Symbolism In The Devil's Larder

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It is indeed rare to find a book all about the food but do not really associate with health, nutrition and recipes. However, there is this book, The Devil’s Larder, by Jim Crace. This book is a collection of 64 stories varying in length, all on the subject of food. Different kinds of stories with different kind of meaning, and wherein food is being used as a symbolic object to hide variety of ideas about sex, temptation, greed, lust and so on. The theme of innocence also appears in this book in the stories number 13 and 27 where girls are being manipulated. Thus, this essay will show how innocence in these stories relate to experience and the sense of being controlled by other individual. To begin with, Crace uses variety of literary devices …show more content…

In fact, Crace uses food as symbolism to underline these concepts. For instance, the eringo in number thirteen. Eringo symbolizes the self-awakening of Rosa in the story. The once fragile and naive wife becomes wise as she now have the experience that possibly can change their life. Rosa loses her innocent mind after all her husband always takes advantage of her. He makes her do things she doesn’t really want. She changes herself to protect her right and so that her husband cannot control her anymore, and “she’d not be caught as easily as pigeons, pheasants,shrimp” (Crace,45). She could make him a patient husband if she wants to. Like the eringo and the nature, now Rosa can be reliable and kind but can also be destructive. In addition, in the twenty-seventh story, another vision could be think of about innocence and experience. For example, in the lines which states “no one is sure if it is love or hatred of the salt that makes the clam momentarily protrude its twin valves” (Crace, 82). The salt symbolizes knowledge and experience. And that no one can justify if it is love or hatred of the wisdom and someone’s experience that makes the person surrender or fight for his life. In short, not only Crace highlights the idea of innocence of women but also offers the idea that with experience, everything can possibly

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