Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre: A book of Poems written in Hawaiian Pidgin (1993)
Followedby
Blu's Hanging (1997)
Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers is a Japanese American-Hawaiian adult fiction novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. Its tonality is distinctive to that of a local Hawaiian culture in that all the main characters speak in Hawaiian Pidgin. Although it is an adult fiction novel, the plot follows a young Japanese girl throughout her years in middle school. The major themes of the novel include comparing a mother-daughter relationship with a father-daughter one, finding one's identity, and the politics of Japanese Hawaiian culture in a white America.
Sections of the novel were adapted for the award-winning film, Fishbowl(2005), by Hawaii filmmaker Kayo Hatta, that aired nationally on PBS in 2006.
Plot introduction
The novel's characters and setting stay true to Lois-Ann Yamanaka's local upbringing on the Big Island of Hawaii. Written in both English and Hawaiian Pidgin, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers is a coming-of-age first-person narrative of Lovey Nariyoshi, a local Japanese girl growing up in Hilo, Hawaii in the 1970s. During the anti-Japanese wave that flowed through the United States during this time period, Lovey looks back at all of the key events and people in her life that help shape the young girl she becomes in the end. By only seeing white stars on TV, discovering the birthing canal with her pregnant teenage-neighbor Katy, rationalizing her best friend Jerome's homosexuality and other events, Lovey tries to find her place in the world - a world that constantly tells her that being pure Japanese is not beautiful.
Explanation of the novel's title
Apart from being the title of the novel, "Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers" is also the title of the eleventh chapter in the book. Here, Lovey describes the wild animals that her father, Hubert, hunts, kills, and cooks for the family. One day Hubert brings home a black-and-white calf that Lovey's sister Calhoon names Bully. The chapter ends when Hubert fries hamburgers for the girls, burgers made with Bully meat. The wild smell of the Bully Burgers fills the entire kitchen, and neither of them can eat dinner that night.
Plot summary
The novel takes place, roughly, over a period of three years. Part One begins when Lovey is in the sixth grade and she and her best friend Jerry are watching a Shirley Temple movie. Lovey comments on how there is always a happy ending in movies, but never in real life – especially in her own life where she is pure Japanese, and not pretty like the haoles and hapa children in her class. And so she and Jerry constantly make up their own obituaries when they are playing together.
We are introduced to both of Lovey's parents in Part One: Verva Nariyoshi being the mother that always seems unhappy with Lovey, and Hubert Nariyoshi being the father that treats Lovey like the son he never had. Other characters in this section include Katy – the Nariyoshi's pregnant teenage neighbor that teaches Lovey that babies come out of a woman's vagina and not the other end. Aunt Helen is another neighbor, and Verva's best friend.
Among all the characters in the novel, Lovey learns the most from her father Hubert. He teaches her about the "dominate and recessid jeans" of pea flowers and rabbit mating on their farm, hunting wild turkey and other animals, and tells her not to get too close to any the animals bred for food - like the cow that Calhoon names Bully. Hubert also teaches Lovey about his Japanese Samurai ancestors, how they moved to Hawaii to work on the plantations on the island of Kauai, and how Lovey should be proud of her heritage.
Part Two begins at school, probably at the beginning of the seventh grade. Although Jerry is handsome enough to attract the eyes of the popular Lori Shigemura, their classmates still call him "Queer" and "Fag" and call Lovey "Queen" and "Lez." This is the section where Jerry's homosexuality is alluded to the most. He and Lovey both argue over who David Cassidy would rather date, and they both decide that it would be a blonde haole girl. This is also where Lovey gets her period and realizes that she hates being a girl.
In this section we are introduced to Jerry's older high school-aged brother Larry. Larry is always violent towards Lovey and Cal and Jerry, later killing their pet Koi in Part Three because they watch him and his girlfriend Crystal have sex in her bedroom.
