a brief overview of Tan's life and experience and her sources for writing, next 'the Amy Tan phenomenon", and then sets up a framework, in which "existentialism" will be applied in the analysis of the novel. Chapter 2 elaborates in the first place on the pre-communist China background, then, on an ancient Chinese myth: The Kitchen God. which is exemplified with details upon textual analysis of The Kitchen God's Wife. Secondly, it dwells on the American background after the heroine's immigration, which reveals different oppressions in different societies. In this chapter, attempts are made to indicate the necessity and inevitability of a woman's journey for her self-hood. Chapter 3 reveals Weiwei's road to freedom; it deals with the heroine's contestation against the feudal dominant discourse, from blind acceptance to clear recognition, then to her rebel for the realization of her own value, namely, the accomplishment of self identity. Chapter 4 unveils mother-daughter's mutual identity. It aims to exemplify a new version of the sense of self-hood: the mother who is finally understood by her daughter creates a female deity "Lady Sorrow Free" representing herself, which is different from the basic definition of being an independent person. From the above statements, the conclusion of this study is drawn in Chapter 5: through the reclaiming and the active revision of Pearl's Chinese heritage, through the creation of a female deity by the heroine. Amy Tan opens before the readers the door to achieve not only self-identity but cultural identity as well, and comes to terms with the duality of self-hood as a Chinese American writer.