Stories Behind The Dining Table The Mean

Lucija Dežan
STORIES BEHIND THE DINING TABLE:

THE MEANING AND USE OF FOOD IN
SELECTED PROSE FICTION BY ALICE
MUNRO AND MARGARET ATWOOD
ZGODBE IZZA JEDILNE MIZE: POMEN

IN RABA HRANE V IZBRANIH DELIH
ALICE MUNRO IN MARGARET
ATWOOD
MAGISTRSKO DELO
Maribor, september 2019
Lucija Dežan


ATWOOD
MAGISTRSKO DELO
Maribor, september 2019


ALICE MUNRO IN MARGARET ATWOOD
MAGISTRSKO DELO
Študentka: Lucija Dežan

Študijski program: Magistrski študijski program
Poučevanje angleščine
Smer: Angleščina, dvopredmetni
Mentorica: red. prof. dr. Michelle Gadpaille
Somentorica: asist. dr. Tjaša Mohar
Lektorica: univ. dipl. slov. Ana Helbl
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It has been a long and winding road. Now, it is time to thank and apologise.
Thank for all support and help I received; apologise, because I have sometimes been
difficult. All this could not have been possible without my mentor Michelle Gadpaille
and my co-mentor Tjaša Mohar. Their willingness and dedication to help me out with
my work are stunning. I would like to thank them for their outstanding support,
linguistic guidance and advice. I am both proud and thankful to be able to be part of
the Department for English and American studies. I have been very fortunate to spend
some time at University of Oklahoma and benefit from their library. I would also like
to thank my friends and family for supporting me during the time of this project. Vid,
Nina, Marko, Barbara, Jerneja, Ana and Vesna have given me a welcome distraction
from work.
i
ATWOOD
Ključne besede: hrana, književnost, kanadska književnost, kultura
UDK: 821.111
Povzetek: Magistrsko delo obravnava pomen in rabo hrane v izbranih delih kanadskih
pisateljic Alice Munro in Margaret Atwood. V analizo sta zajeta dva romana
Atwoodove, in sicer The Edible Woman in Lady Oracle (Preročišče), Alice Munro pa je
znana kot avtorica kratkih zgodb, zato analiza njenih del zajema deset kratkih zgodb
iz treh različnih zbirk: Too Much Happiness (Preveč sreče), Who do You Think You Are?
in The View from Castle Rock (Pogled z grajske pečine). Prvi del magistrske naloge
obravnava raznolike vloge, ki jih ima hrana v vsakdanjem življenju. S pomočjo
znanstvenih člankov, literarnih esejev, doktorskih disertacij in konferenčnih
prispevkov je hrana v tem delu razdeljena na štiri ključna področja oziroma kategorije:
i) hrana kot orodje nege, skrbi in seksualnosti, ii) hrana kot del zahodne kulture, iii)
hrana kot pomembna sestavina družabnih dogodkov ter iv) hrana kot izraz moči. V
povezavi z nego in skrbjo je hrana obravnavana predvsem skozi dojenje, materinsko
skrb ter socializacijo žensk, ki stremi k skrbi za druge. Pri seksualnosti se preučuje
ustvarjanje erotičnega vzdušja, zapeljevanje s pomočjo hrane ter seksualna
ii
konotacija različnih prehranskih izdelkov. Znotraj kategorije hrane kot sestavine
zahodne kulture so izpostavljeni problemi oglaševanja, ki ustvarjajo pritisk, povezan s
telesno samopodobo posameznika, ter vplivajo na negativno dojemanje debelosti. Na
kratko je predstavljeno tudi razlikovanje med tipično moško (meso) in žensko
(zelenjava) hrano, izpostavljen pa je tudi vpliv hrane na razvrščanje ljudi glede na
njihov socialni status. Pri kategoriji, ki se osredotoča na hrano kot element družabnih
dogodkov, je preučevana vloga obrokov pri ustvarjanju družinske dinamike,
vzdrževanju ritualov ter družbenega reda. Različni družabni dogodki, povezani s hrano
(na primer slavnostne večerje, zabave s koktajli ali družinski pikniki), namreč
namigujejo na različne stopnje bližine. Izpostavljena je vloga skupnih obrokov, ki
utrjujejo skupinsko pripadnost ter spodbujajo upoštevanje pravil; ta služijo tudi kot
sredstvo discipliniranja posameznika. Znotraj zadnje kategorije, ki preučuje vlogo
hrane kot izraz moči, je pozornost osredotočena na razmerja med spoloma, razdelitev
nalog (na primer, kdo pripravlja hrano, kdo plača večerjo, kje kdo sedi) ter moč
družbenega pritiska, ki vpliva na oba spola in utrjuje sledenje tradicionalnim
družbenim vlogam v kuhinji. Prisotna sta tudi opisa kanibalizma in simbolične lakote;
gre za dva pojava, ki se pogosto pojavljata v literarnih besedilih.
V nadaljevanju se magistrsko delo osredotoči na vlogo hrane v literaturi. S

pregledom že opravljenih študij je ugotovljeno, da ne obstaja enoznačna pot pri
uporabi in analizi hrane v literarnih delih. Področje se prepleta tako z jezikoslovnimi,
psihološkimi, antropološkimi kakor tudi biološkimi raziskavami. V ospredju je ideja, da
je z razumevanjem vloge in rabe hrane v literarnih delih omogočeno lažje
razumevanje odnosov med literarnimi osebami. Podobe hrane so bile v preteklosti
analizirane tako v Shakespearjevih dramah kakor otroških zgodbah Beatrix Potter,
zato ne gre za nepomembno področje. Opisi hrane in obedovanja bi naj v literarnih
delih prispevali k realističnosti, prav tako pa ustvarjajo okvir zgodbe, saj pripomorejo
h karakterizaciji in določijo družbenozgodovinski okvir. Izpostavljena je tudi morebitna
ovira, na katero lahko naleti bralec, v kolikor pisatelj predvideva, da z bralcem delita
enake kulturne vrednote in znanje; neupoštevanje tega vodi v napačno ali slabo
razumevanje literarne vsebine.
iii
Tako Alice Munro kot Margaret Atwood v svojih literarnih delih uporabljata
motive hrane in družabnih dogodkov, povezanih s hrano. Atwoodovi so posebej blizu
teme razmerja moči, simbolične lakote, spolnega nagon in agresivnega lova, ki jih
ponazori s pomočjo hrano. Munrojeva pa s hrano slika podobo Ontaria v neki dobi,
družbeni status likov, vsakdanjik ljudi, človekovo željo po ugajanju in primere
nezadostne skrbi zase ali sočloveka.
V zaključku magistrskega dela sledi podrobna analiza izbranih dogodkov, v

katerih se pojavlja hrana, s pomočjo ene od štirih kategorij. Analiza je pospremljena z
odlomki, ki bralcu omogočajo, da si lažje predstavlja preučevano. Znotraj prve
kategorije prevladujejo primeri nege in skrbi, ki vključujejo tudi pomanjkanje
omenjenih dejanj. Tako je vidno, da materinska skrb ni izključno dobronamerna in
lahko vodi v resno grožnjo zdravju (Preročišče). Podobno lahko posameznika ogroža
tudi partnerska skrb (The Edible Woman). Opisani so primeri, ko literarni lik ugotovi,
da ni zmožen skrbeti za ostarele sorodnike in se znajde pod pritiskom neupoštevanja
družbene pogodbe (Spelling). Primerov s področja seksualnosti je manj, a so prisotni
v raznolikih oblikah (od manj očitnega lizanja sladoleda in zapeljivega srkanja
kokakole do iskanja morebitnega moža v prestižnih restavracijah ter spolnega
fantaziranja o prodajalcih zelenjave). Izpostavljeno je tudi vprašanje dojenja v javnosti
ter obrata v dojemanju ženskih prsi s strani moških, kadar ženska doji (Deep-Holes).
Prisotni so prizori samoohranitvenega nagona oziroma skrbi zase s pomočjo strupenih
lastnosti rastlin (Free Radicals) ter lova in nastavljanja pasti (Working for a Living).
V primeru raziskovanja hrane kot kulturnega subjekta se magistrsko delo