Part Three is where most of the rising action occurs throughout the novel. Lovey and Jerry are now in their last year of middle school. We are given fuller descriptions of the Rays of the Rising Sun, a YMCA club consisting of the most popular girls in Lovey's class. Lori is a part of this group, and dances with Jerry at their Graduation Dance at the end of the year. Lori is constantly calling Lovey names because she is jealous of the relationship she has with Jerry.
And as mentioned before, Larry kills Lovey and Calhoon's pet Koi out of anger - Crystal gets pregnant and her mother takes her to Japan to abort the baby. However, a few months after she comes back home, she again gets pregnant by Larry. Refusing to live with the shame, she hangs herself.
But the most traumatic event in Part Three is when Hubert loses his eyesight during a hunting accident. Out of anger he yells and throws dirt at Lovey. And out of guilt he gets drunk and accidentally blows out his eyes when trying to shoot a deer. Lovey feels responsible, and finally learns that being proud of her ancestry is more important than the physical things that she lacks - things that society tells her she should have. Lovey flies to the island of Kauai to get a bag filled with dirt for her father to "see" his home again.
Characters
Lovey Nariyoshi - main character and protagonist of the novel. Lovey is the narrator, speaking in both standard English and Hawaiian Pidgin. Lovey hates being pure Japanese and would prefer to be haole or hapa. She and her best friend Jerry are in middle school and constantly pretend they are popular television characters including Shirley Temple and Donny Osmond & Marie Osmond. Lovey also hates being a girl, and she would much rather be a boy and hunt like her father, Hubert. Because of her self-loathing, Lovey is constantly butting heads with Hubert. It isn't until a terrible accident that Lovey begins to accept her heritage.
Hubert Nariyoshi - Lovey's father and the antagonist of the novel. It is through Hubert that Lovey undergoes a change in understanding and character by the end. Hubert lived and worked on the rice plantations on the island of Kaua'i. He left the island, moved to the Big Island of Hawaii and it is there where he raises his two daughters. He is married to Verva, although he plays a bigger role in Lovey's life than Verva.
Jerome "Jerry" - Lovey's best friend. His homosexuality is alluded to many times throughout the novel, but it is clear that he and Lovey have a deeper love beyond friendship. His quest for popularity with their classmates leaves Lovey alone at times, but he always comes back to her when these "friendships" do not work out. Jerry is tall and skinny, and although he is smaller than the other boys in their middle school, Jerry is good-looking enough to get the attention of popular girls.
Calhoon Nariyoshi - Lovey's younger sister. Cal and Lovey constantly butt heads, both vying for their father's affections. She gives Lovey derogatory nicknames throughout the book, including Oompa Loompa when their mother tries to Toni Perm her hair, and the name "Bloody Lovey" when Lovey gets her period. Cal is the typical younger sibling, sometimes understanding, but most of the time tattling on Lovey and Jerry. Verva constantly compares Lovey to Cal, wondering why her older daughter can't be like the younger one.
Verva Nariyoshi - Lovey's mother. Her role is both small in the novel, as well as in Lovey's life. She smokes Parliaments and constantly tries to change the outward appearance of Lovey. She blames her daughters for not being able to give Hubert a male heir.
Uncle Tora - Hubert's older brother. As a boy Tora was mean to Hubert. Later he writes Hubert a letter, apologizing for how he treated him as a child. Tora is the one that tells Hubert about the Nariyoshi's family heritage, stemming from Samurai in Russia. Tora plays a bigger role towards the end when he comes back and helps the family after the accident.
Larry - Jerry's violent older brother. He is always physically hurting Lovey, Jerry, and Cal. His girlfriend, Crystal, gets pregnant twice by him.
Crystal Kawasaki – the pretty girlfriend of Larry. She is both beautiful and smart and Verva hires her to tutor Lovey and Cal. The first time Crystal gets pregnant, her mother takes her to Japan to abort the child. But she gets pregnant a second time and commits suicide because of the shame.
Aunt Helen – One of the Nariyoshi's neighbors. She is Verva's best friend, and exactly like Verva in that they both criticize Lovey without any remorse. Aunt Helen plays a minor role in the novel.
