Mildred Pierce - A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen

1102 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How has the representation of women in literature evolved since 1900

Mildred Pierce - A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen

A woman’s Place is in the Kitchen. Mildred Pierce uses her talents as a cook to manipulate her way through the world. Mildred has her own style of characteristics. She is fast, active, swift and inescapable around the kitchen. She turns out to be wise and brilliant around many things. For example: running her business. Unfortunately, one thing she never did was use her gut to comprehend Veda. She did everything to please her but Veda was never satisfied. In the following paragraphs we will get to know our friend Mildred, her intentions, thoughts and how she handled her way through the world.

Mildred has a cooking talent. She is a small woman with gorgeous, attractive legs. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class (Cain, back of book). As she divorces Burt, husband, she begins an independent life working as a waitress. As Mildred becomes more and more successful around the restaurant she develops self-confidence and security. Mildred never cooked anything herself now or put on a uniform. (Cain 208)

Mildred is always around the kitchen. This seems to be her devotion to life, her enjoyment, and her profession. It is how she gets around and pays the bills. Ahead we’ll see how her hardworking attitude brought her out of poverty and into a high-class businesswoman. In the beginning of the story we are described how she has been earning extra money from baking and designing superb and stunning cakes. Next, she brings out her talent by cooking dinner for Wally, as she tried to impress Wally to marry her so she’ll be able to survive out of her tragic days. She really was a marvelous cook, and he watched deli...

... middle of paper ...

...using skills, tricks, shortcuts, and her proficient talent. Cooking takes Mildred from a quiet desperate woman to a successful business owner.

Unfortunately, blinded by Veda, she looses everything she makes and remarries the man she loves or I can say is most comfortable with, Bert. Anyone who is good at something should make the best of it, at the same time should never be a fool for anything or anyone in this case, yes even for your children.

Citations

Alan, Gary. Kitchens: The culture of restaurant work. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.

Cain, James. Mildred Pierce. New York: Random, 1941. Nick. www.nicksflickpicks.com/mildred.html.

Photos. British Film Institute, http://bfi.org.uk/collections/release/mildred/

Woods, Nialle. Re-Imagining The Liberated Woman. http://showcase.netins.net/web/dendrys/reviews/mildred.html

Show More
Related

  • Career Interview: Stephen Boos

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stephen Boos has worked in the food service industry for over 30 years. He started as a bus person and subsequently trained as a chef’s apprentice. Steve’s mother believed that a college education was something that everyone should receive. She felt that a college degree was a good investment in Steve’s future. In 1976 at his mother’s insistence, Boos moved to Northeastern Ohio to attend Kent State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After graduation, Steve began working for East Park Restaurant as a line cook. Using his education as a foundation, Steve made a point to learn everything he could about running a restaurant, from cutting meat to the bi-weekly food and beverage orders. His versatility, keen business sense, and ability to control costs resulted in Steve’s promotion to General Manager, as role he has held since 1995.

    Read More

  • How Does Mildred Change In Fahrenheit 451

    191 Words  | 1 Pages

    Second, Mildred is self-centered. One time she is self-centered is when she wants to buy a fourth tv wall. A quote from the story is “That’s one third of my yearly pay,”Montag says. “It’s only two thousand

    Read More

  • Mildred Pierce Summary, Character Analysis, and Opinion

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a particular obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away throughout the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a waitress in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled; a constantly recurring theme throughout this story is Veda’s pride and arrogance, and her condemnation of jobs she deems to be menial. Mildred’s main goal is to nurture Veda’s musical talents, and manages to pay for expensive music lessons from her meager salaries as a waitress and pie baker. However, Mildred’s luck is soon to change, as she takes up with an attorney and former partner of Bert, Wally. Mildred is able to use Wally’s business and real estate savvy to build a restaurant out of a deserted model home, and from there create a thriving chain of three food businesses. After becoming bored with Wally, however, Mildred craves a relationship with another man, a prestigious local man named Monty. Veda highly approves of her mother’s choice, as this makes her feel as if she too were more prestigious and affluent, despite having misgivings about her mother still being so low as to have an average, pedestrian job. All seems to be going well; even through Veda’s constant demands and tantrums, she still gets everything she wants, and Mildred and Monty are happy. Monty, however, falls on hard times with the coming of the Great Depression, and he constantly mooches off of Mildred’s affluence, making it a struggle for Mildred to cater to Veda’s every whim. Mildred soon dumps Monty to focus on making Veda a musical prodigy; this fails, however, when Veda is told that her piano is not up to par from a local famous music teacher. After Veda recovers from this shock, she explores the opportunities offered by an acting career, and begins to spin more webs of deception and selfishness. After Veda forces money out of a local rich family, lying and claiming their son got her pregnant, Mildred and Veda have a major argument, and Veda disowns her mother.

