The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Faculty of Arts
Department of English
Topic: Analyses of Representation of Food as a Source of
Communication, Transformation and Healing Agent with
reference to the novels Chocolat, Like Water for Chocolate,
The Mistress of Spices and The Abundance.

Name: Takolkaran Reena George

Class: M.A. Semester-3
Seat no: 303029
P.R.N no. 2013033800083144
Project Guide: Ms. Chaitali Vaishnav
Introduction
Food has a central place in human life. It isn’t just necessary for the body,
however. It also has tremendous impact, both directly and indirectly, on
emotional and intellectual well-being (somer, 1999: 5). Food can be a tangible
symbol of love and concern for others. It is also the oldest and best form of
medicines known to mankind (Geary, 2001: 3). There is a two way relationship
between food and emotion. One’s emotions can affect what and how much one
eats, and what one eats can affect the way that one feels (Eldershaw, 2001: 13).
Bernard Shaw has very rightly said that, “there is no love sincerer than the love
of food.” Food has remained an essential element since ages. It has the ability to
establish a culture and it can be seen as an effective communicator. This paper
tries to analyse these aspects with the help of four novels. Food and its
connection with the world has not emphasized been given much importance
academically, no doubt theorist such as Ronald Barthes, Jacobsen and Levi-
Strauss have elaborated on these aspects. Traditionally food has always had an
intimate association with women and their lives. These aspects will be very
much evident in all the novels that I have looked upon. The main objective of
this paper is to analyse the significance of food not merely as an element for
satisfying physical hunger rather as an effective communicator, transformer and
as a healer. To prove these points I have taken help of four contemporary best
seller novels. Food functions as a main imagery in all these novels and they
have an indirect connection in governing our lives.

These are the four aspects which this paper has tried to emphasise on.

1) Status of women

*Women emerging as strong characters, but the contradictory traditional

values associated with it. (Like Water for Chocolate)

* Women and food connection, providing them an authoritative voice to

depict their emotions.

* How does society look upon women (Chocolat)

2) How has food played an essential part in the characters’ lives?

3) Food and its connection to everybody’s lives.

4) Food as the healer.

One knows that communication plays a great role in our lives, and it is only
through communication we understand the people around us. But
communication is not always verbal it is also non –verbal, so one can consider
food as a non-verbal means of communication. It is said that food has the power
to communicate many things. Scholars like Levi-Strauss, Ronald Barthes and
Evinid Jacobsen in their theories have talked about how food communicates and
how we communicate about food. Barthes uses semiotics to put role and
function of food into context. He says that food works as a sign, which helps in
communicating (Elements of Semiology, Barthes).

In “Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption”, states

that food should not be seen as insignificant. He says that psychosociology
focuses indirectly on eating habits, and should be paid more attention (Barthes:
22-24). He asserts that food and culture are very closely related. Barthes states
that culture influences tastes and so does class, and talks about how food is a
‘situation’. He claims that food makes its own statement, and discusses how it
affects culture and culture affects food.

Levi-Strauss in his work, “The Raw and the Cooked”, states that food acts as a
code that can express patterns about social relationships. Apart from this
Jacobsen in his work, “The Rhetoric of Food” makes an important claim; he
states that just like anything, the definition one uses sets forth a whole range of
meaning, histories, actions and questions that a different definition might
foreclose. More than a defining role, how we frame or deploy food in language
also matters. And it is these definitions or way of thinking about food should be
unsettled, so that we can be mindful of our relationships to food. With the help
of these theories I have analysed four novels and tried to attain a conclusion.

Like Water for Chocolate

Each chapter starts with a recipe and each recipe is connected to a story or says
a memory. But these are not merely some memories; rather those are
experiences that are being passed from generation to generation. Each episode
begins with a recipe and this recipe further takes the readers to encounter Tita’s
life. Tita being the main character of the novel has a special connection with the
food. “Tita made her entrance into this world, prematurely right there on the
kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves,
cilantro, steamed milk, garlic and of course onion”. And this bonding of her
with food grows as the novel progress. Apart from this Tita’s interesting in
cooking is further enhanced and converted into skill by Nacha.

Food plays a major role in the book and since novelist is a Mexican writer, the
novel has elements of Mexican culture. The novel carries many of the culinary
traditions that the Mexican find very important in their culture. Apart from that
Barthes asserts that every country has its own type of food and preparations that
impact their culture. He states that food has the power to communicate our
ideologies. Mexican women play a very important role in domestic life and
must know how to prepare food (Lomnitz and Perez-Lizaur 187). Different
dishes are prepared on different occasions, and this is what we see in the novel;
for example, Tita prepares turkey mole for Roberto’s baptism, then she prepares
a special kind of cake, with unique filling and with certain kind of icing for the
wedding. Tita takes her time in preparing each dish and makes sure to follow
each recipe or formula carefully. As it is already mentioned that each chapter
starts with a recipe, and these recipes are connected to an event. No doubt these
recipes are made up of tangible ingredients, but it is also made up of intangible
ingredients like love, sorrow, joy, patience, and hate for all etc. this is very
much evident in the novel. One instance when she makes a dish and into it she
adds rose petals into it. She prepares this dish with lot of passion and love for
Pedro. As mentioned above this novel basically talks about how food influences
their lives and behaviour. Tita’s life revolves around food from the day of her
birth.