Katy – the other neighbor of the Nariyoshi family. She is a pregnant teenager that Lovey grows fond of throughout the novel. She teaches Lovey the birthing process, and allows Lovey to play with her baby son, Charlie, whenever she comes over.
"The Teacher" - an unnamed character. Lovey and Jerry love this teacher and it seems that the relationship they have with her is a bit inappropriate. They are constantly spending nights over at this teacher's house, and she is constantly teaching them about Hell fire and the Devil. Verva finds out and forbids Lovey to speak to her ever again.
Grandma - Hubert's mother. She lives on the island of Molokai and Verva sends Lovey to spend a few weeks with her after she keeps getting nightmares of the Devil and Hell from "The Teacher." Grandma teaches Lovey about the true love of God[1]
Rays of the Rising Dawn - a YMCA girls club consisting of characters Traci Kihara, Gina Oshiro, Laura Murayama, Jodie Louie, Lori Shigemura, Rhonda Whang and Kandi Mitsuda. Lori has a bigger part in the novel than the rest of the girls because she has a constant crush on Jerry throughout their years in middle school.
Major themes
The major themes of the novel that is discussed by Literary Critics include comparing a mother-daughter relationship with a father-daughter one, finding one's identity and the politics of Japanese Hawaiian culture in White America.
Father-daughter relationship: Asian-American writers usually follow the pattern of writing about mother-daughter relationships (20).[2] Parents constantly want to live out their dreams through their children, particularly their children of the same sex. A son, to his father, should grow up just as strong and capable as his father in both the family and the working world. Likewise, a daughter should be as beautiful and ladylike as her mother. But Hubert wants to live his dreams through Lovey because he has no male heirs. And since Verva isn't willing to accept Lovey the way she is, her relationship with her daughter is stunted. Instead, Hubert accepts Lovey and tries to get her to also accept their Japanese heritage.
Identity: Micheline Soong states in her dissertation “Yosegire Buton, The ‘Crazy Patchwork Quilt: An Alternative Narrative Strategy for Three Local Japanese Women Writers of Hawaii,” that the narrative structure in Wild Meat produces racial and gender expectations of society and its different layers by the different voices of the narrator – Lovey's pre-adolescent voice and her adolescent teenager voice (135).[3]
In her article, “Spreading Traditions: Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Bildungsroman,” Serena Fusco claims that “by the end of [the] novel the main character, a teenage girl, has acquired a great deal of knowledge, which enables her to achieve self-awareness and get over the racial and sexual abuse perpetrated on her by the patriarchal society (197).[4]
Politics of local Hawaiian culture in White America: Although the novel is narrated in both the Standard American English and Hawaiian Pidgin, Lovey and the rest of the characters speak Hawaiian Pidgin to each other. In his article “I wish you a land,” Rocio Davis says that the fact the Lovey speaks Pidgin is an example of how her character is separated from Western ideals (59). And by this separation, Lovey and the other characters in Wild Meat try to find their identities amidst political struggles (47).[5]
Publication history
1996, USA, Farrar Straus ISBN0-374-29020-2, Pub date January 1996, Hardback
Scholarly articles
Chang, Juliana. “Interpreting Asian American Identity and Subjectivity.” Modern Fiction Studies 53.4 (2007): 867-75.
Davis, Rocio G. “I wish you a land: Hawai’i short Story Cycles and aloha ‘aina.” Journal of American Studies 35.1 (2001): 47-64
- - -. “Short Story Cycle and Hawai’i Bildungsroman: Writing Self, Place, and Family in Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers.” Form and Transformation in Asian American Literature. Seattle: University of Washington Press (2005): 231-48.
Makino, Rie. “Localized Masculinities and Translocal Femininities: The Politics of Locations in the novels by Jessica Hagedorn, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Karen Tei Yamashita.” Diss. Arizona State University, 2006.
Soong, Micheline M. “Yosegire Buton, The ‘Crazy’ Patchwork Quilt: An Alternative Narrative Strategy for Three Local Japanese Women Writers of Hawaii.” Diss. University of California in L.A., 1999.