osredotoča tako na primere oglaševanje domnevno tipično moških in ženskih izdelkov
(na primer pivo) kakor tudi na sprejemljivo vedenje v javnosti glede na spol (popivanje
v javnosti). Predvsem v The Edible Woman in Preročišču je opazna obsedenost z
določeno telesno figuro, primernim prehranjevanjem ter pritiski na žensko telo. Preko
dogodkov, kjer literarni liki obedujejo zunaj, je določen njihov družbeni status, njihove
prehranske izbire pa deloma določajo njihove osebnostne lastnosti (Fathers). Različni
odlomki prikažejo pomembnost utrjevanja družbenega statusa skozi kupovanje
prestižnih izdelkov kot sta kaviar in šampanjec pa tudi družbeno realnost tistih, ki
iv
obedujejo postan krompirček v smrdljivih restavracijah (Preročišče). V izbranih delih
se pojavljata tako eksotična (Half a Grapefruit, Simon's Luck) kakor bolj vsakdanja
hrana (Home).
V poglavju, povezanem z izražanjem moči, so preko odlomkov iz del obeh avtoric

naslovljene teme, ki se ukvarjajo z odnosi med spoloma ter tradicionalnimi spolnimi
vlogami (kdo pripravi pijačo, pripravi in pospravi jedilno mizo ter kdo poravna račun v
restavraciji), urejenostjo kuhinj ter simboličnim kanibalizmom in lakoto. Obravnavani
so primeri pomanjkanja nadzora nad hrano (Preročišče, The Edible Woman) ali
pretiranega nadzora nad njo (Wenlock Edge), zaposlovanja služinčadi, za katero veljajo
posebna pravila obedovanja (Hired Girl), opisani pa so tudi primeri domnevne zdravilne
moči, ki jo ima hrana.
V zaključku je opozorjeno, da so bila predmet raziskovanja le izbrana dela obeh

pisateljic, zato ugotovitev ne moremo posplošiti na vsa dela. Ugotovljeno je, da obe
pisateljici uporabljata motive, ki sodijo v štiri glavne kategorije razumevanja vloge in
pomena hrane v literaturi. Pričakovano je bilo, da bodo teme spolnosti, odnosov med
spoloma in razmerja moči najpogostejše teme, ki bodo upodobljene skozi podobe
hrane, a se je izkazalo, da sta ključni temi predvsem skrb in nega ter razmerja moči.
Preko hrane posameznik nadzoruje tek, prehranjevalne navade ter vedenje soljudi.
Spolnost je bila izražena na bolj subtilen način. Izkazalo se je, da so literarni junaki, ki
jih ustvarja Munrojeva skrbne matere in hčere, a po drugi strani ne olepšuje vloge in
pomena lova in živinoreje pri skrbi za družino. Razmerja med spoloma in tradicionalne
spolne vloge so bili prisotni pri obeh pisateljicah, a povezava s hrano je bila pogosto
šibka. Glede na to, da obe pisateljici izhajata iz zahodne kulture, so tudi teme, ki jih
opisujeta bolj značilne za zahodni svet; v zgodbe vpletata dejavnike (eksotične jedi,
prehrano delavskega razreda, ipd.), ki opredeljujejo posameznikov družbeni položaj ter
družbena pravila in pričakovanja. V zaključku so podane tudi smernice za nadaljnje
raziskovanje, ki se osredotoča predvsem na razširitev kategorij ter upoštevanje
časovnega okvira uporabljenih zgodb.
v
Keywords: food, literature, Canadian literature, culture
UDC: 821.111
Abstract: The main objective of this master's thesis is to analyse and compare the
meaning and use of food in selected prose fiction by two Canadian writers Alice Munro
and Margaret Atwood. The thesis presents an analysis of ten short stories by Alice
Munro and two novels by Margaret Atwood. These are analysed in four categories
related to food. Food as a tool of nurture, care and sexuality; the cultural aspect of
food; food as an important ingredient of social events and food as an expression of
power present the main frameworks for our analysis. The findings suggest that the
meaning and use of food in literature offer a great potential to a complete
understanding of characters, the relationship among them and their motifs. This
thesis provides an insight into the meaning and use of food in selected prose fiction
and the differences between categories in depicting a variety of social, cultural and
interpersonal challenges that contribute to the narration of the story. It was assumed
that the meaning and use of food will correspond to the four main categories of food
in literature and that sexuality, gender relation, and power will be predominant topics
vi
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
2 FOOD’S VARIED ROLES...................................................................................................... 3
2. 1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY ................................................... 3
2. 2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD ................................................................................... 5
2. 3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS ............................................ 6
2. 4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER ............................................................................ 8
3 FOOD IN LITERATURE...................................................................................................... 10
4 FOOD IN STORIES BY MARGARET ATWOOD AND ALICE MUNRO.................................... 16
4.1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY ................................................. 16
4.2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD.................................................................................. 29
4.3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS ........................................... 40
4.4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER AND CONTROL ................................................... 47
5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 62
WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................... 64
viii
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the basic human needs is to eat. Most of the time, we eat
because we are hungry, but sometimes we eat because food comforts us, it
helps us to celebrate birthdays and holidays, and we can express care for others
by preparing them a meal. It depends on our culture how we prepare food,
what rules accompany our dinner and what table manners are expected. Often,
our first interaction with the outside world is the mother’s milk and receiving
food during that stage of life means an expression of love and care. Food can
evoke sexual tension; sometimes we speak in terms of sexual appetite, and we
are aware that certain foods carry aphrodisiac characteristics. Food works as a
social class distinguisher and a channel through which culture is transmitted.
Societies define who can eat with whom; a shared meal offers a space to
consolidate common identity but also an opportunity to inflict social order and
control.
Food in literature used to be a neglected topic but nowadays, scholars

(e.g. Charlotte Boyce, Joan Fitzpatrick and Sarah A. Sceats) contribute to its
importance and recognition. Understanding the role of food in literature is
crucial for identifying the relationships and behaviour of characters. Writers
know that food has the potential to be suggestive, and their characters eat to
deliver a symbolic purpose. Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro are two
Canadian writers who use food to display topics important for them and their
stories. Atwood covers issues of prohibition, female appetite, symbolic hunger,
sexual desire and power relations, while Munro describes simple meals,
1
elaborate dishes and eating ceremonies to present social status, the everyday
lives of people, care and danger.
This master’s thesis is divided into two parts. The first part covers food’s
varied roles and additionally focuses on food in literature. It includes four
categories of food that are used in the analysis of stories by Alice Munro and
novels by Margaret Atwood. The second part is an analysis of selected prose
fiction. It is divided into four main parts and all parts cover the different
meanings and use of food in literature. The examples are analysed based on the
theory presented in the first part. Lastly, the conclusion describes our findings
and future recommendations.
2
2 FOOD’S VARIED ROLES
Food gives power to our body; it is the empowering and enabling

source. Eating has the potential to bring people together or keep them apart.
It can evoke positive or negative emotions. On the other hand, food can
threaten our idea of bodily soundness when we, for example, vomit.
Preparing food and sometimes eating it can be a dirtying practice, as Johanna
Lahikainen (2007: 25) mentions in her thesis. She adds that we cannot
disregard the role of the culture in defining what we eat. From an
anthropological and psychological stance, food is an entry into the culture and
marks stages of social development. Food and eating are universal signifiers
because we all eat to survive; however, we also express specific needs and
desires through our need for food. Food is a biological necessity, but it has
also a psychological, sociological and anthropological purpose.
2. 1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY
As Deborah Lupton (1996: 39) writes, milk from the mother’s breasts (or
from a bottle) is often the first interaction we have with the outside world. A
satisfied feeling of hunger means that our needs have been met. Getting food
during that stage forms an expression of love and care we receive from others.
If one is left unheard, unsatisfied needs and interdependency can result in
consequences in adulthood. Food always has the role of a survival tool, but in
our earliest stage it is closely related to nurture and care, it means comfort and
refuge. Sarah A. Sceats (1996: 1) states that giving and sharing food is often
related to giving of love among families, friends and lovers. Sharing of food is
3
an act of love that has its basis in maternal nurturing. Care can be quietly
expressed through food; welcoming meals and nourishing meals in times of
sickness are just two examples.
In the process of breastfeeding, women become a source of food.

