"Catfish in the Bathtub" Response Questions

1. How does Kingston use the five senses to create descriptive imagery?  Give examples of her

use of sounds, tastes, smells, sights, and feelings.  Which do you believe are the most effective?

    Kingston uses sight, sound, smell, taste and touch to give the reader a vivid description of the cuisine that her mother prepared. I think that it was necessary to use the five senses to the fullest extend to get a full understanding of the food that Kingston was forced to eat. Some examples of the use of the five senses are when she describes the smell of the skunk when her mother was butchering it, and how she tried to cover up the smell by burying her nose in candy. When Kingston described the time when she would hide under the bed and plug her ears when her mother was boiling turtles, she was using the sense of sound to describe the experience. While reading the essay, I thought that the use of sight and sound were the most effective in delivering the experience of her mother’s cuisine.

2. Evaluate the use of dialogue (records of spoken words or conversation) in this essay?  What

effect does it have on your understanding of Kingston’s main point? 

    The dialogue in the essay was provided by her mother. Her mother would tell stories of people eating monkey brains, or other unique foods, I think to defend her choice of ingredients. Her mother said, “If it tastes good, it’s bad for you, and if it tastes bad, it’s good for you.” I think she made this statement because she wanted her children to understand that what she was feeding them was for their health, not to punish them. I believe that Kingston included this dialogue so that the reader has a better understand of the Chinese culture and traditional cuisine.

3. Although other incidents or ideas are described rather briefly, Kingston devotes a full, detailed

paragraph to a description of the monkey feast…why do you think she does this?

    Although a monkey fest is something that I have known about, I think she uses the story to introduce the reader to new world of cuisine. The monkey feast is so bizarre compared to western culture’s eating traditions that I think it was meant to shock the reader as well as teach the reader about other cultures. I think it is important to respect other cultures, especially their cuisine.  It is important not to judge no matter how disgusting or brutal we find another cultures food choice or way of eating.

4. Throughout the essay, Kingston combines very realistic description (the bear’s claw, the turtles

thudding against the pot, the monkey feast) with various similes and metaphors…what figures

of speech (see description notes) does Kingston use in the essay?

    Kingston uses a combination of objective and subjective description, although she relies more heavily on objective description. Kingston did use simile in her essay, for example when she says, “there was a tender plant with flowers like white stars…”

5. “Catfish in the Bathtub” opens with a lengthy catalog of foods that Kingston’s mother

prepared, yet ends with a very brief, simple statement.  Why do you think she does this?  How

effective is this concluding strategy?

    I think that Kingston begins the essay with a list of the foods that she ate growing up so that the reader had a sense of her family’s cuisine. Throughout the essay the reader learns and understands why her mother prepared the foods she did, and why Kingston never grew to appreciate the food. As her mother stated that food that is good for you tastes bad explains why the Chinese answer yes to the question, “have you eaten yet?”