The Satisfaction Café
50 pages • 1-hour read
Kathy WangThe Satisfaction Café
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, abuse, sexual assault, death and illness, and death by suicide.
The Power of Unlikely Human Connections
Joan displays an uncanny ability to empathize with individuals from widely different circumstances, and she also recognizes that social connection is essential for human happiness. By creating the Satisfaction Café, Joan founds a business that can facilitate these connections. Throughout the novel, characters form improbable connections which reveal that curiosity and empathy are more important than similarity or circumstances. Joan and Bill only initially meet by chance: The differences in their age and social context mean they would likely never have crossed paths otherwise. Their mutual willingness to strike up a conversation with a stranger sets the stage for them to have a long and loving, albeit complicated, marriage. Likewise, perhaps the second most transformative conversation of Joan’s life occurs when she strikes up a conversation with a stranger in a hotel bar in Tokyo. The conversation with Tomoko changes the course of Joan’s life by setting her on the path to opening her own business and finding her purpose in life.
Joan’s openness to connections with different people is revealed in the caring and open interactions she builds with friends, acquaintances, and (in particular) the staff at the Satisfaction Café. Joan is pragmatic and accepting when Ellison begins showing up to work at the café wearing skirts and dresses; she tells him that “you can let me know what sort of picture you want in the host binder. You can have two, if you like” (295). Joan’s suggestion of two pictures implicitly captures her acceptance of Ellison’s gender fluidity and earns his staunch loyalty; after Joan’s death, Ellison tells Jamie, “as if I didn’t consider her family” (332). Joan even finds herself thinking of Dustin (a regular customer at the café) in the moments just before her death, recalling a Norse legend that Dustin shared with her. While Joan has loved other characters in more profound ways, her memories of Dustin and his story reveal that smaller, seemingly insignificant interactions can also change a person.
Joan’s life is defined by her ability to be curious about people around her, both those whom she meets and those whom she will never know. She sometimes fantasizes about knocking on the doors of random houses to greet strangers and have a moment of connection with them because “we’d never meet otherwise, isn’t that a shame?” (327). Ironically, many other characters are unwilling to show curiosity or openness toward Joan because she is Asian, not a native English speaker, and does not come from a wealthy background. Joan never uses difference as a barrier to prevent her from getting to know someone and this leads her to lead a rich life full of warmth, learning, and meaningful connections. Her sometimes-improbable connections create joy for both her and those around her.
Freedom and Agency as Keys to Contentment
While the novel stresses social connection as the key to happiness, it also explores how freedom and agency are crucial to happiness. When Joan’s first husband mistreats her, she is able to end the marriage and focus on building the life she wants, leading her to realize that she was “quite pleased” with her freedom (27). Joan’s sense of freedom and agency is inadvertently established when her family sends her to America to study: Joan’s mother continues to think that Joan should embody the values of being a dutiful, submissive daughter, but Joan “found the psychic force of Mei [Joan’s mother]’s rage blunted by distance” (27). Joan’s sense of agency continues to grow once she begins her relationship with Bill and encounters members of Bill’s extended family. Because of Bill’s privilege and confidence as a wealthy, white man, he embodies the belief that individuals should pursue their own happiness. His relationship with Joan is a key example of this belief: He is unbothered by what his children or siblings might think, because he knows that Joan makes him happy.
While Bill can at times be selfish in his decisions, his choice to marry Joan reveals how agency can lead to contentment. Likewise, Bill’s younger sister, Misty, boldly decides to leave her infant daughter with Joan and Bill. This decision is radical but ends up having very few negative consequences: Lee leads a happy life with her beloved adoptive parents and has a positive relationship with Misty as well. Misty and Joan remain close, and Misty goes on to lead the life she wants. Misty’s decision that she does not want to raise her own child is an extreme example of agency and relies on Joan’s willingness to step up and care for the baby. Significantly, Misty never expresses regret about this decision, Lee does not seem to have been harmed by it, and Joan ends up deeply happy to have the second child that Bill would have been unlikely to give her (he was reluctant to even have Jamie).