Sceats (1996: 1) describes eating as a fundamental activity that is crucial in the
process of understanding human behaviour. Additionally, she interprets
maternal nurturing as an act of giving food to express love and care. She
suggests that food is related to sex and eroticism and can symbolize desire for
another. Sceats (1996: 1) analyses breastfeeding as normative behaviour for a
woman and as altruistic action. According to her, people create a link between
love and food because of their mothers or because they have been feeding their
offspring. As Sceats (1996: 20) writes the mother is a crucial figure in an infant’s
world, and she has a significant role in shaping a child’s appetite, table manners
and eating habits. Debra Nicholson (2010: 4) states that women are subject to
certain socialization that navigates them in the direction of being nurturers and
caretakers. In her opinion, a not so subliminal cultural norm is that caretaking
reaches its fullest potential when a woman becomes a mother. As such, women
are under severe scrutiny, whether they provide good care for their children or
not. As Nicholson (2010: 4) further writes, the experience daughters gather
from caretaking instances throughout their lives can affect their life course. She
mentions the binary between the good and the bad daughter that is closely
related to the caretaking of, for example a sick and aging mother. When they
fail to fulfil the social contract of taking care of their mothers, they are marked
as bad women and daughters.
Lupton (1996: 18) draws a connection between food and sexuality,

claiming that food can evoke erotic and sexual tension and can thus be used for
seduction, and that certain foods are known for their aphrodisiac
characteristics (e.g. oysters). As Lupton (1996: 19) states, we speak in terms of
appetite (sexual appetite) which makes the connection between food and sex;
the two appetites sometimes evoke, stimulate and satisfy one another.
4
Combining food with sex is common in Western culture (breasts are often
symbolized as oranges and bananas, and chocolate bars suggest fellatio) and
food can be incorporated into foreplay or used for erotic stimulation. We can
refer to Freud and his Three Essays on Sexuality, where he writes that the sexual
instinct has its basis in our earliest experiences of eating.
2. 2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD
The body is a subject of complex and contradictory attitudes in Western

culture. There is, for example, a contradiction between what being thin means
in the third world (in terms of poverty and starvation) and in the West (a symbol
of wealth and self-care). Susie Orbach (1998) analyses the power of advertising
that promotes reconstruction and commodification of the body through dietary
aids or emphasizes the comfort of certain food. Western culture (on the other
hand,) perceives fatness with disgust; it indicates a lack of self-control.
According to Edwin Schur (1984: 54), subjects who are frequently judged for
such characteristic are females.
Numerous food items carry specific connotations in Western culture.

Bread, for example, is sometimes perceived as a basic good and carries a link
with warm childhood memories or times of abundance. Wine is another
element that frequently shows up in stories; it can lead to heavy drinking,
create a romantic atmosphere, gather people together or cause fights. Then
there are eggs, which are reproductive items; they carry a new life and have
fragile shells. Fish is another type of food that usually carries various
connotations; from Christian associations to Freudian sexual symbolism
concerning female sexuality, menstruation, and the specific smell. Fruit and
vegetables are associated with (female) sexuality (the apple from The Fall), and
can have positive or negative associations. Meat is related more to its bodily
origin and is considered as a male food. Lupton (1996: 28) mentions that there
5
sometimes exists a distinction between typical male and female foods, but
Mary Anne Schofield (1989) developed a more specific model. Her model of
gender-based food language considers meat as masculine and vegetables as
feminine food.
Food is also a social class distinguisher and, according to Peter Farb and
George Armelagos (1980: 25), helps people to define themselves; lobster or
cucumber sandwiches, for example, both position people on the social ladder,
but the placement differs. Sometimes, we use food to describe people; a
person can be a peach or juicy, for example. We also know that members of
different cultures possess specific rules about food – certain foods require a
certain way of preparation (for example kosher practices). As Farb and
Armelagos (1980: 26) state, food is a carrier of several cultural associations and
a channel through which the culture is transmitted.
2. 3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS
Food is not just a matter for the individual. Eve Jackson (1996: 89) writes
that meals have an important role in family life, help in socializing activities
within a family, create rituals and a bonding environment, and express human
behaviour. According to Lupton (1996: 37), the shared family meal is something
that shows the capacity of the family or couple to be functional and civilized.
On the other hand, Margaret Visser (1993: 341) writes that many family fights
happen over meals. Food is a social signifier, and varieties of events (dinner,
barbecue or cocktail party) indicate different stages of intimacy. Sceats (1996:
238), for example, analyses the picnic under specific terms; as people sit on the
grass and use their fingers while eating, the informal atmosphere rises. Food as
a social occasion is also present in the New Testament when Jesus is having his
last supper with his disciples. The general message of that scene is that the
6
host’s invitation should be interpreted as a sign of friendship (Jackson, 1996:
87)
Pamela G. Kittler and Kathryn P. Sucher (1998: 3) think that societies

regulate who can eat with whom and by that, the relationship among various
social classes is established. Sceats (1996: 212) agrees with them when she
writes that food is a signifier of belonging. Preparation and consumption of
food are elements of connection. As Jackson (1996: 91) writes, eating with
other people is a ritual where we consolidate our common identity; we gather
to celebrate something and by sharing a meal, we demonstrate our kinship.
Sceats (1996: 190) adds that it depends on the social group to which we belong,
what manners are preferred. What certain food means and how it should be
treated can be extremely important to some groups, especially in relation with
a religious occasion. With such events, it is very important that one follows and
understands rules, codes, and conventions (Sceats, 1996: 190).
Conventions, taboos, and table manners are essential when it comes to