Wong, Sau-ling C, and Jeffrey J. Santa Ana. “Gender and Sexuality in Asian American Literature.” Signs 25.1 (1999): 171-226.
Young, Morris. “Standard English and Student Bodies: Institutionalizing Race and Literacy in Hawai’i.” College English 64.4 (2002): 405-31.
Related Research Articles
Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1. Lois is an award-winning journalist for the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet and the primary love interest of the superhero Superman and his alter ego, Clark Kent. In DC continuity, she is also his wife and the mother of their son, Jon Kent, the newest Superboy in the DC Universe.
Hawaiian Pidgin is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaiʻi speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a second language. Although English and Hawaiian are the two official languages of the state of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian Pidgin is spoken by many residents of Hawaiʻi in everyday conversation and is often used in advertising targeted toward locals in Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaiian language, it is called ʻōlelo paʻi ʻai – "hard taro language". Hawaiian Pidgin was first recognized as a language by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015. However, Hawaiian Pidgin is still thought of as lower status than the Hawaiian and English languages.
Lois-Ann Yamanaka is an American poet and novelist from Hawaiʻi. Many of her literary works are written in Hawaiian Pidgin, and some of her writing has dealt with controversial ethnic issues. In particular, her works confront themes of Asian American families and the local culture of Hawaiʻi.
Megan "Meg" Griffin is a fictional character in the animated television series Family Guy. Meg is the eldest child of Peter and Lois Griffin and older sister of Stewie and Chris, but is also the family's scapegoat who receives the least of their attention and tolerates the brunt of their abuse. She is often bullied, belittled, ridiculed, and ignored.
Nariyoshi Miyagi, commonly known as Mr. Miyagi, is a fictional character in the four original films of the Karate Kid franchise, portrayed by Pat Morita. A wise karate master, he mentors Daniel LaRusso in the first three films (1984-1989) and Julie Pierce in The Next Karate Kid (1994). The sequel series Cobra Kai (2018-present) frequently references Miyagi, who is stated to have died between The Next Karate Kid and Cobra Kai ; Cobra Kai is itself thematically structured via The Miyagi-Verse, in reference to characters who knew Mr. Miyagi.
Cat's Eye is a 1988 novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood about fictional painter Elaine Risley, who vividly reflects on her childhood and teenage years. Her strongest memories are of Cordelia, who was the leader of a trio of girls who were both very cruel and very kind to her in ways that tint Elaine's perceptions of relationships and her world — not to mention her art — into her middle years. The novel unfolds in mid-20th century Canada, from World War II to the late 1980s, and includes a look at many of the cultural elements of that time period, including feminism and various modern art movements. The book was a finalist for the 1988 Governor General's Award and for the 1989 Booker Prize.
Jonathan Troy (1954) was Edward Abbey's first published novel, as detailed in James M. Cahalan's biography of Abbey. Only 5,000 copies were printed and almost immediately after it was released the author wanted to disown the work. He asked that it never be published again, and it has not been, making it very rare and the only one of his eight novels that many Edward Abbey fans have not read.
Kayo Hatta was an American filmmaker, writer, and community activist. She directed and co-wrote the independent dramatic feature-length film Picture Bride, which won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 1995 for Best Dramatic Film.
Gidget is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel, Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas. The novel follows the adventures of a teenage girl and her surfing friends on the beach in Malibu. The name Gidget is a portmanteau of "girl" and "midget". Following the novel's publication, the character appeared in several films, television series, and television movies.
Locked in Time is a 1985 suspense novel by Lois Duncan. The story centers around Nore, a seventeen-year-old girl who moves into a new home with her father and her new stepfamily. Soon after she meets her stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister for the first time, Nore begins to suspect something is not quite right about her stepfamily. The author states that the novel explores some of the issues surrounding having eternal life. Duncan says she developed the idea for the novel when one of her daughters was thirteen years old and was having issues with her body image. Duncan mentions that her daughter was "taking everything out" on her, and she began to wonder what it would be like if her daughter never outgrew her adolescence.
