Everyone knows the existence and importance of salt in life. Salt is one of inevitable ingredients in cooking. If we lacked of salt, our ocean, sweat, and tear would not be called as “ocean,” “sweat,” and “tear” anymore. Some people usually say that in their salary and their labor, there is existence of salt. To achieve those things, they have to experience the taste of salt. After the salty taste, salt leaves the sweetness in our tongue. In Monique Truong’s novel “The Book of Salt,” the Vietnamese author borrows the image of salt to depict Bình’s overwhelmingly salty life. Bình experiences all types of iniquities and difficulties from his childhood and even after he leaves his homeland to France and works as a live-in chef for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; Bình is homosexuality, which is restricted and contemned during that period of time from 1929 to 1934, Bình is the unintentional result of his mother’s affair, Bình is disowned by his abusive alcoholic father since he already knows that Bình is not his biological son. Not stopping at that, Bình’s life is a challenge of the inconvenience in the language barrier in a strange country, the complication in earning living, colonial racism, and ethnocentrism. The symbol of salt in “The Book of Salt” is used by to depict the obstacles that arrive into Bình’s life. It is not strange that cooking is mentioned in “The Book of Salt” since its name is already associated with one of familiar ingredients, salt. Truong uses the scene of a gay Vietnamese man, Bình, that leaves his homeland to France and works as a live-in chef back then and through it she talks about the role of salt in the kitchen. In fact, noticing when baking, people often put a pinch of salt into their dough, not too much, just a little bit, but it makes a great difference: “salt enhances the sweetness” (185). In Miss Toklass’s first visit the rue de Fleurus, she feels the salt-the effort in GertrudeStein’s “appreciation:” Hell, blind men can even see GertrudeStein looking. Her appreciation for the female form is difficult to ignore. When Miss Toklas first visited the rue de Fleurus, she felt GertrudeStein’s “appreciation” on her like a ribbon of steel. She felt her flash rubbing against it, felt sweat dripping down her back, sliding down the inside of her thighs. She crossed her legs, and GertrudeStein looked at her as if she knew. Salt enhances sweetness. Delicious, thought GertrudeStein. (184-185) Salt does not only help to emphasize the sweetness, but salt is also a symbol for the effort put into something to achieve it. Here, salt of GertrudeStein”s sweat is evidence for the hard work that she goes through. It helps her feel even better than the sweet taste. Besides the good tasks of salt, it is still an ingredient that we cannot overuse. “Salt is an ingredient to be considered and carefully weighed like all others. The true taste of salt-the whole of the sea on the tip of the tongue, sorrow’s sting, labor’s smack-has been lost it is the hinge that allows the flavors of the other ingredients swing wide open”