social eating; pointing with forks or knives is an aggressive move that indicates
bad manners. Adults teach children certain table manners (e.g. to remain still
until dismissed) that are highly conventionalised; there are rules of how to lay
the table, etc. Visser (1993: 219) writes that rituals have their practical reason
(e.g. neatness); they also bring comfort and safety. She adds that rituals
promote social order, bring people together and reduce stress. Sceats (1996:
225) explains that all rituals could be tools of social control, since rules reinforce
hierarchy. When people eat their main meal, what they eat and how they eat
is a subject of social convention. For members of a specific group, such
conventions are natural, but when they are compared with different social
groups, they might appear strange. Rituals that accompany different eating
occasions (dinner parties, picnics, weddings, etc.) provide a variety of
opportunities for challenging the social order. Embarrassment when someone
breaks the rules can be a disciplinary tool or a weapon of the rule-breaker.
7
2. 4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER
Lahikainen (2007: 26) states that food often relates to power issues – it
can determine who prepares food for whom, who eats what, where and how
someone eats, who pays for the meal, etc. She observes power relations that
happen in and around the kitchen, when it comes to sharing food, situations of
invitations to dine out or cook for someone. Lupton (1996: 108) mentions that
women are more often raised to control their eating habits and to prepare food
for others; women are also the supervisors in the process of buying and
preparing food. Cooking for other people (1) and offering food as love (2) are,
in Lupton’s opinion (1996: 39), important indicators of femininity that might
work as social pressure. Sceats (1996: 236) adds that patriarchal power has a
traditional way of being inflicted through positioning women to feel they are
responsible for the needs of other people. As mothers, hostesses, cooks, wives,
etc., they feel responsible to make sure everything is perfect, and they thrive
on social approval. However, it is important that we emphasize that there is no
need for a male figure to be present for women to behave in such a way.
Sceats (1996: 21) writes about the ambiguity of the mother role that goes
from power relations to disempowerment. Mothers feed love or resentment;
they can be providers of food or enslaved in the kitchen space. In fiction,
mothers frequently have roles of someone who loves or someone who
torments; therefore, children can be grateful or resentful receivers. Women
can prepare food that sooths and delights. Furthermore, Sceats (1996:32)
writes that women might sit at the top of the table, but they might serve the
food too, and the verb itself suggests submission. According to Polišenská
(2011: 22), food can be associated with the patriarchal point of view perceiving
women as bodies restricted to a kitchen. Even nowadays, some people have
the opinion that the kitchen is the woman’s place. The kitchen can represent a
prison for women or an area where women can take a leading position, be in
charge and fulfil a potential desire to nourish and take care.
8
Food has also a potential to manipulate and seduce (as a well-known
proverb says, ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’). Some women
tend to refer to experiences from their childhood and show their love through
feeding and infantilising husbands, while some women reject such a course of
action. According to Sceats (1996: 35), women take control and subordinate
men when cooking. She writes about the cannibalism as a desire to devour
someone. Figurative cannibalism relates to insatiability, which has its roots in a
psychological drive towards or feeling of nostalgia for some union. At first
glance, cannibalism seems like something that gives absolute supremacy and
power to the consumer – the one who is eaten does not perform under the
same terms as the eater. Nonetheless, one is affected by what is taken into the
body, and that affects the cannibal too (Sceats, 1996: 57-64). In a way, we could
say that it threatens personal identity (‘you are what you eat’). Lahikainen
(2007: 124) mentions a similar concept when she speaks about symbolic
hunger; this specific hunger lies within the people who long for love, comfort,
children, and husband/wife or are afraid that hunger will destroy them, or that
it will harm someone else.
9
3 FOOD IN LITERATURE
Alejandra M. Álvarez (2006: 19) writes that when analysing food in

literature, there has been a tendency to interpret texts (e.g. Sceats 1996 and
Lahikainen 2007) through the theories of the French feminist theorists; two
important members of the feminist psychoanalytic literary criticism are Julia
Kristeva and Hélène Cixous. Lahikainen (2007: 29) explains that feminist literary
criticism is one of the tools that help us to analyse food in texts, one of its basic
methods being close reading. According to Sara Mills (1995: 9), such a method
puts gendered subjects in perspective and challenges their possibilities in the
text; it deals with the positions available for women and with the understanding
of sexual differences within the text. As explained by Álvarez (2006: 19), the
broader message of earlier theories1 was that the patriarchal system favours
patriarchal language - language that considers women as objects and men as
agents. These theories and approaches were developed and popular
particularly in the 1960s, carrying the message that women cannot express
themselves fully because they are not actively engaged in the process of
creating the language. The consequence of such isolation from the language-
making process was silence (Álvarez, 2006: 19).
Joan J. Brumberg (2000), who is an advocate of such theories, assumes

that women’s language consists of expressing oneself through food. Charlotta
Wessman (2014: 3), who has analysed the writings of Alice Munro, points out
that there exist differences within the concept of feminist criticism; however,
she has found Anglo-American feminism the most suitable for her analysis of
1
E.g. Lacan’s theory about women being excluded in the process of creating language
or psychoanalytic studies dealing with gender relations that explain power relations with
the theory of the mirror stage.
10
Munro’s work. Wessman (2014: 3) justifies her choice by stating that there
exists a connection between female motifs and plots that overcomes history
and boundaries and that this connection creates a specific female aesthetic that
is apparent and appealing to worldwide readers of Munro. We will follow her
in our analysis of food items in selected works by Atwood and Munro because
this version combines the conventions of literary realism and perceives
literature as a tool that represents the lives of women.
According to Charlotte Boyce and Joan Fitzpatrick (2013: 122), food has
appeared as a topic for literary study only recently, which suggests that it was
a neglected subject before. Supposedly it seemed too ordinary and trivial to be
worthy of precise investigation. On the contrary, if we understand the role and
use of food in a work of literature, this might help us to define the relationships
and behaviour of characters. It is no surprise that writers, literary critics, and
food historians go hand in hand, since sometimes the modern reader cannot
grasp every detail that is related to historical references to food and practices
surrounding consumption. Boyce and Fitzpatrick (2013) offer a variety of
examples of what has already been done in the field of food and literature: in
1935 Caroline Spurgeon, for example, wrote the first work analysing images of
food in Shakespeare’s plays (Boyce and Fitzpatrick, 2013: 123). In 2007,
Fitzpatrick focused on the engagement between drama and modern dietary
theories, unusual feeding, etc., but the analysis reached even to children’s tales
by Beatrix Potter (Evans, 2008), where the author concluded that food is a
fundamental part of the story. Proof that there is a growing interest amongst
scholars in the role of food is that the journal Shakespeare Jahrbuch in 2009
published a volume of essays focusing on Shakespeare and food (Boyce and
Fitzpatrick, 2013: 125). Boyce and Fitzpatrick (2013: 126) state that 19th -
century literature described the moral implications of food (eating the wrong
food or eating too much, excessive behaviour such as alcoholism or health
conditions such as anorexia). Additionally, Sarah Moss (2009) analysed several
female writers from the late 18th and early 19th-century, focusing on maternal
11
feeding and women’s appetite, domestic arrangements and hospitality.
However, her main interest was what certain foods say about the
characteristics of an individual. For example, she demonstrates that in Jane
Austen’s novels, men are the ones who possess gluttony and women are (more
or less) close to anorexia. She observes that olives are mentioned only once in
Sense and Sensibility, while coffee is noted all the time (Moss, 2009: 125).
Sarah A. Sceats is the author of a thorough thesis (1996) covering the use
of food and eating in women’s fiction since 1950. In her opinion, topics of
power and control are inseparable from cooking and feeding. She deals with
maternal nurturing, the link between appetite and sexuality, not eating as a
symbol of enslavement, social eating, food conventions and rituals. Food can
be very suggestive, and writers are aware of that; we can make assumptions
about people’s class, generosity, rigidity, and power just by observing what
people eat, how the meal is served and how ferocious their appetite is. Zuzana
Polišenská (2011: 16) assumes that various aspects of food had an especially
significant role in women’s literature, even more so when it comes to symbols
of power and gender roles. Additionally, Polišenská (2011: 9) believes that food
evokes associations, memories and feelings that have deep roots within the
individual. Eating habits help to create a sense of self and define certain roles
within the family and society. Ritualized ceremonies bring warmth, but they
come with rules; preparation of food, serving and sharing indicate social
organization and help us to understand human society (Polišenská, 2011: 21).
Mervyn Nicholson (1987: 38) writes that eating in literature has a

