49 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer RyanThe Kitchen Front: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Chosen Versus Traditional Family Dynamics
The novel features a number of different familial relationships including between Audrey and Gwendoline, Audrey and her children, Gwendoline and Sir Strickland, Nell and Mrs. Quince, and Zelda and her newborn child. Each of these relationships is approached in a different way and provides different insights on the nature of family. A central theme in these relationships is the extent to which traditional family relationships—sibling, parent, spouse, etc.—meet, exceed, or fall short of the love and support that people need to overcome difficult times. A related theme is how people bond in times of need to create friendships that fill the role of family when those connections are lacking.
Gwendoline learns the most about the meaning of family and the consequences when those relationships fail. Although Audrey and Gwendoline grew up in the same household, they had very different family experiences. Audrey had a close relationship with both her mother and sister while Gwendoline acted out and alienated them both. Feeling as though her blood family failed her, she sought family elsewhere on the basis of mutual benefit and ambition. Although Gwendoline and Sir Strickland are legally a family unit, they lack the love and understanding that would make them sources of emotional support for one another. Indeed, Gwendoline never calculated love into her decision to marry Strickland, seeing the relationship as a means of securing upward mobility rather than gaining a life partner. While Gwendoline and Audrey are at odds at the beginning of the novel, Gwendoline’s decaying relationship with Sir Strickland reminds her of what matters most. As a result, she joins Audrey at Matthew’s memorial service to make sure her sister isn’t alone. By the end of the novel, they have reunited as a family and found a way to blend their two strengths together, rather than competing.
Nell and Mrs. Quince share a relationship that falls somewhere between professional and familial. Mrs. Quince acts as both a mentor and mother figure to Nell, who has been in service from a very young age and never had a true family unit. When Mrs. Quince dies, Nell is as devastated as if the woman was her biological mother. She also inherits the woman’s prized recipe book along with her stories, which is a common practice in families. Their relationship, contrasted with the one Gwendoline had with her own mother, shows that true family doesn’t always have to be linked to blood—it’s built on choices.
Like Nell, Zelda also comes from a challenging family background. However, she allowed her experiences to harden her. She sees her pregnancy as an obstacle between her and her dreams, and it’s not until she’s faced with the reality of adoption that she finally considers an alternate path. After her baby is born, Zelda allows herself to become part of a family unit that includes both her child and her new friends. This is another instance where family becomes a conscious choice, rather than an imposed circumstance.
Societal Conventions Versus Authenticity
Throughout the novel, several characters struggle with the gap between what society expects of them and their own true natures. Gwendoline fights a constant battle to fit into the unfamiliar landscape of the upper class. She approaches it as she would a recipe, picking out individual ingredients in those around her to create what she hopes to be a coherent whole—however, the final product never feels natural to her. This disconnection leads her to feel unstable and unmoored within her own home. She’s hostile to Ambrose, Nell, Audrey, and Mrs. Quince in an attempt to give herself a feeling of power in a situation that is out of her control. By holding Audrey financially captive, Gwendoline creates the illusion of control and social class, but in doing so, she loses her oldest and most valuable relationship. She oppresses her true nature in order to support what she sees as safety and security. As the reader quickly learns, the opposite is in fact true: It is only in rejecting those artificial conventions and accepting her true self that Gwendoline is able to find security in a home and family.
Other characters who struggle with their social roles are Zelda and Ambrose, a shared experience that brings them to a mutual understanding as the novel reaches its climax. Zelda recognizes Ambrose’s repressed sexuality immediately, perhaps seeing the same disconnection in herself. Ambrose works in a high-profile entertainment role for a nation-wide company, and so appearances and relatability are essential to his survival. Although the novel puts him in a position of power—being both a man and the one making the choices that determine the women’s future—the only way for him to maintain this power dynamic is to suppress his attraction to members of the same sex and bury his true self. As Ambrose is not a main character, he does not resolve his situation by the novel’s end, but he serves as a foil for characters struggling with similar issues and brings the theme of male marginalization into a story focused on the struggles of women.
Zelda, meanwhile, rejects ideals of conventional feminism by taking on more traditionally masculine characteristics in the workplace, rejecting her unborn child, and putting her career first. In an industry designed to hold women down—as Zelda illustrates when she comments on the way women are perceived as cooks, rather than chefs—her rejection of social standards for women is an act of defiance. Zelda’s damaging experience with Jim only solidifies this drive to retain her own power instead of giving it away to others. Much like Gwendoline, however, this choice strips her of the ability to love and be loved. It puts her in an untenable halfway point between the conventions expected of women and the truth of her own needs. However, by the end of the novel, she’s found a way to become part of a family, embrace her femininity in a supportive, female-dominated workplace, and step into the career role she’s always wanted.
Ambition and Social Class
Of the central characters in the novel, several are defined by their social ambition or their place within a social hierarchy. Gwendoline’s driving force is her goal of marrying up, and, once she achieves this, maintaining her precarious position in the social order. She disdains Audrey’s choice of marrying for love, rather than security or position, and claims not to understand the appeal of an impoverished artist who has nothing to offer financially; however, she later comes to understand that this disdain was a defensive reflex against her own abandonment and trauma. Yet even as she realizes that she doesn’t fit in with other wealthy women in her community, it is difficult for her to set aside the position for which she worked so hard. Her self-concept and self-worth are tied to her status as Lady Gwendoline, and she cannot consider the alternative, which is to return to being average.
Zelda is another ambitious character deeply aware of her class origins as she shows in the way she tries to cover up her childhood cockney accent. Coming from an impoverished background, she is aware of her limitations and does whatever she can to overcome them. Nell, meanwhile, comes from a similar class background, but unlike Zelda, she has accepted her lot in life and cannot imagine moving beyond it. While she recognizes the injustice of her treatment, she lacks Zelda’s drive and Machiavellian nature. She becomes even more aware of the class divide between herself and the Stricklands when she learns about the way they flout food restrictions; their money and political connections ensure that they and their guests are always well-fed while lower-class folks like Nell and Audrey go hungry.
As the novel ends, Sir Strickland’s regime is toppled while Nell is given a life-changing opportunity that opens up avenues that were previously unattainable. Audrey is the only main character who does not struggle with her relation to social class; instead, her concern is how to live with loss and support her family in an ever-changing environment. Her situation shows how class concerns can become secondary when more immediate issues are at stake.
The changing class status of the characters in the novel represents a larger cultural shift in the post-war era away from the traditional class systems: After WWII, labor and social welfare became the dominant political ideologies as Britain sought to recover economically from the war. The most salient example of this is the 1945 election landslide victory of Clement Attlee of the Labour Party as Prime Minister over Winston Churchill, a Conservative and aristocrat. Though Churchill would return as Prime Minister in 1951, when the Soviet Union became a threat to global stability, the post-war moment demanded a focus on social progress and the needs of the working class.
