The novella Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is about Mikage Sakurai who has to come to terms with the death of her grandmother and Eriko Tanabe. Yoshimoto uses both the Kübler-Ross model of grief and the significance of the kitchen in Japanese culture to show Mikage’s grieving process. The Kübler-Ross model demonstrates the grieving process as a linear process that consists of five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However recent discoveries contradicting the Kübler-Ross model have been made, stating that the process does not follow a specific sequence, therefore, it is not linear. The grieving process is different for everyone. Mikage’s grieving process follows the emotional stages of the Kübler-Ross model in a nonlinear …show more content…
Yoshimoto describes the Tanabes' kitchen as having “a practical minimum of well-worn kitchen things,” (Yoshimoto 9) implying that Eriko and Yuichi rarely use their kitchen. The minimal use of the Tanabes' kitchen before Mikage’s arrival could imply that they had a broken kitchen and thus Eriko and Yuichi had a broken family. When Mikage moved into the Tanabes' apartment, she began to make great use of the Tanabes' practically new kitchen thus preventing her from dealing with her emotions. Yoshimoto shows Mikage’s bargaining when she says, “I gave myself permission to be lazy until May,” (Yoshimoto 21) however “[she] still went to [her] part-time job” (Yoshimoto 21) and after she finished with work she would “clean [the] house, watch TV, [and] bake cakes,” (Yoshimoto 21). The use of the activity “bake cakes” shows both how Mikage prevented herself from confronting her emotions by cooking and how she makes good use of Tanabes' kitchen. Mikage’s presence in the Tanabes' kitchen has not only made her a part of the family thus bringing the Tanabe family closer, but it has also made their kitchen whole