“From that day on Tita’s domain was kitchen, where she grew vigorous and
healthy on a diet of teas and thin corn gruels. This explains the sixth sense Tita
developed about everything concerning food”.

As a reader one can notice that food gave Tita a kind of temporary escape from
the iron-fisted control of her mother, Mama Elena. It is through food that Tita is
able to communicate her feelings to others (Dobrian, 1996: 63). Barthes in his
work states that food has the ability to create chain of meanings as he says,

“What is food? A system of communication, a body of images, a protocol of

usages, situations, behaviour…this item of food sums up and transmits a
situation; it constitutes information; it signifies…it is a real sign, perhaps the
functional unit of communication”.

Surapeepan Chatraporn in her article states that, the novel is full of

metaphorical expressions that relate to food, one which serves as the novel’s
title. Other examples are, for instance,

“Fresh as a head of lettuce” (Esquivel, 1995: 136) and “how a lump of corn
flour is changed into a tortilla, how a soul that hasn’t been warmed by the fire
of love is lifeless, like a useless ball of corn flour” (Esquivel, 1995: 67).

As a reader one cans notice that under the domination of her tyrannical mother,
Mama Elena, Tita is unable to express her love either through words or actions,
so food here became a mediator for communication. She has the innate ability to
convey her feelings through the dishes that she prepares. Her dishes can make
people both happy and sad. Apart from this one can notice that food here also
serves as an agent for curing diseases, for example, Chencha’s oxtail soup is
cure for Tita’s uses food to treat Pedro’s burns. Tita also devises to cure bad
breath and this also helped her to overcome the breakdown. There is a clear cut
connection between food and emotions (Dinesen). Cooking various delicacies
gives these women the power which they were denied off. For example; Tita
was unloved by her mother and she had a miserable childhood; apart from that
she was not given the right to decide anything for herself. But when she started
cooking she was gained power and authority, because it was only through
cooking she had the liberty to convey her feelings and emotions. She had the
freedom to add whichever ingredient she wanted. It was only at the time of
cooking she was able to use her brain and all the senses. For example; the guests
who tasted her Chabela wedding cake, for instance, are overcome with nausea
and an overwhelming nostalgia for lost loves.

Chocolat
Food has a direct connection with emotions. Food acts as a vehicle to
communicate ones feelings and acts as agent to express one’s own feelings.
Food being the central part of human life acts as a source of love and concern
for others. This is very much evident in the novels that I will be dealing it. In
the novel Chocolat, it is seen that every character has direct or indirect
connection with food. Food being the part of celebration and happiness, as G.B.
Shaw has very rightly said there is no sincere love, than love for food. S. Sofia
Selvarani in her article ‘A Thematic Study on Chocolat by Joanne Harris’, states
that in the novel chocolate acts as symbol of temptation and desire which brings
a spatter of colour and comfort to the people. She says that food serves to
provoke feelings and help the villagers. The protagonist of the novel, Vianne
Rocher is a chocolate maker and she is shown in opposition to Francis Reynaud,
a priest who is trying to supress human desires and impels them to keep lent
(Harris 10). Since the novel also deals with some amount of magical realism in
it, the sudden appearance of Vianne in the village revives the celebration of
taste and infuses people with sense of life. The best example of this is Josephine
and Armande, food has worked as a healer in both of their lives. Their lives are
completely transformed. Apart from that the title of the novel itself shows food
as the dominant imagery in the novel. The shop opened by Vianne, served as a
place for the villagers to come and they can find the right chocolate for healing
their broken hearts and for solving their spiritual and amorous affairs. The shop
opens in such small village there is a strict code of behaviour governing such
situations, and people are reserved (Harris 18).

Harris through her novel unfolds a tale of life, love and death and bereavement,
of fear and violence, also happiness through the imagery of confections. At her
chocolate boutique, La Celeste Praline: Chocolaterie Artisanale, Vianne
excessively decorates the display window with a variety of multi-coloured
chocolates and sweets.

“In glass bells and dishes lie the chocolates, the pralines, Nipples of Venus,
white rum truffles, mendicants, candied fruits, hazelnuts clusters, chocolate
seashells, candied rose-petals, sagared violets…”(Harris, 2001: 33).