symbolic meaning, while in real life, eating is a necessity to stay alive.
Characters in stories are motivated to eat to deliver a symbolic purpose.
According to Polišenská (2011: 41), food and eating in literature often
symbolize the relation between characters and their lives. Joan J. Brumberg’s
(2000: 14) interprets the appetite as a voice that defines food choices and helps
to communicate when verbal expression is not possible, while Boyce and
Fitzpatrick (2013: 126) argue that when writers use references to food, they
12
usually try to convey an important message about the narrative, motifs, plot,
etc. Alexia Mover and Nathalie Cooke (2018: 3) are interested in what
motivates writers to feed their characters and gather their subjects around the
dining table. They suggest two arguments: i) food contributes to realism and ii)
ceremonies related to food help to create literary framing devices. Mover and
Cooke (2018: 5) add that food in fiction activates all our senses and offers
concreteness; it helps in the process of characterization and sets some socio-
historical background. They (2018: 5) further describe this phenomenon as
gastrorealism, which focuses on the activity of eating, what is eaten and where.
According to them (2018: 6), food and metaphors based on food can anchor a
story’s symbolic structure, while meals punctuate the passing of time.
Diane E. McGee (2002: 3) writes that dinner in literary criticism serves as

the weightiest meal of the day-not just because of the menu, but also because
of all the expectations that accompany it. Gwendolyn MacEwen (1966: 34), on
the other hand, emphasizes the role of breakfast, since this is the first meal of
the day and sets daily expectations and some social norms, for example, where
we eat our breakfast, what we eat, how the table is set, etc.
Sceats (1996: 291) thinks that writers address philosophical, moral,

political and psychological topics through the scope of food and eating. She
writes that food in fiction demands from the reader an ability to recognize
subtext based on cultural and linguistic assumptions. Sceats (1996: 190) warns
us about the potential problem that can occur: a writer might assume that his
readers share the same cultural knowledge as he does. Toni Morrison, for
example, is a writer who has made quite clear who her public is (African
American people), and that fact alone is enough for not explaining certain food
and ways of preparing meals. Other readers may or may not decode the
content, but the writer assumes the link (between her and readers) as part of
their informal contract: if white people want to read her books, understanding
the content is up to them. This is something that happens in most writing
13
because we need to be familiar with the content to decode the importance of
its details (Sceats, 1996: 190 – 191).
Shelley Boyd and Nicole Hollinson (2016: 4) are interested in how food
helps to communicate topics important for the literary texts and in the role
food has in characterization; additionally, they try to indicate the expressive
potential of food in contemporary Canadian literature. According to them
(2016: 4), preparation, serving and consumption communicates identities,
belonging, class, gender, culture, community and culture. The relationship
between food and contemporary Canadian literature is our point of interest,
and scholars (for example Parker 1995, Lahikainen 2007 and Nicholson 2010)
set an example of how one could investigate this relation from different angles
and by focusing on a variety of motifs. Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood, two
globally familiar Canadian writers, admit that they use food to communicate
ideas, set plots and create framework; however, their topics differ. As Kiyomi
Sasame (2010: 89) reflects, Atwood’s work is closely related to food because
the topic of survival has been frequently present. Sasame (2010: 89) also says
that Atwood was interested in food in literature even before she became a
writer, as she herself mentions in the introduction to The Canlit Foodbook:
From Pen to Palate-a Collection of Tasty Literary Fare (1987), where Atwood
writes that she connected literature and eating when she was 12 years old,
while she was reading Ivanhoe and thinking about Rebecca, who was kept in
the tower, and was concerned about what poor Rebecca had to eat. Emma
Parker (1995) writes about the politics of eating, prohibitions that surround
female appetite and public display of it. These topics go hand in hand with
Atwood’s point of interest, and she writes about them while using food images
to communicate ideas effectively. As Parker (1995: 349) states, in Atwood,
eating is a coded power relation that explains the rare occurrences of women
eating in literature and she writes about symbolic hunger, sexual desire,
interpersonal hunting, power relations, aggressive predators and many more
themes using descriptions of food.
14
Both writers tend to place their stories in the Canadian environment, but
this does not appear as an obstacle to worldwide readers to identify with their
work. Munro includes food ceremonies and preparations in her short stories.
As Carla Comellini (2017: 141) writes in her article, everyday themes such as
food, accidents and disease in Alice Munro’s stories are scattered around, and
the reader is the one who needs to put the pieces in their places. Sometimes,
the focus is on ordinary, simple meals, and sometimes there are occasions
where more extravagant and unusual food is present. By describing food,
Munro creates a vision of the reality of Canada during a certain era, the
everyday lives of people and their social status. Taking a closer look at Alice
Munro’s stories, we see that she uses food as an ingredient that helps us
identify the social status of her characters; she describes unusual and awkward
social events related to food, the desire to please and be acknowledged, to care
and to run away and the danger behind food (Comellini, 2017: 142).
In the following chapter, we will identify and explain the scenes from
Atwood’s novels and Munro’s selected stories where food contributes to the
narrative. We selected the following prose fiction: Margaret Atwood’s novel
The Edible Woman (1969) and Lady Oracle (1976) and Alice Munro’s short
stories “Wenlock Edge” (2009), “Deep-Holes” (2009), “Free-Radicals” (2009),
“Working for a Living” (2006), “Fathers” (2006), “Hired Girl” (2006), “Home”
(2006), “Half a Grapefruit” (1978), “Simon’s Luck” (1978) and “Spelling” (1978).
The selected Atwood novels were written in the 1960s and in the 1970s
and both depict Canadian society of that era. Scholars (e.g. Nicholson 1987,
Parker 1995 and Lahikainen 2007) recognize The Edible Woman as an early
feminist novel. These two facts affect the narration of both novels and
sometimes influence interpretations that follow. Three of the selected short
stories from Munro also belong to the 1970s, while the rest belong to a more
recent time (2006 and 2009). Clarification of the timeframe helps understand
certain habits, meals, and rules.
15
4 FOOD IN STORIES BY MARGARET ATWOOD AND
ALICE MUNRO
In this chapter, we will comment on selected scenes and examples from

