Fishing for Inspiration

For centuries, artists, writers and philosophers have been struggling with the concept of identity, the idea of individuality within a group and the search for one’s true self. In his autobiographical essay “Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee explores these themes by investigating his relationship with his late mother. As he describes his childhood and his evolution by recounting stories that revolve around the theme of food, which is highly symbolic of his family’s Korean culture and the strong bond that unites him to his mother, the author reflects on his own transformation away from his family when he was sent to a prestigious boarding school, and on how immersing himself in a new culture and set of values made his relationship with his mother change. Without ever formulating it as such, the author raises the question of our ability to grow in a new environment while staying true to our roots.
The most peculiar feature of “Coming Home Again” is not its central theme itself, but rather the way the author explores this theme. Chang-Rae Lee uses food as a connection to his mother, and therefore to his origins, and most of his interactions with his mother revolve around this common heritage of food culture. He remembers that “when [he] was six or seven years old, [he] used to watch [his] mother as she prepared [his] favorite meals.” (264) He also describes the first time his parents visited him after he started school by depicting the traditional food his mother had brought with her and how he ate it “so fast that [he] actually went to the bathroom and vomited.” (268) Finally, he even uses the memory of the last meal he made for her to highlight the severity of the cancer that killed her, describing her “swallowing hard, as if to quell a gag.” (265)
Towards the end of the essay, the author shows us once again how food was an important bond between himself and his mother in a strikingly beautiful paragraph. He writes: “During the following days, it was always the