Coming Home Again

The story "Coming Home Again" is about a boy who's passion for cooking goes deeper than fixing "Mahn-doo filling." I like the fact that they sat down as a family growing up. That alone tells so much about the character of their family. A family that eats together tends to be closer to each other than most typical American family. In "Coming Home Again" this bond comes before the family even starts to eat as a family. It starts with the preperation of the food that closely ties the main character and his mom together. The food symbolizes the unity of the family, also the communication between one another for an example, even though the main character's mom couldn't speak english her and Mrs. Churchill used food to verbalize without saying much. They understood the true meaning of cooking. I think its ironic that his mom sends him off to Exeter before she finds out she is dying. The fact that she is dying with stomach cancer makes it even more ironic because now she can't eat the things she onced loved to cook, and connect with her family like she once did. An example is the year of 1990 when they all ate and she pushed the food out of her mouth. It seems like his mom was the head of the house hold rather than his dad, even though the author states "She zealously recounted his excellence as a student in medical school and reminded me, each night before I started my homework, of how hard he drove himself in his work to make a life for us." I say she was the head of the house hold because she cooked, made sure his school work was done, taught him how to cook, and play basketball.
I believe that him going to school opened up a new world for him which only made him look down at his mom's old lifestyle and realized that her old lifestyle is the same lifestyle that he left from and also returning to. After realizing that about his mom they get into an arguement about calling the bank manager. I don't think he got upset at the fact that she couldn't really speak english but he got upset about her not wanting to learn even though she told him to go to school. He just wanted the best for his mother is what I think. One thing I noticed about the Korean culture is how they are big about school and they work extra hard to make life easier. Another thing is how his dad went to medical school. You see alot of Asians/Koreans in the medical field.
The oppostion of the story is after she became sick and died it seems like he took care of the house like his mother use to, but you can tell that it didn't feel like home since his mother had passed. Him and his father really didn't have much to say to each other at the dinner table which made me think that the mother was the bonding agent not only for the great tasting food but also the bonding agent between him and his father. It seems like loosing his mother made him loose sight of his ability to cook and his relationship with his dad because he says, "But nothing turned out quite right—not the color, not the smell. At the table, neither of us said much of anything." I think the author named this story "Coming Home Again" because everytime he comes home its always something new that he learns from cooking, to realizing his mom's routine, til her death.
I can relate to this story because my family is big on cooking and thats when the most conversation happen about our day and our life. It sets the mood on the conversation as well as give us time to bond. Cooking in my family symbolizes happiness and joy! I think Lee wants us to relate to this story by getting closer to our family memebers before its too late and have something to connect with them with. Being that I'm African American I can really realate because were known for our soul food cooking and it connects us to our ancestors and our roots. I honestly feel everyone should have a connection to their culture.