As Joan’s life progresses, she continues to find joy and contentment when she makes her own decisions, even if those choices are controversial for people around her. Especially after her children are grown, Joan enters a phase of life where she has significant agency: She is not responsible for anyone, and she has significant financial assets. Joan’s decision to open a business represents a bold and risky choice, and Nelson (her legal and financial advisor) is initially hesitant to encourage this choice. However, Joan’s business ends up being successful and gives her a sense of satisfaction and purpose that she has never encountered before. Joan founding her own business contrasts with the struggles Jamie and Lee encounter while trying to establish careers working for others. Both Jamie and Lee struggle to find purpose and happiness while being employed by others but running one’s own business is portrayed as inherently satisfying (while also extremely demanding).
Joan’s decision to take her own life is perhaps the strongest example of agency leading to contentment. When faced with the prospect of a progressive and degenerative disease, Joan bristles at the idea of her children caring for her: “that sort of love, that constant vigilance and lack of freedom should go only one direction, in her opinion” (306). Joan wants to die on her own terms, in a peaceful and meaningful location. She is able to pass away painlessly, next to the ocean. Her death does hurt her children, but it is presented as a choice that Joan needed to make. Throughout her life, including at the end of it, Joan is able to find her deepest peace and happiness by making her own choices.
Resilience and Self-Worth Despite Being Devalued
Joan displays significant resilience despite frequently being mistreated and devalued, even by characters who should show her the most love and care. While the source of her inner self-regard is not made clear, Joan’s sense of self-worth allows her to move forward and achieve stability. As the only daughter within a family that values male offspring much more highly, Joan is treated as essentially worthless from a young age and internalizes the belief that “she was a girl and thus not entitled to anything” (4). In her first marriage, Milton treats Joan like an object who exists only to satisfy his desires and cannot understand why she wants a say in their sexual activities. Despite being mistreated by both her family of origin and her first husband, Joan stands up for herself and refuses to comply with social expectations of submitting to Milton. She insists on a divorce and feels an increased sense of agency afterward, concluding that “she had taken charge and left a mean-spirited man who likely would have only become meaner” (27). Joan’s divorce increases her confidence and ability to insist on her own desires, paving the way for subsequent bold decisions such as marrying Bill and eventually opening her own business.
Joan also develops a strong ability to advocate for herself, which is important when she comes into contact with wealthy, white characters who perceive her as lesser. Joan shocks Nelson by skillfully negotiating her prenup prior to marrying Bill and securing his valuable home as an asset she will inherit. She stands up for herself when other characters repeatedly make racist remarks about her. Joan does sometimes face challenging situations in which she compromises, most notably her decision to tolerate Bill’s infidelity. Joan does feel devalued by the knowledge of these liaisons, but she ultimately concludes that “he’s not perfect. But neither am I. No one gets perfect” (123). Joan’s self-esteem does not simply manifest as her standing up for herself in the face of mistreatment: It also manifests as self-awareness of her values and priorities. Joan is able to discern that she and Bill do love one another, and that she is willing to prioritize that love despite painful challenges.
Joan’s resilience and self-worth also manifest in what she passes down to her daughter, Lee. When Lee is sexually assaulted by her fiancé’s father, she stands up for herself and immediately tells Marc (her fiancé) what has happened. Marc seems reluctant to rebuke or criticize his father, which leads to Lee cutting off the engagement. Ending the relationship with Marc places Lee in precarious circumstances since she does not have a job and Marc’s family is very wealthy. However, Lee is unwilling to compromise her integrity and sense of self-worth for a man who does not value her. Lee has seen Joan model the importance of standing up for one’s self and incorporates those values into her own life. Joan’s decisions and approach to life have a positive impact on both her own life and the life of her child.
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