Imagine living in a society where a woman is expected to be fully dependent on her husband and to faithfully serve to all his needs. This woman may also feel like she is happy, although she knows she has no opportunities to better herself. How would you feel about going on in a life always relying on someone and not being able to explore your desires? This is one of the themes Ozeki explores in My Year of Meats. Ozeki introduces us to these ideals of the Japanese culture through one of her characters, Akiko Ueno, a Japanese woman. Akiko is married to a man that expects her to respect him and follow his orders. She struggles throughout the novel with trying to discover what her "true" desires are and to make herself happy. Although Akiko honors her duties as a wife for her husband, throughout the story she works to become independent and thus becomes more Americanized. This is shown through her ability to control her body, her becoming assertive, and her eventually figuring out what she wants and chasing after her true desire.
             At the beginning of the story, Akiko's role and duties in her marriage are portrayed. Akiko at first feels that her greatest desire in life is marriage and fulfilling her duties as a wife, and in order to do this she gives up her comic book job, which she has always loved. Akiko honors her position in her marriage and when John orders her to do something she does it. After he lands a job producing My American Wife, he orders Akiko to watch every show and then prepare each meat. He does this in hopes that the meat will help fatten her up and lead to positive thoughts about maternity. However, Akiko does not agree with John and feels that these positive thoughts about maternity are not exactly what she desires. She shows this when she says, "After dinner she would start to feel the meat. It began in her stomach, like an animal alive . . . until it burst from the back of her thr...