Simple Recipes Summary

Madeleine Thien’s “Simple Recipes” explores the loss of culture and questions the idea of unconditional love. The loss of a Malaysian family’s culture leads to resentment between the father and son. Consequently, the son’s rebellious behavior concerning his culture results in violence, and this action causes the narrator to question her love towards her father. The narrator’s mother teaches her about guilt as a bruise, suggesting that she has complete control over her guilt. The simple recipe of rice represents the unconditional love the narrator has for her father, and that love is not quite as simple as it seems. Thien explores the consequences of assimilation through depictions of violence, guilt, and the uncertainty of unconditional love.

The narrator’s brother, though born in Malaysia, has forgotten and refuses the Malayan dialect. Furthermore, the son rebels against his own ancestry and language, offending his father with his derogatory English slang. In addition, his father is a constant reminder of the Malaysian culture he so openly rejects, and his careless words transform into a beating from his father. The narrator describes her view of the horrific violence: “The bamboo drops silently. It rips the skin on my brother’s back. I cannot hear any sound. A line of blood edges quickly across his body” (344). Thien describes the horrific scene in detail and with charged poetic language. It is strange that the bamboo stick is described in a gentle tone to commit such a violent act. This disjunction suggests, the narrator is very distraught viewing her father in such a state of violence compared to his gentleness in the kitchen. The violence will turn “all [the] love to shame and grief" in the family and "will break [them] apart" (346). Because of the father's abuse, each character's love is tested. The narrator fears that her love for her father will turn to shame and

Thien suggests the idea of experience versus innocence. A child’s unconditional love and loss of innocence is compared to her father’s learned and experienced love. The narrator loses her innocence as a child when she experiences the traumatic event of her father beating her brother. She asks, “How to reconcile all that I know of him and still love him?” (346). Thein poses the question of whether love remains unconditional or whether there are barriers blocking the gate to forgiveness. Preparing food and the simple recipe of rice is a main connection that the daughter and the father have: “[my] father taught it to me when I was a child” (338). Within the family, food is a tool that the father used to teach his daughter about their Malaysian culture. The daughter accepts this act as opportunity to learn about her culture and as for the son, he is not so intrigued by the gentle teachings of his