Inanimate objects often possess more value to individuals than what may appear at a mere glance, and some of these objects holding sentimental value often provide individuals with a positive feeling when associating with these objects. In Kitchen,...

Set in postmodern Japan, the novella Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is a tale of two young people struggling to find a means of self-expression. Suspended in a fast-paced society that often isolates them in a state of constant restlessness, the main...

In the Japanese novel, Kitchen, translated by Megan Backus, the author, Banana Yoshimoto, manipulates the motif of light in constructing ups and downs in Mikage’s life to show that loneliness leads to despair, while a connection to others induces...

“We moved deeper into the dead of night.” (page 50) Throughout Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto uses light and dark to describe the environment around Mikage, as well as assigning these traits to characters whom she interacts with. However, it is not so...

When one reads through Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower there are not any striking similarities. The ages of the characters, the trials they go through, and the culture they are respectively...