Reader's Ink discussion
How to be An American Housewife
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Question 4: Narrators
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Alisha
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Oct 01, 2014 04:28PM

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The novel has two narrators: Shoko and Sue. Shoko's voice and story is the dominate one and also the more interesting of the two. Her chapters all begin with advice from the How To pamphlet. Some of the advice is funny and some horrifyingly depressing in it's straight forward honesty about the prejudices the wives can expect and have to accept. Even with all her hardships and loss, Shoko's life comes across as exotic. Sue's story is harder to soften towards because it is contemporary and not as uncommon. However both women are carefully drawn and fully realized characters--as are the other characters in the book. My favorite character was Shoko, the mother. She was tough and hard yes, but I liked who she was, and the challenges she faced in the book and life long ones too.