Food has a central place in human life. It isn’t just necessary for the body,
however. It is also has a tremendous impact, both directly and indirectly, on
emotional and intellectual well-being (somer, 1999:5). Food can be tangible
symbol of love and concern for others. It is a source of comfort and consolation.
Barthes in semiotics of food says that food is just not a means for survival;
rather it is a part of sign system as it is strictly invoved in the process of
signification and interpretation. It is also the oldest and best form of medicine
known to mankind (Geary, 2001:3). There is a two way relationship between
food and emotions. One’s emotions can affect what and how much one eats, and
what one eats can affect the way one feels (Eldershaw, 2001: 13).
Happiness, simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet.
Alive.

For Harris, cooking is an art at which to marvel and to enjoy,

“This is an art I can enjoy. There is a kind of sorcery in all cooking: in the
choosing of ingredients, the process of mixing, grating, melting, infusing, and
flavouring, the recipes taken from ancient books, the traditional utensils.

Cooking, being a sacred ritual connects the cook to the people she cooks for and
does influence the mood, spirit and behaviour of everyone involved. Food has a
special influence on emotions and behaviours of the characters. Armande, the
village’s oldest resident, sipping a tall glass of mocha, even though she is a
diabetic patient. Her daughter Caroline has asked her not to drink chocolate
shakes or any other dish which has sugar in it. But Armande loves to eat, and
Vianne’s shop has become the source of happiness and this shop had filled
many colours to her life. Whenever she had a cup full of hot chocolate, she
forgot her monotonous life that she had being living all these years. Apart from
that as a reader one can see that chocolate had played a very dominant role in
governing their lives, the best example over here is Josephine. “The novel
makes a plea for passion and plessure as opposed to repression and denial”
(Ansen, 2000: 77). Surapeepan Chatraporn in her article, “Food, Emotion and
the Empowerment of Women in contemporary Fiction by Women Writers”
states that, Vianne’s luscious chocolate pits the forces of liberation and renewal
against those of repression and rigid tradition. Her aphrodisiac sweets awaken
their hearts of the self –denying villagers’ life’s abundance and ecstasy. The
novel also explores the ideas of community, morality, loneliness, belonging,
tradition and innovation, all presented through the imagery of confections. In
this novel also one can find that food working as a healing agent, and Vianne is
able to connect to the villagers heart is only through food. Surapeepan
Chatraporn in her article states that, Vianne establishes a magical relationship
with the villagers. She makes finds with the outcasts. She dares to be the victim
of slander because she challenges rigid tradition, and she offers food for a
hunger that has been deep down within the people she meets. The magic power
of her particular blends which fill the spiritually starved people with physical
and spiritual satisfaction become magic restorative remedies for all of them.
Vianne emerged as a saviour as well as healer.
The Mistress of Spices
The Mistress of Spices is usually read as a diasporic novel, but here I will try to
analyse it with a different perspective. Each chapter in the novel is named after
a spice, as reader one knows that every spice has its unique characteristics and
so each spice is associated to an individual’s life. Tilo is the main character of
the novel and she had done mastery in Ayurveda. She knows the magical
properties of all the spices and knows how to use them. She has used the
magical properties of the spices to heal people. One knows that spices play a
great role in the taste of the food, food without spices can be considered as food
without a soul. Tilo uses these spices to cure people spiritually and physically,
all the spices apart from adding taste to the food it has some medicinal
properties, so it can be used as a healer.

Divakaruni combines magic realism with lush descriptions of food from India in
her novel. She has brought in all the spices which are considered as the soul of
the Indian Kitchen. Since having medicinal properties, they are used to cure
many diseases. In the novel it can be seen that various people come to her shop
to seek help and Tilo uses these spices to elevate problems from their lives. The
first example which can be traced from the novel is the use of turmeric in
solving the problem Lalita. Lalita who was married to Ahuja, he has been
violent towards her and she is not at all happy with her married life. She desires
for a baby and feels that everything would be alright after that. So to help her,
Tilo uses turmeric to solve her problem. Now turmeric has been a major spice in
curing many diseases including skin problems. Tilo for her,

“Child-longing desire, deeper than for wealth or lover or even death. It weighs
down the air of the store, purple like before a storm. It gives off the smell of
thunder scorches”.

“A handful of turmeric wrapped in old newspaper with the words of healing

whispered into it, slipped into your grocery sack when you’re not looking. The
string tied into the triple flower knot and inside, stain-soft turmeric the same
color as the bruise seeping onto your cheek from under the dark edge of your
glasses”.

Tilo has been blessed with some powers and with the help of these powers she
is able to sense the problems of her customers. She suggests Lalita to focus on
the work which she likes to do. She informs her that by doing so she will be
able to forget her problems. Later on spices like clove, cinnamon and cardamom
are used to cure her customers’ problems.

