Motif: Food and Mealtime 

Food provides comfort and sustenance to the individual, but it can also provide insight and 

doorways for relationships with other people. It can be a path to a great relationship, or it could be a 

path to a bad relationship.  

Because mealtime is often shared with others, there is a certain vulnerability that eating 

provides. Food is required, and therefore, there is always a mealtime. However, people have turned 

the necessity of mealtime into a social event, often using it as a bonding time. What appears like a 

bonding time can often expose people as mannered or unmannered, rich or poor, or even civilized or 

uncivilized. Whether it is with a businessman/woman, a significant other, a friend, or family, people 

are vulnerable when they eat. For example, let’s say that a businessman and a famous CEO were 

meeting to form a partnership. When they sit down to eat, the CEO shows proper etiquette, and has a 

nice, classy dinner. The businessman, on the other hand, does not show proper etiquette, and ends up 

making a bad impression on the CEO. Because the businessman ate poorly, it hurt the relationship. 

He was vulnerable because the need to eat overcame him, and by eating, he had to demonstrate poor 

manners. Eating and vulnerability go hand in hand because of its necessity. Necessity makes you 

vulnerable. Another example of vulnerability at mealtime isn’t making a bad impression, but actually 

being in danger of death. Take, for example, a child with a peanut allergy. He is actually vulnerable, 

and could potentially die if he isn’t taken to the hospital after being exposed to the peanut. In the 

movie, “The Emperor's New Groove,” Yzma, who is the Emperor's Advisor, attempts to poison Kuzco 

after she is fired from her position. In the end, he actually turns into a llama after the poison was 

accidentally replaced with a transformation potion. Despite this failure, however, we can see that 
Kuzco almost died due to this vulnerability! Since eating is a necessity, it can be dangerous and 

revealing when it goes awry. This necessity provides a perfect gateway to judgment, because when 

someone is vulnerable and shows bad manners or habits, someone can easily judge them.   

When it comes to mealtime, one’s culture and origins can be revealed, because the food, and 

sometimes the way it’s prepared, can show a lot about one’s upbringing. Food comes from many 

different sources, and often something that is common in one place may be horrifying and freaky in 

another. For example, in Greece, it is common to use all of the body parts of an animal for food… even 

parts like the tongue. In other cultures, eating a tongue of a goat would make people hurl. In America, 

people commonly eat food with their hands, which in other cultures from Europe, would make us look 

like barbarians. In Japan, it is common to make noises such as slurping to signal to hosts that the 

guest has been satisfied. In European culture, this would seem uncivilized and unmannered. Because 

different cultures have such radically different customs, their mealtime habits are seen as opposites. A 

Chinese chef seeing someone eat in a European manner might make him assume that he was raised in 

a European household. The same holds true for other cultures. It can be revealing.  

Although customs like these would vary, sometimes, the food that is revealed could, in itself, 

say a lot about someone. For example, in the short story “Fish Cheeks,” by Amy Tan, a Japanese 

family invited an American family to their house for Christmas Eve dinner. However, the American 

family saw what Japanese mealtime looked like, and they were horrified. Tan writes, “My father 

poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. ‘Amy, your favorite.’ he 

said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.” Since the dinner was supposed to be a 

bonding experience, the fish cheek offered a look into the Japanese culture. In a culture where eating 

fish cheeks wouldn’t be normal, it could be horrifying to witness someone saying it is a favourite. 
Because there are so many cultures in the world, there are also different mealtime customs, and when 

customs clash, it can cause a social divide.  

Aside from culture customs, sometimes someone’s class or wealth can be revealed during 

mealtime. Food costs money! This seems obvious, but this can be a massive roadblock when in public. 

People will often have to decide between indulgence and restraint. Many of the best foods cost more 

than standard food. When one person indulges in an expensive food, others will likely follow to prove 

that they have the money to have nice meals. Sometimes, someone doesn’t have the money to spare so 

the eating regular food they eat can stain their reputation, as the other people may figure out that they 

are poor. For example, in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior, the protagonist, 

doesn’t have the money to buy lunch at his new school. There was an option to get free lunches 

because of his poverty, but he didn’t want that to stain his reputation, so he decides to just be hungry 

for most of the day. Later in the book, he goes with his friends to a pancake house, where he is 

pressured by his friends to eat a lot of pancakes. Because he realizes that there is no way out of this 

one, he decides to eat a lot of food anyway. Eventually, a friend pays for it after Junior says that he 

“forgot his wallet”. If he hadn’t eaten at all, then all of his friends would have found out that he was 

incredibly poor. Because he doesn’t want to let people know that he is poor, he obviously wants to try 

to look less poor by not taking the free lunch. He would have been bullied otherwise.  

Because mealtime creates such a huge window of vulnerability, people can often expose their 

peers to their eating customs, and their wealth. This is why mealtime should be planned, because if 

someone doesn’t appear dignified during mealtime, it can cause a great rift that could, quite possibly, 

end the relationship. (1044)