Title: "Tell me what you do with what you eat and I will tell you who you are" The Use Of Food To Enhance Characterisation And Relationships, In Like Water For Chocolate And Zorba The Greek.
Texts: Zorba The Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
Like Water For Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
"Tell me what you do with what you eat and I will tell you who you are" - the use of food to enhance characterisation and relationships, in Like Water For Chocolate and Zorba The Greek.
Food is intricately linked to our lives, as we consume food and it becomes part of us. Hence, it is unsurprising that Nikos Kazantzakis and Laura Esquivel use their characters’ approach to food to represent and give insights into their disposition. Both Like Water for Chocolate and Zorba the Greek utilize this link between "what you do with what you eat" and "who you are" to enhance characterisation and character relationships. More abstractly, Kazantzakis and Esquivel’s depictions of food highlight thematic exploration of passion and making the most of life.
In the very beginning of Zorba the Greek, food is used to reflect the relationship between the two main characters, as Zorba pleads to accompany the Narrator to Crete "Well, take me, shall we say, as cook. I can make soups you’ve never heard or thought of"Soups pleased me too-We’ll eat and drink together . These "soups you’ve never heard" of accurately illustrate the nature of the relationship between them. The philosophical ideas about life exchanged between the Narrator and Zorba throughout the novel are embodied in this interaction as the Narrator will “never tire of listening to” Zorba who “has thoroughly explored the earth and the human soul” . In a reciprocal way, Zorba is influenced by the Narrator’s philosophical teachings and altered perspective on life. “You must forgive me boss… I can’t turn out beautiful sentences and compliments” . These “soups” give the reader an insight into the influences the characters exert on each other and provide a metaphor for the nature of their connection.
Likewise, Esquivel uses food to represent Tita’s relationship with Pedro. Rosaura’s inability to breastfeed Roberto meant Tita was left to “take over his feeding” as she notices she can lactate. “The baby, instead of driving them apart, actually brought them closer together. It was as if the child’s mother was Tita, and not Rosaura” .
As the next few weeks go on we see Pedro and Tita's relationship develop. The biggest change is when Pedro's son Roberto is born. Tita begins to breast feed Roberto because Rosaura had no milk after the strain of her pregnancy. The author uses imagery to express the feelings of longing between Pedro and Tita by writing about the looks they gave each other. Specifically when Pedro looked at Tita, it was a look that, when matched with Tita's "fused so perfectly that whoever saw them would have seen but a single look, a single rhythmic and sensual motion." This look changed their relationship forever, it bonded them together and they would never be separated in their hearts. This shows that the theme of, true love can withstand anything, is true. After this interaction between them they had been less careful about hiding from Mama Elena and when the baptism rolled around Mama Elena had seen enough. She decided, in the middle of the party that Pedro, Rosaura and Roberto would be moving to San Antonio to be with her cousin. They left and after about a year Mama Elena passed
In the narrative “Food Is Good” author Anthony Bourdain humorously details the beginning of his journey with food. Bourdain uses lively dialogue with an acerbic style that sets his writing apart from the norm. His story began during his childhood and told of the memories that reverberated into his adulthood, and consequently changed his life forever. Bourdain begins by detailing his first epiphany with food while on a cruise ship traveling to France. His first food experience was with Vichyssoise, a soup served cold.
Some may see the interaction between Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns as no more than a cup of tea, but after reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it is evident that it is much more powerful. In chapter 2 of his book, “Nice to Eat With You”, Foster addresses that in literature, a meal scene is not always just a meal scene. For
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflected in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ...
MaxField Mary. “Food as Thought Resisting Moralization of Eating”. They Say I Say with Readings 3rd. Eds. Gerald Graff,Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W.W Norton and Company, Inc, 2016 442-447 Print.
... other," and "[make] mad passionate love wherever they happened to end up" (242). Unlike the first wedding, Tita too is infected with the powerful enchantment of the food. "For the first time in their lives, Tita and Pedro made love freely" (243). The novel ends with both Pedro and Tita, overcome with pleasure and emotion, dying in each other arms.
Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.
To understand fully the implicit meaning and cultural challenges the film presents, a general knowledge of the film’s contents must be presented. The protagonist, Tita, suffers from typical Hispanic cultural oppression. The family rule, a common rule in this culture, was that the youngest daughter is to remain unwed for the duration of her mother’s life, and remain home to care for her. Mama Elena offers her daughter, Tita’s older sister Rosaura, to wed a man named Pedro, who is unknowingly in mutual love with Tita. Tita is forced to bake the cake for the wedding, which contains many tears that she cried during the process. Tita’s bitter tears cause all the wedding guests to become ill after consuming the cake, and Tita discovers she can influence others through her cooking. Throughout the film, Tita’s cooking plays an important role in all the events that transpire.
In the article by Wendell Berry titled “The Pleasures of Eating” he tries to persuade the readers of the necessity and importance of critical thinking and approach to choosing meals and owning responsibility for the quality of the food cooked. He states that people who are not conscious enough while consuming products, and those who do not connect the concept of food with agricultural products, as people whose denial or avoidance prevents them from eating healthy and natural food. Berry tries to make people think about what they eat, and how this food they eat is produced. He points to the aspects, some which may not be recognized by people, of ethical, financial and
Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." The Norton Mix: A Custom Publication: Food Writing: A Readymix. Ed. Jeffrey Andelora, Melissa Goldthwaite, Charles Hood, Katharine N. Ings, Angela L. Jones, and Christopher Keller. 13th ed. Vol. 13. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 361-77. Print.
Food and eating are two key social and cultural identity indicators that bring people of the same culture closer together. Food and eating are viewed as cultural and social symbols, and deviating from these norms may be harmful to an outsider’s ability to fit in (Crouch & O’Neill, 2000, pp. 182-183; Cornejo Happel, 2012, pp. 175-176). For example, Buddy drinks Coca-Cola directly from the bottle, instead of asking for a glass, which is seen as inappropriate by the family (Berg et al., 2003, 44:01). When Buddy joins Walter’s family for dinner, Buddy asks for maple syrup to put on his meal; the family is taken aback because, in their culture, it is atypical for maple syrup to be put onto spaghetti (44:16). This is normal for Buddy and those of the Elf culture, who believe that “the four main food groups [are] candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup” (44:40). This is seen as strange and repulsive to Americans who, albeit consume sugary foods, try to consume a more balanced diet. Food norms are important to follow in order to fit into a new culture. Even where shared foods across cultures exist, there are often norms around how and when to consume these foods (Cornejo Happel, 2012, pp. 175-176). Instead of bonding over shared food products like maple syrup or Coca-Cola, Buddy alienates himself from his family by the ways in which he consumes these foods. Through adaptation and acculturation, one’s food preferences may change and thus one’s identity may shift (Ishak, Zahari & Othman, 2013, pp. 439-440). If Buddy were to adapt to the local food customs, he may find it easier to fit in with his family and those around
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
Gonzalez, Julina Roel. ""The Philosophy of Food," Edited by David M. Kaplan." Ed. Michael Goldman. Teaching Philosophy 36.2 (2013): 181-82. Print.
It is interesting how people of various parts of the world are able to use food to describe something or someone metaphorically. Although most of the food idioms arise with some relation to food or the action of eating, most of the food idioms in present days have meanings that evolve to have not relativity to food or