Midnight Whispers is the fourth novel in the Cutler series, written in 1992 by the ghost-writer of V. C. Andrews novels, Andrew Neiderman. The novel follows the traditional formula of Andrews novels, and by being the fourth in its series, it thereby centres on the child of the protagonist of the first three novels.
Gilligan's Wake (ISBN 0-312-29123-X) is a 2003 novel, loosely based on the 1960s CBS sitcom Gilligan's Island, written by Esquire film and television critic Tom Carson. The title is derived from the title of the TV show and Finnegans Wake, the final work of Irish novelist James Joyce. The novel was published subsequently as a paperback in 2004 (ISBN 0-312-31114-1).
Beka Lamb is the debut novel from Belizean writer Zee Edgell, published in 1982 as part of the Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series. It won the Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1982 and was one of the first novels from Belize to gain international recognition. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Betty Anderson is a fictional character in the novel Peyton Place, written by Grace Metalious, as well as the subsequent films and TV series based on the novel. In the film, she was played by actress Terry Moore; and in the TV series, she was portrayed by actress Barbara Parkins; in the short-lived daytime soap opera, she was played by actress Julie Parrish and later Lynn Loring. In a later TV movie, Murder in Peyton Place, Janet Margolin performed the role of Betty.
My Sister Jodie is a 2008 children's novel by English author Jacqueline Wilson.
The Griffin family is a fictional family and main characters in the animated television series Family Guy, and who also appear in The Cleveland Show. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter and Lois, their three children Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their anthropomorphic dog Brian. They live at 31 Spooner Street in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. Their family car resembles a red seventh-generation Ford Country Sedan. They were created by Seth MacFarlane, in model of his two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. The family and the show itself debuted on January 31, 1999, after Super Bowl XXXIII, in the episode "Death Has a Shadow".
Blu's Hanging is a 1997 coming-of-age novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. It follows the Ogata family after the death of their mother, as each family member struggles to come to terms with their grief. The story is told through Ivah, a smart-mouthed thirteen-year-old who is left as the oldest child to take care of her younger siblings, Blu and Maisie, while she struggles with her own grief, emerging sexuality, and awareness of the world. Similar to Yamanaka's other works, Blu's Hanging, encompasses the topics of racial politics and the diverse culture of Hawaii, as well as the coming of age of the main character amongst various sexual threats and questions.
Quincy Adams Sawyer is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Clarence G. Badger. Distributed by Metro Pictures, the film is written by Bernard McConville, based on the 1900 novel Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks, written by Charles Felton Pidgin. The novel had sold over 1.5 million copies at the time, and had had a successful run as a play. Pidgin went on in later years to write two sequels to his novel due to its immense popularity.
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise is a 2006 American made-for-television crime film directed by Robert Harmon and starring Tom Selleck, Viola Davis, and Kohl Sudduth. Based on the 2001 novel Death in Paradise by Robert B. Parker, the film is about a small town police chief and struggling alcoholic who investigates the murder of a teenage girl whose body is found floating in a lake. The case brings the former LAPD homicide detective into the affluent world of a bestselling writer who exploits troubled teens, and the violent world of a Boston mobster. Filmed on location in Nova Scotia, the story is set in the fictitious town of Paradise, Massachusetts.
References
↑ Lois-Ann Yamanaka's own life is like Lovey's in this aspect. At the end of the book Yamanaka thanks her own grandma, "Yoshiko Narikiyo, who in this life showed [her] God."
↑ Wong, Sau-ling C. and Jeffrey J. Santa Ana. "Gender and Sexuality in Asian American Literature." Signs 25.2 (1999): 171-226. JSTOR3175619
↑ Soong, Micheline M. “Yosegire Buton, The ‘Crazy’ Patchwork Quilt: An Alternative Narrative Strategy for Three Local Japanese Women Writers of Hawaii.” Diss. University of California in L.A., 1999.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