Alice Munro’s short stories and Margaret Atwood’s novels. The examples will
fall under one of the categories we explained earlier. The analysis is a
combination of existing interpretations by scholars and personal understanding
of the selected events. Examples from both authors will be explained under the
corresponding category.
4.1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY
Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman opens with a scene that depicts
the combination of caring through food. Marian MacAlpin, the protagonist,
helps her roommate Ainsley, who has a hangover. She is preparing tomato juice
for Ainsley as if she was taking care of a child. The consequence of her caring
act is that Marian cannot finish her own breakfast (lack of self-care) and thinks
about food all day. Luckily, she is asked to be a tester for new canned rice
pudding at her workplace almost immediately after she arrives. According to
Lahikainen (2007: 62), there is more than meets the eye when it comes to that
canned rice pudding; it symbolizes the artificiality of food and eating habits.
Taking into consideration the eating troubles Marian later develops, she can
eat this pudding longer than meat because it is synthetic in nature and only
imitates a dessert and therefore does not symbolize a threat. As the story
16
unravels, Marian loses her appetite and cannot eat much. Her eating problems
start after she becomes engaged, and at first, she has troubles consuming meat.
Eventually, the list of food items she is not able to eat expands to vegetables
too. Lahikainen (2007: 60) offers an explanation that the engagement
traumatised Marian and turned her into a passive fiancée that became afraid
of Peter and his desire to change (and consume) her.
Marian also demonstrates care for Ainsley when she invites her for
dinner. She knows Ainsley’s poor eating habits and she assumes Ainsley could
use a wholesome dinner. Despite losing her appetite, Marian cares for her
vitamin intake by deliberately buying vitamin pills.
I had to skip the egg and wash down a glass of milk and a bowl
of cold cereal which I knew would leave me hungry long before lunch
time. I chewed through a piece of bread while Ainsley watched me in
nauseated silence and grabbed up my purse, leaving Ainsley to close the
apartment door behind me. (Atwood 2010: 12)
The dinner at Clara and Joe’s place is under the category of care and not
power relations because the family aspect of that couple contributes more to
the caring factor. Clara is Marian’s friend from college. The two try to maintain
a friendship even though Clara is preoccupied with her three children. When
Clara invites Marian (and Ainsley) to dine at her place, Joe is the one taking care
of everything. This novel is set in late 60s, therefore, Joe has a role that was
traditionally associated with women, but that does not affect his willingness to
help and provide care. He prepares dinner (meatballs, noodles, lettuce and
canned rice pudding), takes care of the children, serves a drink to the guests
and cleans up the kitchen. Later, the reader learns that Joe is a devoted and
loving partner and has no trouble doing the chores. He wants the best for his
family, he understands that his wife is currently not satisfied with herself and
he supports his family by taking responsibility for the household. What bothers
17
Ainsley after that dinner is that Clara is not breastfeeding the baby. This
ultimate symbol of care and nurture is especially important for Ainsley, who
wants to have a baby. Giving the bottle seems more practical, but Ainsley
assumes that Joe is afraid his presence would not be needed in the case of
breastfeeding. Ainsley, being on a mission to become pregnant, pays special
attention to the nourishing values of her food. Her menu includes ironized
yeast, wheat germ, a special laxative, and enriched cereals to provide the best
physiological environment for pregnancy.
Marian performs another act of care when Peter, her future husband, is
disappointed by the news that one of his male friends is getting married. She
comforts him with ice cream; an act that resembles more a mother-child
relationship than a partnership, according to Lahikainen (2007: 71). Marian and
Peter first met at a garden party on the day Marian graduated. They talked
about their plans and licked ice-cream in the shade. Licking an ice-cream is
often interpreted as a suggestive, but rather innocent, move resembling
sucking. Out of genuine love or not, Marian signalizes care for Peter with her
Valentine’s Day gift too. She buys him a heart-shaped pink cake, a token of love,
which at that time she can no longer eat, but which Peter enjoys. On the other
hand, Peter lacks consideration and care for others which is reflected in his
habit of cancelling dinner dates. Sometimes, he insists that Marian takes the
long way with all the ingredients to his place, and he acts as if he is doing a
favour to both. Over the time, as Marian develops an aversion to the idea of
marrying Peter, she also cares about him less. At one point, she takes into
consideration the idea of not eating together when married because she cannot
speak openly with him about anything.
A character who expresses a need for care and nurture is Duncan. He is

an English graduate student Marian meets when performing a door-to-door
questionnaire. Duncan lives a bohemian life and has no clear focus in his life.
Eventually, Marian befriends him, and they become close friends in terms of
sharing details about personal problems and challenges they face. He is the only
18
person with whom Marian can discuss her eating problems openly. By the end
of the novel, Duncan and Marian graduate to an intimate level, however,
Atwood never describes their relationship as a love affair. On one occasion,
Duncan tells Marian that he evaluates eating as a ridiculous activity and would
prefer to be fed through the main artery. If we take into consideration that he
perceives his two roommates as his substitute parents and is overall passive
and a momentary infantile character who has trouble taking responsibility, we
could interpret his wish as a shout for care and nurture.
As mentioned before, food can carry a sexual and seductive connotation.

When Marian is at Peter’s apartment for the first time, Peter tries to be suave
with music and a glass of brandy for both. They move to the bedroom and put
the glasses on the desk, but clumsy Peter knocks down and smashes one of
them. That ruins the atmosphere, because he immediately turns the lights on
in order to clean up the mess. On the other hand, Marian’s roommate Ainsley
successfully uses food as a tool for seduction. She tries to play the role of an
innocent girl in order to seduce Len (Marian’s college friend). She silently sips
Coke instead of cognac at his place to prove her innocence. In addition, the
choice to have lunch in one of the more expensive restaurants suggested by
Marian’s co-worker shows us that restaurants can be used as locations for
seduction. Marian notices that her co-worker has a new dress and realizes that
she is looking for a possibly rich husband.
Up to this point, we have been discussing motifs of care associated with

food, but in Atwood’s novel Lady Oracle, food is used as an expression of not
caring about someone. In Lady Oracle, the protagonist is Joan Foster, who plots
her own murder and is now hiding in Italy. Joan speaks about her life from early
childhood memories. She describes a troubled and conflict-ridden relationship
she has had with her mother; as a child, she is fat and that displeases her
mother. As a teenager, Joan responds to her mother’s attempts consisting of
diet books, pills and health advice with an extra portion of French fries and
chocolate bars. Later in her life, Joan loses a significant amount of weight.
19
Orbach (1998: 109) suggests that, from the perspective of feminist
psychoanalytic criticism, women can develop a problematic attitude toward
food in different stages of life - the basis often lies in insufficient interactions
with the parents. Joan’s father does not have an active role, while the mother
is abusive. Their toxic relationship is revealed when Joan tries to lose weight
with extremely low-calorie intake because she wants to fulfil the conditions
stated in her aunt’s will (she will inherit money if she loses weight). Her mother
starts drinking and tries to make Joan eat more. At that point, Joan realizes that
her mother has always helped her to overeat by baking pies and cookies. The
reader can observe how the bond between the two women weakens as Joan
loses weight.
Joan’s mother is unhappy in her marriage, but that does not mean she
does not care about her husband (or at least their social status). In the past, she
tried to show her care about his career by organizing dinner parties for his
colleagues. After some time, she realized that they did not help in any way. Lack
of social events contributed to her excessive drinking, which shows lack of self-
care.
Which food comforts Joan? She likes tea because it helps her to think and
is a tool of consolidation and encouragement in combination with biscuits after
her successful escape to Italy. The same goes for coffee. Joan states that she
needs coffee to function in the morning, but when she escapes to Italy, she also
draws a connection between something warm in her mouth and feeling safe,
so that is why she makes herself a cup of coffee.
If Joan’s mother does not care properly about his daughter, Aunt Lou
does. One of the warmest memories Joan has about her relative is related to
food. They frequently go to the cinema where they have a habit of bringing
snacks in (popcorn and candy bars). After the movie, they go for a soda or a
snack (grilled crab meat sandwiches with mayonnaise or cold chicken salad) and
talk about everything.
20
I suffered along with sweet, patient June Allyson as she lived through the
death of Glenn Miller; I ate three boxes of popcorn while Judy Garland tried
to cope with an alcoholic husband and five Mars Bars while Eleanor Parker,
playing a crippled opera singer, groped her mournful way through
Interrupted Melody. (Atwood 2010: 69)
Aunt Lou prepares dinners, too, but mostly for her secret lover Robert.
He is an accountant and has a wife and children, but he enjoys coming to Aunt
Lou’s apartment on Sunday evenings for dinner. That was a secret shared
between Joan and her aunt. Those dinners are an expression of love, care,
anticipation and homely warmth he might have been lacking in his home and
marriage.
Sexuality in Lady Oracle is recognized in the comparison of the old and

young vegetable men on the Italian market. Joan describes the young man as
being handsome, flirtatious and engaged in amusing his female customers. He
offers Joan grapes and he wiggles the fruit suggestively while grinning. She is
slightly uncomfortable and shy around him, so she decides to buy from her
regular old vegetable man. Later, Joan has a sexual fantasy about this young
vegetable man. She depicts him with his arms filled with overgrown zucchinis,
tomatoes, and artichokes. The tomato juice is all over them and she compares
making love with him to making love with a salad – crisp but smooth.
Additionally, Joan's first two sexual experiences have an indirect relationship
with food. The first is with the boy who has been trying to invite her friend
Valerie to go out but without any luck. One day, the three of them walk toward
Valerie's house and she goes in, so Joan decides to go home and prepares a
triple-Decker cheese and peanut butter sandwich for herself. Suddenly, the boy
goes on his knees and buries his head against Joan's stomach in the middle of
the street. After some time, he gets up and walks away and Joan returns home
and enjoys her sandwich. The second sexual experience happens in a restaurant
21
that serves hamburgers, milkshakes, hot dogs, fried chicken, and roast beef.
Joan works there as well as a foreign co-worker (Italian or Greek) with bright
eyes. They flirt during taking orders from customers. When they go for a coffee,
he asks her to marry him, but she rejects his offer. Consequently, he tries to
persuade her with little signs of affection, especially with cooking expensive
food (shrimps) for her lunch break.
To summarise motifs of food, nurture, care and sexuality in Atwood’s

