Food in Literature: The Flavors of Life in Jhumpa Lahiris and Nora Okja Kellers Pieces - Essay Example

Food in Literature: The Flavors of Life in Jhumpa Lahiri’s and Nora Okja Keller’s Pieces Introduction Food in literature is basically a trope; it vastly mediates between two things or ideas. Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” and “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” and Nora Okja Keller’s Fox Girl are literary pieces that greatly utilize food items in visually depicting and capturing the lives and thoughts of their characters. Apparently, food imagery heavily used in these three delicate pieces plays a vital role in elucidating and expounding their themes and other elements of literature. Furthermore, the images of food highly contribute to the refinement and subtlety of the narrative. In essence, food imagery is not only about material substance per se but also substantial materials or elements that refine and define a particular literary work. By and large, food is central to the narrative of the three texts. This paper touches the vibrant role that food serves in these literary pieces. It also explores food as a symbol and a mediator. Food’s Role In “A Temporary Matter” The role of food significantly contributes to the theme of the piece and other elements characterized in literature. First, the image of food substantially helps visualized the narrative of the story. In “A Temporary Matter,” for instance, the almost empty pantry -- where food items are stock -- suggests the emptiness and absence of comfort needed for family who just lost a child. The failure to fill-up foodstuffs into the pantry, which used to be constantly filled-up and refilled, dramatically implies the failure to fill-up the sunken emotions between the husband and the wife, namely, Shoba and Shukumar. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” Second, food imagery vividly shows the character’s inner mind and heart. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” for example, the confections that the main character brings to the host’s house strongly suggest his fatherly love of, and probably his missing of the, children. With the absence of his daughters, Mr. Pirzada tries to connect to his girls through the candies and cakes he gives to little Lilia. Foodstuffs permit the character to care and hope for the lives and safety of his family back home. Third, food in literature reveals the cultural upbringing and background of the characters in the piece. The foodstuffs apparent in Lilia’s home, which the characters share and eat, are expressions of shared culture and tradition. For instance, the chewing of fennel seeds after meal, the avoidance of drinking alcohol, among other things, are vital signs of inherited heritage of food etiquette from generation to generation. The invocation of the food names and how they are or not eaten also evoke a shared cultural relic (borrowed from sociological term). It is clear from the story’s narration that the characters prefer the same foodstuff; they seem not to dislike what other eats. In the narrative, the absence of refusing one’s offered food has a strong implication to the sensible readers; for one thing, it implies that the characters in the story have similar food cuisine and table manners in their individual homes and culture. In Fox Girl Lastly, the image of food in the literary piece allows the readers to see, in a subtle manner, the physical suffering that the characters encounter. In the Fox Girl, for example, Duk Hee implants to the innocent mind of Hyun Jin concerning men: not to trust men. The role of food (i.e., hot dog) substantially helps Sookie’s mother to explore the troubles and anxieties she had had experienced in the arms of her boyfriends. Through the food imagery, Duk Hee seems to have problems with her men in the past. And in relation to the birth of Sookie, the utterance of Duk Hee’s “never depend on a man” implicitly suggests that she did not intend -- at certain period of her young life -- to have an ill-timed child. Duk Hee appears to regret the time when she depends her life and future to a man she presumably loved; that is her physical and emotional pain, to be left alone and widowed by men who merely seek for earthly pleasure. Food as Symbolism In “A Temporary Matter” The symbolism of food in “A Temporary Matter” is apparently the decaying or decomposing relationship between Shoba and Shukumar. Prior to the death of their stillborn, the pantry was constantly filled and refilled with countless foodstuffs, all in different shapes, colors, and aromas. When they used to shop, in fact, Shoba purchased food items of great quantity that Shukumar was left astonished. In spite of the many and varied stuffs she bought at the grocery, Shoba consistently maintained to think ahead for which the food items in their pantry “never went to waste” (Lahiri 7). Upon losing their unborn baby, however, Shoba and Shukumar gradually loss their appetite for living. Shukumar observes that his wife is no longer the same; Shoba’s lifestyle evidently becomes bitter and sour. First, her appetite for buying foodstuff decreases as shown in the content of their pantry: “They’d eaten it all by now” (Lahiri 7). And second, Shoba no longer does the cooking, a role she took upon becoming a faithful wife and an expectant mother. On the other hand, Shukumar takes the role of the cook, believing that “[i]f it weren’t for him … Shoba would eat a bowl of cereal for her dinner” (Lahiri 8). Here, the symbol of food through the imagery of pantry is essentially the disintegration of home: Shoba deserts her role as a wife and Shukumar relinquishes his role as a husband. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the symbolism of food is patently twofold: (1) food as a metaphor for culture; and (2) food as a metaphor for one’s thought. First, what one eats and his or her manner of eating implicitly speak of one’s ethnic and/or cultural background. When Lilia’s father tells his daughter that Mr. Pirzada is not an Indian, the little girl could not understand what the father implies -- although she understands the matter very well. Lilia argues that both her father and Mr. Pirzada eat the same kind of foodstuff like “pickled mangoes with their meals … [and] rice every night for supper with their hands” (Lahiri 25). For Lilia, these similarities of food cuisine and the manner of eating are visible signs of cultural homogeneity. And second, what one gives (i.e., food items) expresses something deeper than that which is given. Every visit of Mr. Pirzada to his hospitable host, he always gives Lilia candies, cakes, and other foodstuffs that children loved. Lilia’s mother even protests to Mr. Pirzada’s spoiling the child. The cinnamon hearts, the peppermint lollipop and other assorted candies are items that greatly reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of Mr. Pirzada. By and large, Mr. Pirzada sees ten-year-old Lilia as his daughter since he is living in Boston away from his girls at war-torn Dacca. Here, the food imagery symbolizes the character’s cultural origin and the longing for his family back home. In Fox Girl The symbolism of food in the Fox Girl is essentially sex and prostitution. Duk Hee, Sookie’s mother, vitally warns Hyun Jin, the main protagonist, to “[n]ever depend on a man” (Keller). She adds that women should have a protection against men. Hyun Jin, however, seems not to grapple what Sookie’s mother wants to convey. Duk Hee then makes a trope out of a hot dog, with the aid of a kondom, in order for her to grasp the real meaning of protection. She takes a piece of kondom -- what the protagonist calls a large plastic coin -- and attempts to show how it should be used. It was Sookie, however, who performed the magic trick: “Pinch the end [of the condom],” she instructed. “And smooth it down.” The kondom slipped over the meat like the pantyhouse she wore to the clubs. “There,” she said, dropping her knees and holding the covered hot dog vertically on the table. (Keller) Apparently, the image of the hot dog visually represents man’s private part, his penis. What is interesting, though, is that Hyun Jin swallows the hot dog when “he was naked.” The temptation of the hot dog is very strong for protagonist that she could not resist it. This shows up, among other things, of what Hyun Jin will be like in the immediate future. Duk Hee appears to invite Hyun Jin to be a prostitute like her and to protect herself from men’s hot dogs via the large plastic coin. Thus, the food symbolizes paid sex. Food as Mediating In “A Temporary Matter” Food substantially mediates between what is present and what is absent, between the literal and the metaphor, between the text and the context. In Lahiri’s first story taken from the Interpreter of Maladies, the foodstuffs mediate between what is there and what is not there. Of the foodstuffs that are present are corn oil, basmati rice, plum fruits, ginger-roots, lamb meat, among other items. These items recount on the gastronomy peculiar to Indian cuisine. Basmati rice, in particular, tells something about its origin and geographical production. It is interesting that Shukumar cooks rogan josh -- a special Indian delicacy -- of which the ingredients are largely plum tomatoes, ginger-roots, and lamb meat. For Indian people, rogan josh is habitually eaten with rice or bread; and readers vitally see the connection of basmati rice to other rogan josh ingredients. Of the foodstuffs that are conspicuously absent are plain yogurt and garam masala, two of the basic ingredients for serving rogan josh. It is strange that A Temporary Matter is starkly silent to these two ingredients. Probably they do not have any bearing or relevance to the narrative of the story. And most probably the food is a mediator between the text and its readers; for one thing, garam masala is too foreign to many non-Indian audiences. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the food items substantially mediate between metaphor and literal. Of the literal, the foodstuffs become sheer physical items that are consumed and shared by the host and the guest. For instance, biscuits are just biscuits, cups of tea are merely cups of tea, and candies are literally candies; they resemble nothing but substances meant for bodily nourishment or pleasure. Of the metaphor, the food items become a representation of something or someone abstract yet real and existing. The shared viands are essentially metaphors for shared community, tradition, and history. When Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s father ceremoniously dip their biscuits into the cups of tea, they do not just dip the food items but also dip or touch the same cultural or ethnic rituals of eating biscuits. The similarity of etiquette in eating subtly unfolds a certain aspect of shared identity between the two: Indian culture. In Fox Girl The food items in Fox Girl mediate between the text and the context. The Ho Ho cake -- in the textual level -- is largely a cake with “too-sweet lining of sugar cream” (Keller). At first, Hyun Jin did not like Ho Ho for it tastes like dirt that she “spit[s] out the cake.” Gradually, however, the protagonist learns to like the Ho Ho cake like the way she likes its shiny wrapper caught and flung in the afternoon light. In the contextual level, on the other hand, the Ho Ho cake that tastes like dirt extends its meaning to the narrative of the literary piece. This food item contextualizes, among others, the plot of the piece; similar to hot dogs, Ho Hos largely represent men of whatever color and size. Ho Ho cake generally symbolizes prostitution, making love to strangers that the woman does not love; such is the fate of a prostitute, to be forced to make love to an unknown individual and to learn to like or love it even if she personally does not like or love him. Conclusion Food is both a symbolism and a mediator in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” and “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” and Nora Okja Keller’s Fox Girl. As a symbol, the foodstuffs in the three pieces are images that portray something deeper other than what is on the surface. Shoba and Shukumar’s pantry, Mr. Pirzada’s confections, and Hyun Jin’s hot dogs and Ho Hos are food items that symbolize their individual character and role in the piece. And as a mediator, the foodstuffs are imagery that substantially connects two worlds: that which is present and that which is absent. The existing and the lacking ingredients for cooking rogan josh, the literal and the metaphorical shared biscuits and teas for dessert, and the text and the context of Ho Ho cake for snack are visual images that food fundamentally mediates. Thus, food in literature has a vital role in shaping and reshaping its elements and narrative. Works Cited Keller, Nora Okja. Fox Girl. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print. Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999. Print. Read More