Food in Jumpha Lahiri's A Temporary Matter and When Mr Pirzada Came to Dine and Nora Okja Kellers Fox Girl - Essay Example

Food in Jumpha Lahiris "A temporary Matter and "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" and Nora Okja Kellers Fox Girl Different works of literature and formsof media have been representing food as a symbol to represent the complicacies of human life and unfolds its tangles through vivid illustration of the same. Along with relationships human emotions re also associated with food. As food varies according to the nature of meal taken in the day, it also differs according to an individual’s mood and lifestyle. In a foreign land food helps an individual to retain his or her identity and culture. Even when they are away from their motherland, food helps in bringing these people close to their soil. Food even works as a motivator for the South East Asian immigrants in US. Akin to forms of art, food also helps in distinguishing one’s culture and hence brings about a certain familiarity. Jhumpa Lahiri’s work Interpreter of Maladies has symbolically represented food to identify the different complexities of relationships and sentiments along with life away from homeland. These themes are brought out through to of her stories in this collection names ‘A Temporary Matter’ and ‘When Mr. Pirzada came to Dinner’. Another novel titled Fox Girl by Nora Ojka Keller has also mentioned food to depict the change of times and difference in ethnicities along with commercialization of food industry and its attraction to the immigrants. Food introduces an innovative genus in literature to symbolically represent personal relationships and sentiments against the backdrop of globalization. The short story ‘A Temporary Matter’ and ‘When Mr. Pirzada came to Dinner’ focuses on the role of food as a symbol for changes in human relationships and generating memories and common ties with the motherland respectively. In the first story the light is mainly on the two characters Shukumar and Shobha, a married couple whose conjugal life has been undergoing gradually but noticeable changes since the latter gives birth to a still born infant. Shobha no longer treats the house as their home and rather behaved as though she were in a hotel. She manages to stay away from the house for most of the time and when she is home she takes the food cooked by her husband without which she could have something as basic as cereals instead of cooking herself something. this is in sharp contrast to the time when she “would throw together meals that appeared to have taken half a day to prepare, from thing she had frozen and bottled, not cheap things in tins but peppers she had marinated herself with rosemary, and chutneys that he cooked on Sundays, storing boiling pots of tomatoes and prunes” (Lahiri, 7). This highlights her dislike towards the packaged food which is commonly used by the American families. One would also find that despite Shobha’s absence from cooking Shukumar retains this essence of the native land by applying the knowledge he once gained from his wife. This expresses the need to remain strongly rooted to their culture despite being in a foreign land. In fact it is this very activity which reflects the change in her mental orientation. She is not interested in cooking or the domestic intricacies now. On the other hand the essence of the other story focuses on an Indian family inviting Mr. Pirzada to dinner as their guest based upon the fact that he has their last name. The family invites a complete stranger based upon the familiarity of the common bondage to their homeland. Mr. Pirzada is from Dacca and the family of the protagonist or the narrator is from Calcutta. Their food and eating habits are similar and the protagonist carefully observes this especially when his father tells her he is no more an Indian after the political riots and territorial division between India and East Pakistan. Thus food serves as the means of reflecting upon relationships. while Shobha strays away from storing the food items purchased from the Haymarket like she did when things were normal between them, food serves in bringing together the stranger and Lilia’s family to a common ground where they enjoyed a few peaceful moments sharing their lives and connecting to their homeland even if it means watching the local channel on television together over dishes of Kebabs, lentils, rice, coriander chutney and fried onions. Mr. Pirzada has the familiar habit of making holes in rice to make place for the lentils. This is quite similar to the host family. Mango pickles and biscuits in desserts were also the common chords between them along with the abstinence from alcohol. While food symbolically represents the distance between the couple in ‘A Temporary Matter’, it shows the closeness and commonality between Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s family as he visits them. The small delicacies like toffees and chocolates which he showers on the ten years old protagonist help in establishing a very special relationship between them – “I had no response to … the steady stream of honey-filled lozenges, the raspberry truffle, the slender rolls of sour pastilles. I could not even thank him, for once, when I did, for an especially spectacular peppermint lollipop wrapped in a spray of purple cellophane…” (Lahiri, 29) The narrator preserves these precious gifts and ate them one by on before brushing her teeth. These small and brief occasions gave them little chance to interact and this is how she got to grow familiar to their guest. Thus the