novels, we can state that care has a binary nature. Sometimes, protagonists (for
example Marian, Clara and Aunt Lou) prepare and serve food to express care,
gratitude, appreciation, and love. Contrary, Joan’s mother has more sinister
reasons when feeding her daughter and Peter’s appetite is interpreted as
potentially dangerous for Marian. Joan’s juvenile eating habits complement her
insufficient care for herself. Atwood’s protagonists also use food to create a
sexual atmosphere (Ainsley and Joan) and they hunt potential spouses in
restaurants, but sometimes food influences accidents that ruin the
atmosphere.
Which symbols of care and food does Alice Munro use in her short stories?
Debra Nicholson (2010) analyses Alice Munro’s short story “Spelling” in her
dissertation where she identifies caretaking as a predominant motif. The story
focuses on Flo’s stepdaughter Rose, who switches from a caretaking to a non-
caretaking role in her relationship with Flo. In “Spelling”, when Rose decides to
return home to help her stepmother Flo, who has developed the first symptoms
of dementia, she goes back to a place that did not provide much care and nurture
to her. However, Flo still tries to keep things in order and takes care of the home.
Flo’s illness causes Rose some trouble providing care and order because Flo hides
kitchen items all around the house and eats too much sugar. Nicholson (2010:
37) also notices that the younger Rose, in some of the earlier stories, describes
parts of Flo’s body that usually provide nurture (breasts) as hard. A reader that
is familiar with earlier stories about Flo and Rose finds this description accurate.
22
As Nicholson (2010: 27) reminds us, Flo was a remarkably cold stepmother, she
frequently ridiculed Rose’s femininity and their relationship lacked warmth.
The good intentions of Rose who wants to take care of Flo, are recognized
immediately as she arrives and plans to make a nourishing soup, despite knowing
that Flo will show no sign of gratitude. That plan is never realized. Later, she
offers to make a trifle for her stepmother because Flo adores sweet things (she
drinks maple syrup like wine and eats jelly and tinned puddings). As Nicholson
(2010: 76) argues, ordinary ingredients (for example, peaches and whipped
cream) becomes luscious items (robust peaches, the munificence of whipped
cream). Flo eats greedily and compliments the dessert. This is the first time as far
as Rose remembers that Flo has expressed gratitude. Excited by her remark, Rose
eagerly suggests making another soon but receives a cold reaction. The next day
Rose visits the County Home, an old age home that will become Flo’s new home,
and while describing to Flo the pros of living there, she emphasises the delicious
food. Rose tries to persuade Flo by describing the desserts served there
(especially ice cream). The last scene related to food is when Rose invites Flo to
an award ceremony. Flo shows up wearing a wig and a remarkable outfit. She
refuses to sit, talk or eat and drink, but she shows admiration, respect, and care
by coming to the award ceremony.
In “Simon’s Luck”, Rose (who is also the protagonist of the short stories
“Spelling” and “Half a Grapefruit”) shows her affection, admiration, and care for
Simon when buying groceries at the corner store. She picks premium ingredients
(real coffee instead of instant, real cream, bacon, local cheese, canned crabmeat,
mushrooms, etc.). Simon cooks a remarkable dinner out of these ingredients. He
decides to make Rose a garden where she can plant potatoes and other
vegetables; therefore, both are providers of care. Rose soon heads to the
supermarket to buy food for their second dinner. She does not hold back when
choosing ingredients: fresh vegetables, imported black cherries, Camembert,
pears and wine are in her cart. When Simon does not come, she blames it on her
decision to buy the bottle of wine (and cheese and cherries) – on having taken
23
so much trouble to prepare everything. She thinks she overdid it by buying all
that fancy food. Their dinner should be a sign of Rose’s affection and care, but it
turns into disappointment. She stays up all night, sipping tea and overthinking
the situation. After some time, she decides to move away, and few pages later
Rose recognizes the first signs of healing because of her perception of food in a
café. Later, a reader is informed that Simon had severe health issues and that
affected his visit at Rose’s.
She went into a café and ordered coffee and fried eggs. She sat at the
counter looking at the usual things there are behind café counters— the
coffee-pots and the bright, probably stale pieces of lemon and raspberry
pie, the thick glass dishes they put ice-cream or jello in. It was those
dishes that told her of her changed state. She could not have said she
found them shapely, or eloquent, without misstating the case. All she
could have said was that she saw them in a way that wouldn’t be possible
to a person in any stage of love. (Munro 2006)
In “Half a Grapefruit”, lack of care is recognized in the story Flo is telling

Rose. The title of this short story is Rose’s answer to her teacher’s question about
what she had for breakfast. Her breakfast usually consists of porridge, tea and
bread; however, her schoolmates eat raisin pies, Corn Flakes and waffles. Rose
finds this unfair and she feels envious; thus, she lies about having an extravagant
breakfast. At this point, we focus solely on Flo’s perception of grapefruit because
it corresponds to the caring category. Flo classifies grapefruit as something that
lacks nourishing value and that indicates that she is attentive to what Rose has
for breakfast. This is especially meaningful because an observant reader knows
their relationship is not always pleasant. Additionally, Rose’s lie about having half
a grapefruit for a breakfast implies that she has enough to eat as such and is well
taken care of.
24
There is only one short excerpt in “Half a Grapefruit” where sexuality and
food are somehow intertwined. Rose tells Flo a story about Ruby, a girl who had
a questionable reputation. Three boys make a bet that they can persuade Ruby
to have sexual intercourse with all three of them. Ruby does not know about the
bet and meet one of them under the veranda. The first boy goes into the house
and finds his friend eating marshmallows, which might be a sign that he is still
quite immature. Meanwhile, another friend goes under the veranda. Ruby
realizes that this is not the same boy and becomes angry. She feels betrayed and
ashamed, therefore, she does not want to smoke or share cupcakes with boys.
Cupcakes are another indicator of food that might resemble the sweetness and
innocence of these youngsters.
In “Deep-Holes”, a mother of three named Sally is breastfeeding her

youngest while having a picnic with the rest of her family. Mother’s milk is
essential food for the baby, but Alex, her husband, is annoyed and complains
about it. In his opinion, the baby is old enough to get used to the bottle. Elisa
Vancoppernole (2010: 34) interprets his behaviour as the behaviour of a man
who sees his wife only as a sexual object. The sight seems distasteful to him, the
conjunction of sex and nourishment is outrageous, and he thinks that his wife’s
breasts have turned into udders. Sally is responsible for preparing and packing
food for the picnic and fulfilling the wishes of the family members about the
mustard in sandwiches. Her role in this short story is a role of a loving and
devoted mother who appreciates and considers the wishes of her husband and
children. In the final part of the story, when children move away and Sally lives
alone, we see that she mostly eats precooked and frozen lasagne. She still cares
for herself, but the reader can feel that she is more practical and lacks
enthusiasm to cook because she is alone.
In “Free Radicals”, there is another implication of tea being a liquid of care

