Introduction There are many reasons why an author may decide to write a book that is different from other books out there. They include entertainment, education of the reader among others. The author uses themes in order to attain their objective. Themes can be conceptualised as the general ideas or messages that the author desires to put across to the reader. A book or any other writing may have one theme or many of them. The themes may be independent of each other, or in some cases, they may be intertwined with one another. Bich Nguyen’s “Stealing Buddha’s Dinner” is not an exception. There are many themes that are discernible throughout this memoir. The book is regarded by many as a memoir that depicts Bich’s life as a war refugee in America (Grousel 26). The memoir relates, in first person narrative, how Bich’s family run away from Vietnam to America in search of abetter life. Themes such as food, culture, identity, and communism are some that are to be found in this memoir. The Theme of Identity For the better part of her life, Bich struggles to create an identity that she can call her own (Pangok 1). This is especially so given the fact that she is growing up within a community that has a different culture from that of her family. She is a Vietnamese girl growing up in white dominated Grand Rapids region of Michigan State (Hinstel 18). Bich is exposed the American culture given that she has to attend school and interact with the white children. This is unlike her grandmother who is able to sustain her Vietnamese identity with few challenges. The grandmother keeps a shrine in her house that is dedicated to Buddha (Malinowski 4). She also withholds her Vietnamese culture through the food that she prepares for the family. She prepares traditional Vietnamese cuisine such as the “sticky green rice” (Bich 37). More than anything else, Bich desires to attain the American identity (Pangok 3). She realises that she is an outsider in the American society, and her only hope is enculturation. She has to immerse herself into the American culture so that she can fit in with the American crowd. Like any other human being, Bich is terrified of being different. This is especially so considering the fact that the white society looks down on the minorities in their midst. The need for an all American identity was also promulgated by the media (Cao 76). Bich remembers the signs that adorned the highways, “….flags proclaiming ‘An All American City’….” (Bich 10). Food and Identity Food forms a very important part of one’s cultural identity. As Cao aptly puts it, there are a lot of meanings attached in food, and the meanings are like “additional flavours” to the food (Cao 64). Either consciously or subconsciously, Bich seems aware of this fact. She literally tries to eat her way into the American identity (Pangok 3). Bich is convinced that if she can eat the American food, she will become an all American, albeit from the outside. This is why she indulges in American food such as “….hamburgers with onions, hot chocolate, (and) fried chicken….” (Bich 87). In this, the interplay between the media and self identity is evidence. The television commercials glorify f