Yasaman Does Indeed Learn How to Cook
Author: Sara Farizan Prompt 1 (pose my own question): Is “Why I Learned to Cook” meaningful despite its happy ending and lack of scandalous revelations, the ending-of-the-world, and other dramatic climaxes? Sara Farizan’s short story “Why I Learned to Cook” is quite mellow in comparison to the other short stories we have read. Although the narrator, Yasaman, worries about introducing her girlfriend (and thus revealing her sexuality) to her grandmother, the conflicts in the narrative are not as dramatic as the apocalyptic “The Machine Stops” or the soap-opera tale of “Roman Fever.” Even the title of the short story, “Why I Learned to Cook,” is no plot twist as Yasaman does indeed tell us why she learns to cook; there is no surprise cliffhanger where the story suddenly ends with a drop of cooking oil sizzling in a pan, and the readers are left wondering what Yasaman does next--does she learn how to cook? I was not a huge fan of this short story. I personally enjoy the drama o...
