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Simple Slaves : A Short Story : Simple Love

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Simple Love

One simple sequence of actions can create a ripple of complex changes in the life of a child. The narrator in “Simple Recipes” has a simple view of love as she begins this short story. Being a member of an immigrant family, there can be many culture shocks, even for the parents. The narrator was born in Canada, but her brother, mother, and father were born in Malaysia. She has many fond memories of her father, as they did everything together when she was young. One day, a problem arose with her brother and father, causing a change in the narrator’s view of life forever. The brother’s choice to reject the Malaysian culture, her father’s simple, yet explosive, way of dealing with his rejection, and the narrator’s innocent ignorance of her father’s imperfections all create a ripple of complexities.
The narrator in “Simple Recipes” is describing to us a few “simple” recipes, in this short story. The Oxford Dictionary defines the key term “simple” as “easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty.” From that definition, the narrator is leading us to believe that these experiences are merely plain, basic, or uncomplicated. However, it seems that the encounters she presumes to be simple might be more complex than what her young mind can comprehend. When the incident with her brother’s disrespect and the father’s misunderstanding happened, the simple view of everything being “easily understood or done” was crushed. The innocent, childish love she had for her father was crushed. In her mind, nothing was simple anymore.
The narrator’s brother was born in Malaysia, as described in the story, however when their family immigrated to Canada, “the language left him. Or he forgot it, or he refused it” (BIL 340). The brother does not give one a picture of a desirable relationship with his family. Rather, he has a lack of respect for his parents’ desires and disobeys simple commands. He seems caught up with the culture of the people in his new home in Canada, rather than the Malaysian ways that his father decided to cling to. Simple acts, such as not washing his hands when he was told and arguing with his sister, contributed to his father’s anger which could be the birth of the problems that were to come and

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