Coming Home Again Chang-Rae Lee Analysis

Food plays an integral role in the short story Coming Home Again by Chang-Rae Lee. From an immigrant perspective, food would first and foremost be a means of survival in a foreign world. Food would be the one constant that bridged the gap between Korea, Lee’s home country, and America. Therefore, food would act as a reminder of home. More specifically to the story, however, food in Lee’s life is a symbol of family and nostalgia. By analyzing several sections from Coming Home Again, it is possible to distinguish exactly how and why food is so important to this family. First, food is a symbol of family for the Lee’s. Much like any typical American family, the Lee’s gather around the kitchen table for dinner and enjoy the bountiful food that has been prepared by Chang-Rae. In the present time, Chang-Rae’s mother is very ill, which forces her to lack an appetite and often frighten members of the family when she falls silent. Even with this tension in the air, the dinner table is where the Lee’s come together to enjoy what little time they have left with each other. While Chang-Rae’s mother used to cook meals, it is now his responsibility in light of his mother’s illness. According to Lee: I wasn’t cooking for my mother but for the rest of us. When she first moved downstairs she was eating, though scantily, more just to taste …show more content…
However, whereas love and life are simply that, food symbolizes something greater, almost a combination of love and life. One way in which this can be observed is that food is the only thing that brings the Lee family all together, something that will not happen in the future. Finally, food acts as a physical representation of nostalgia, in that at one point in the past, Lee’s mother used to prepare food, but now that responsibility is up to him. It makes Lee wish for the better, good old days. These are the two main reasons why food is so critical to Coming Home