    Read More

  • Major Changes In Fahrenheit 451

    368 Words  | 1 Pages

    First off, Mildred Montag is obsessed with television. Even though she has three walls of giant screens, she wants another! The only thing Mildred does all day is watch TV! Guy used to be oblivious to this. Once he met Clarisse,

    Read More

  • The Reunification of Cyprus: Plausible but not Probable

    1768 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout history, difficulties are seen between the mismatching of ethnicities with country borders, including countries such such Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. 6,7 This causes competition and conflict between the two ethnic groups, which leads to instability of the government if both groups cannot be equally represented. Just as the North and South could not be represented equally as one United States of America with conflicting views on slavery, it is difficult to equally represent each part of a strong ethnically diverse country. Another example of this conflict is the island of Cyprus. While it would be convenient to refer to it as the country of Cyprus, only half of the island is considered such by the rest of the world. Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided, Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the South. On March 18, 2011 the leaders of Turkish Cyprus and Greek Cyprus met to talk about unification. 4 Despite the efforts, it can be argued that while reunification might seem plausible, it is not probable.

    Read More

  • Exploring the Intricacies of Monetary Policy

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this paper, I will explore the definition of monetary policy, the objectives of the monetary and the monetary policy bases.

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Mother and Daughter in James Cain’s Mildred Pierce

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    While reading Mildred Pierce, I was reminded of my own mother’s relationship with her daughters. One of my sisters, Leslie, in particular, hated my mother in youth. It was strong emotion to extinguish, especially in those formative teen years, but because life is dominated with experiences, things in which we learn from, later one comes to understand the nature of their hate and love and begins to properly delineate the truth of each. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see this in Mildred Pierce and Veda’s relationship.

    Read More

  • The Changing Role of Women in Ancient Civilizations

    2426 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lukacs, John R. "Fertility and Agriculture Accentuate Sex Differences in Dental Caries Rates." Current Anthropology 1 Oct. 2008: 901-14. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 May 2011. .

    Read More

  • Censorship, Conformity and Alienation in Fahrenheit 451

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mildred Montag, wife of main character Guy Montag, is the epitome of conformity. She is a totalitarian system’s product; a shell of a human being, devoid of any sincere emotion

    Read More

  • Monetary Policy

    1670 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the study of macroeconomics there are several sub factors that affect the economy either favorably or adversely. One dynamic of macroeconomics is monetary policy. Monetary policy consists of deliberate changes in the money supply to influence interest rates and thus the level of spending in the economy. “The goal of a monetary policy is to achieve and maintain price level stability, full employment and economic growth.” (McConnell & Brue, 2004).

    Read More

  • Happiness Explored in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of all characters, Bradbury uses Mildred Montag to effectively portray the idea that the majority of society has taken happiness as a refuge in nothing but passive, addictive entertainment. She immediately reveals her character early in the book, by saying, “My family is people. They tell me things: I laugh. They laugh! And the colors!” (73). Mildred is describing her parlors, or gigantic wall televisions, in this quote. Visual technological entertainment is so important in her life that she refers them to as “family,” implying the television characters as her loved ones. By immersing herself in an imaginary world, Mildred finds herself able to relate to fake characters and plots, giving her a phony sense of security. This is necessary for her to achieve her shallow happiness, or senseless plain fun, as she lifelessly watches other people in her walls with a senseless mind. Her family in real life only consists of Guy Montag, her husband, whom she has no fond feelings about. Montag is so frustrated with Mildred because of her inability to express feelings for ...

    Read More

  • Current Monetary Policy Of The United States

    2057 Words  | 5 Pages

    The term Monetary policy refers to the method through which a country’s monetary authority, such as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England control money supply for the aim of promoting economic stability and growth and is primarily achieved by the targeting of various interest rates. Monetary policy may be either contractionary or expansionary whereby a contractionary policy reduces the money supply, reduces the rate at which money is supplied or sets about an increase in interest rates. Expansionary policies on the other hand increase the supply of money or lower the interest rates. Interest rates may also be referred to as tight if their aim is to reduce inflation; neutral, if their aim is neither inflation reduction nor growth stimulation; or, accommodative, if aimed at stimulating growth. Monetary policies have a great impact on the economic stability of a country and if not well formulated, may lead to economic calamities (Reinhart & Rogoff, 2013). The current monetary policy of the United States Federal Reserve while being accommodative and expansionary so as to stimulate growth after the 2008 recession, will lead to an economic pitfall if maintained in its current state. This paper will examine this current policy, its strengths and weaknesses as well as recommendations that will ensure economic stability.

    Read More

  • Difference Between Religion And Religion

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    84% of the people on earth claim to be religious.(2) One third of the world claims to be Christians, 1.6 billion people in the world claim to be Islamic, (3) and one out of five people in the world claim to be spiritual but not religious. (1) Spirituality and religion are often thought to be synonymous, but it’s important to understand the differences between the two. The two have been around for ages, but even though they contrast; they are not the same. One could be described as an outer look on acts and laws, the other more as an internal look of oneself.

    Read More

  • Spirituality and Health

    2670 Words  | 6 Pages

    Spirituality is seen as a universal concept relevant to all individuals; the uniqueness of each individual is paramount (Mcsherry, 2000). Therefore, the subject is complex and relatively complicated topic to discuss. This is due to the different interpretation which is influenced by the individual’s life experience. Therefore definitions of spirituality may differentiate significantly to all individuals and literature (Mcsherry, 2000).

    Read More

  • Essay On Spirituality

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though spirituality and religion are separate concepts, many believe they are intrinsically linked. One such person is a freshman nursing student, Rachel. Rachel believes that spirituality is the free thought that is supported by the institution of religion. Many often believe religion to be more based around rules and customs

    Read More

More about Mildred Pierce - A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen

Open Document