sweet delicacies give another scope for strengthening bonds between two unknown people belonging to different generations but the same nationality. Things change for the young couple Shobha and Shukumar as the electricity begins to go out at eight in the evening for four consecutive days. The first day Shukumar prepares lamb roast and serves wine along with it. This dinner in lit birthday candles serves as the perfect moment they needed to relax in peace and talk to one another about trivial things until Shobha plans a game like truth and dare where they could share their little secrets. The food serves as the witness as both finds it easier to confess things they kept secret from one another in the dark than in proper light. This shows the significance of having dinner together. Food brings about a harmony amongst families as it is the reason which brings the members together at least for once in the day and gives them a scope to exchange thoughts and feelings. In both the stories dinner serves the same purpose while the description of items shows how important it is for the immigrants to take food typical to their culture and ethnicity in order to retain the familiarity and scent of their soil. on the fifth day, Shukumar plans to cook shrimp but the notice arrives saying there will be no more power cut that day which kind of saddens him because for the last four days they have been waiting for the dinner time to arrive and the power cut which gave them the chance to strengthen their intimacy. The fifth day they reveal a big secret as they have dinner together. Shukumar reveals the secret knowledge about the sex of their dead baby which has been unknown to Shobha and the latter reveals her plans to stay in a different house away from him. This revelation leads them to weep and take out all pent up emotions. Thus food and dinner serves as the mediator which brings out the truth from the hearts of the couple and helps them in being frank and honest with one another for some moments which might not be recur if they decide not to have dinner together anymore. While the stories of Lahiri focus on interpersonal relationships and immigrant statuses Keller in her novel Fox Girl also brings up the same theme in a different manner or approach. The story reveals the mal treatment of the Koreans at the hands of the G.I.s. they are forced to abandon their studies and serve the G.I.s in order to strive for their existence. It unravels the story of a young student, Hyun Jin who is compelled to live with Sookie, a prostitute and her childhood companion. The story essentially shifts the attention of the readers from personal experiences to the difference between the natures of food highlighted. One category belongs to the Korean native food as indicated by “Korean weeds” and the other represents the popularized junk food of American culture which is a special treat to the poor Korean’s eye. Saving these treats for someone means a great sacrifice as Jin reflects when she complains how she saves the treats for Sookie while starving herself or eating the weeds instead of American herbs which to her presumption, is definitely better than what she takes. The story unfolds in the background of the sixties when commercialization of food products was taking place and this is a rare attraction especially to those who could not afford them. cookies shared by the two girls reminds Sookie of a time when her mother’s American boyfriend got numerous packages of junk food as gifts for her and being hungry she had them all instead of keeping anything for her mother. She has them staked up on the wall and Jin thinks that her father could never afford them even if he spent the entire year’s income. Food once again gives them a scope to exchange experiences and sentiment but unlike the Indians in Lahiri’s stories the Koreans here are keen towards the fast food. The Indians are more eager to preserve their culture and taste the essence of their homeland as much as possible by home made products. For the poor Koreans, the fast food signifies the difference in economic positions and also cultural orientation. When something is unaffordable one is more drawn towards the same. These junk food items also serve as a mediator to bring out the guilt, anger and sacrifice from the hearts of the young Korean girls as they meditate about the past. for instance Sookie expresses her feelings as she ate the lunk food brought by her mother’s boyfriend, saying, “I was so angry that I couldn’t taste what I had eaten, and that made me angrier” (Keller). Guilt is expressed as she realizes she ruined her mother’s chances of having an affair with the man who brought those gifts. Therefore the paper shows how food is the symbol for interpersonal relationships apart from the reflections of globalization and commercialization of food. Food reveals the way immigrants lead their lives and their eating habits. It helps in building an identity as depicted by Lahiri while Keller shows the blending of the same in the context of globalization where Korean immigrants are more inclined towards “American treats” instead of Korean native food. Food symbolizes changes in relationships and moods thereby serving the purpose of a new genre in literature. Works Cited Keller, Nora Okja, Fox Girl, New York: Penguin, 2003. December 16, 2010 from: Lahiri, Jhumpa, “A Temporary Matter”, in, Interpreter of Maladies, Houghton Miffin Company, 1999, pp.1-22 Lahiri, Jhumpa, “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, in, Interpreter of Maladies, Houghton Miffin Company, 1999, pp. 23-42 Read More