Then she uses Fenugreek, “I fenugreek who renders the body sweet again,
ready for loving…fenugreek, I asked your help when Ratna came to me burning
from the poison in her womb, legacy of her husband’s roving…yes I called to
you when Alok who loves men showed me the lesions opening avid as mouth on
his skin…when…Banita with a lump like a nugget of lead in her breast and the
doctors saying cut, and in her husband’s eyes as he paced the store saying,
‘what shall I do, please’?”

Tilo also helps Daksha, who is entangled in the situation of arrange marriage
and the values of Indian patriarchal system. She concerns Tilo regarding this
and she gives her seeds of black pepper and asks her to boil it and drink it. As
this will clear her throat and she will get courage to say ‘no’. Black pepper is a
medicine which is usually used in healing cough and cold. Tilo uses this spice a
remedy to cure her client’s problem. Here as a reader one can see that the spices
are not only used for curing physical problems, but they are also used to elevate
personal problems.

It can be said that these spices played a huge role in transforming the
individual’s life. Divakaruni in her is novel trying to impart the knowledge of
various uses of these spices and how they can be used in one’s life to elevate
many problems. Here Tilo plays the role of a healer, reformer and as a bridge
between two distinct cultures, as Divakaruni says,

“For me, Tilo became the quintessential dissolver of boundaries, moving

between different ages and world and the communities that people them, and
passing through a trial of earth-burial to emerge transformed, each time with a
new name and a new identity”.

The Abundance
The Abundance by Amit Majmudar, talks about the immigrant experience in his
novel. The novel basically moves back and forth from present to past and vice
versa. The novel narrates a beautiful story of a family settled in America; both
the children Ronak and Mala are happily married. The mother is an excellent
cook and she is constantly remembering of her culture through the recipes that
she makes. Mala learns many recipes from her mother, like perfecting the naan,
making the rotlis and making a perfect raita. Mala and Ronak later on realizes
that their mother is suffering from cancer and has very less days left with her
decides to spend time with her.

From the beginning of the novel one can see that how the mother is passionate
about cooking and she keeps on making various dishes. The mother teaches
Mala all the Indian recipes and as a reader one can relate that it is only these
recipes that keep them connected with their culture in this alien world. That is
the reason the mother constantly keeps on making various dishes from India.
Then later on Mala realizes that her mother is blessed with the art of cooking, so
in that case Ronak decides to make this skill a passion and also spread it among
the people. So then he decides that he will make a T.V. documentary, will ask
his mother to write a book based on her experience related to cooking.

So here as a reader one can notice that Ronak and Mala are trying to give their
mother what she is passionate about. Both the children notice that when the
mother is involved in the act of cooking, she forgot all her suffering and pains.
So here again food worked as a healer, as an agent that brings happiness to their
mother’s life. They wanted that before their mother meet the heavenly abode;
they can help her in establishing her identity as a cook. Food over here acts as
agent that connects two cultures; it helps in communicating ideologies and
works as a healer. People who are living far from their native land always
misses their place, but it is only through food that these people keep themselves
connected with their culture. Also as shown in the novel, food also has the
capacity to show a fusion between two cultures. This kind of connection helps
us a reader to understand that food is not merely something that satisfies
physical hunger rather it aids as an agent that helps in healing emotional
instability and apart from that it also helps in effective communication. It also
helps in curing many diseases and also works as an agent that can cure even
mental instability. The food works as a healer and this is evident in all the
novels.

When we closely look at all these four novels, one cannot ignore the elements
of gender involved in it. Status of women cannot be ignored in the novels, as
one can see that all the women characters are strong, except certain characters
as they are dominated by the other women characters. For example Tita, her life
is governed by her mother who is a very strong character and she believes that
women can survive independently. This is very much evident in the novel
Chocolat where the protagonist, Vianne runs her bakery independently and the
society does not support her, but she did not bother what others said about her
rather she focused on her work. Again food can also cut down the class
difference that has been created. In the novel Chocolat, one can see that Vianne
always remains in contact with those people who were out casted by the
villagers. These people came to her bakery and because of that she was able to
know about their lives.

Conclusion
Esquivel, Harris and Majmudar have shown that food has a direct influence in
our lives and it has the ability to govern our emotions and behaviour. Tita for
example builds an effective connection with food as her dishes have the ability
to produce negative as well as positive emotions. Vianne and her chocolate have
the ability to transform individuals’ lives. Through her dishes she has been
successful in liberating the villagers from living a monotonous and rigid life. It
is shop that becomes the place where secrets can be whispered and it is because
of the dishes Vianne prepares, she is able to connect to the villagers’ lives.
Majmudar has a different take in his novel he shows food as an element
reducing the gap between two cultures and apart from that it also focuses on
how food helps in establishing one’s identity. Divakaruni has used magic
realism and she has talked about the importance of spices and how it can be
used in healing an individual both internally as well as externally. Food here is
seen as proving both spiritual as well as physical nourishment.

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