The word “hybridization” often brings to mind animal breeding or Victor

 

Frankenstein’s Creation, not humans. However, Jane Takagi-Little uses the word to describe

 

herself, a woman of both Japanese and American heritage, with harmful connotations. Her

 

negative language surrounding the word “hybrid” reflects her feelings about her own

 

identity, and as she learns more and more about the horrific qualities of the meat industry

 

she begins to gain awareness about animal cruelty and how conflating her own problems

 

with animalized language erases animal identity. As she is caught in the dominant

 

discourses concerning race, sex, and meat-eating, I follow Jane’s narrative as she journeys

 

from someone who does not care about those who are oppressed by these dominant

 

discourses, like people of color, women, and animals, to someone who does care.

 

            By implementing feminist-vegetarian theory from Carol J. Adams and scholarship

 

from Cheryl Fish, A. Breeze Harper, H.L. Malchow, and Joan Dunayer, I will explore the

 

problematic aspects of Jane’s need to conflate her own negative feelings about her identity

 

with animals, and the contradictions and shifts in perspective that occur in her throughout

 

the novel.