and warmth. The protagonist Nita has cancer that is currently in remission. Her
cancer is probably a consequence of her lack of self-control because her
everyday habit was drinking red wine, and that affected her liver. What bothers
25
her more is the death of her husband. Her friends show care for her by calling
her on the phone and asking her if she needs any groceries, if she eats enough,
etc. Her morning routine consists of sipping a mild herbal tea that is a substitute
for her usual coffee. The warm mug gives her the strength to cope with the day.
One day she gets a visit by a man who introduces himself as an electrician. Later,
we find out that he is a felon. Despite his crooked life, he shares a story from his
childhood related to mother’s care. His mother prepared a chicken on Sundays,
and he enjoyed the taste of it, even on a day when he murdered his family.
Another indication of (self)-care is connected with the rhubarb tart story

that Nita tells her visitor. She catches his attention with the story about the
poisonous rhubarb tart. Her husband was having an affair and to protect their
marriage, she decided to bake two rhubarb tarts. One had poisonous rhubarb
leaves in it and the other only edible stalks. Nita gave the poisonous tart to his
husband’s mistress when her husband was out of town. As Vancoppernole (2010:
39) suggests, one of the books on Nita’s shelves that describes poisonous plants
(written by the ex-wife of her husband) might explain the strange behaviour of
the killer after drinking the herbal tea made by Nita.
Care (for family) could also be expressed through the hunting and killing in
the story “Working for a Living”. The father provides for the family by fishing,
hunting wild animals and selling their fur and skin. When there is an opportunity
to make a profit from American tourists and their money, the mother of the
protagonist decides to try to sell fur. In order to do so, she has to leave the house
and her mother-in-law moves in the house. The grandmother bakes bread and
pies, provides vegetable, eggs, milk, and cream. She cleans the house, waters
flowers and tomato plants, expresses her care and forgiveness toward his son.
After the business collapses, the father becomes a regular worker and his
daughter declares care and love toward him by preparing him a lunch bucket.
26
There on a shelf above the tub among the tools and rubber hose and fuses
and spare windowpanes was his lunch bucket, which I packed every day
when I got home from school. I filled the thermos with strong black tea
and put in a bran muffin with butter and jam and a piece of pie if we had
any and three thick sandwiches of fried meat and ketchup. The meat was
cottage roll ends or baloney, the cheapest meat you could buy. (Munro
2006: 153)
In that story, one can find another symbol of care related to tea. A daughter
carries a message to the father about not forgetting to call the grandmother (his
mother) after work. Grandmother has moved closer to help them if necessary,
so the father’s duty is to stop by her place after his shift to pick up some laundry.
He also drinks a cup of tea with her, although, he keeps forgetting about it.
Grandmother waits and knits but without any luck. When she calls the next day,
one can sense the bitterness after waiting in vain because she wants to be
acknowledged. Having a cup of tea with her son would mean to her that they
care about her.
Another symbol of care occurs in the story “Home”. The narrator is in the
habit of sitting and having a glass of whiskey with her father and stepmother
every couple of months when she comes home. The relationship between the
narrator and stepmother is not bad though. Irlma, the stepmother, fills the table
almost immediately with modest but nutritious food, for example, soda and
graham crackers, cheese and butter, baking-powder biscuits and spice cake with
boiled icing. Irlma apologizes because some of these are ready-made and might
contribute to the idea of her being lazy.
27
“Just after you went to the hospital he got down to business. I’ll have you
a cup of coffee in a minute.” She plugs in the kettle. On the table she has
set out ham sandwiches, mustard pickles, cheese, biscuits, dark and light
honey. It is just a couple of hours since we finished supper. (Munro 2006:
289)
Numerous events during her husband’s illness show that Irlma expresses
care through preparing food. After his first attack, she prepares him scrambled
eggs, applesauce, a cup of tea and a sandwich for him to regain his power. The
same ill man shows his care for the sheep by taking extra time to show his
daughter where the hay is and how to put it down while he will be in the hospital.
The grass itself has lost its nourishment, so they add hay to the animals’ feed.
Irlma often prepares a cup of coffee for her stepdaughter and takes care
that the table is always full. She also takes care of and is generous toward visitors;
she made a heavy dinner for one of her husband’s co-workers that included
mashed potatoes with gravy, steaks, cabbage salad, pumpkin pie, raisin cookies
and instant coffee. Irlma is also worried about her dog Buster because of his
eating habits. He frequently pokes around the turkey barn and eats whatever he
finds there, but sometimes the dead parts cause him troubles.
Altogether, Munro's symbols of care and food extend over a wide

spectrum. Caretaking mothers and daughters fill picnic baskets for their families,
they bake truffles and make soup for ill relatives, and nurse babies. The latter
affects their feminine image and influences marriage. In Munro’s short stories,
food can also cause illness and poison people. Protagonists express care when
providing for their family as hunters, they take care that the table is always full,
that the garden is cultivated, and that the plants are watered. Finally, lovers
organize dinners with extravagant ingredients wishing to seduce their partners.
28
4.2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD
In The Edible Woman, Marian classifies potential survey-takers by their

drinking preferences. She thinks about her potential interviewees and their living
places in terms of the martini set, beer drinkers and a scotch area. That indicates
certain assumptions of what is appropriate and expected in the lifestyle of
certain people from certain neighbourhoods in Western cultures. The survey
Marian performs is for a beer company, and its advertisement speaks for itself.
It describes their target drinker (a man) and his characteristics as well as his way
of spending free time. Beer is perceived as a strictly male drink and a proof of
manliness in Western cultures. However, we can find several occasions where
Marian (and other female characters) consume beer, sherry or scotch too:
Any real man, on a real man’s holiday – hunting, fishing, or just plain old-
fashioned relaxing – needs a beer with a healthy, hearty taste, a deep-
down manly flavour. The first long cool swallow will tell you that Moose
Beer is just what you’ve always wanted for true beer enjoyment. Put the
tang of the wilderness in YOUR life today with a big satisfying glass of
sturdy Moose Beer. (Atwood 2010: 26)
Beer also signalizes informality, a laid-back culture and a relaxed

atmosphere. It might indicate time off after work when hanging out with friends
in the local pub; it is served at picnics and sports events; we can find it at parties,
and sometimes people drink a beer to relax. One such occasion, along with the
friendliness and closeness, happens when Len visits Marian after receiving
unpleasant information that he will become a father. Marian offers him a beer,
without bothering with the formality of glasses, based on an assumption that
they are close friends. There is another culturally conditioned scene. At the party
that Marian and Peter are throwing before their wedding, Ainsley’s and Len’s
fight escalates in a scene that imitates baptising (baptism in utero, as Len named
29
it). Len, angry and frustrated because Ainsley is pregnant, is drunk and he reacts
to her provocation by pouring the contents of his bottle over Ainsley’s head. At
the same time, we have some cultural items arising from Christianity (baptising)
and some items related more to Western drinking culture (social drinking of
beer).
Another drink that varies in its meaning and is widespread in Western

society is coffee. It might be an essential fuel in the morning, a signal of a break
during the working hour or an opportunity for an honest talk. In Marian’s case,
coffee breaks with her co-workers are also occasions where the reader learns
about an important probity at that time – the virginity. As Marian states, her
three co-workers admitted several times over coffee grounds that they were all
virgins. Coffee also helps to ease the tension between Marian and Peter and
contributes to a rational talk. After their fight the previous night, they move from
the kitchen to the living room with two cups of coffee and arrange the date for
their marriage.
In the second chapter, we introduced findings of scholars (for example

Lupton 1996 and Sceats 1996) that a variety of food items carry numerous
connotations and represent a diversion of symbols. It was stated that the image
of egg is commonly present, but when Len receives news that he will become a
father he remembers something from his childhood. The announcement makes
him furious and angry and, in the situation when Ainsley accuses him that he is
uterus-envy, he remembers that his mother made him eat an egg that had a
chicken inside. We can interpret this in two ways: subliminally, he perceives
Ainsley as a hen, and he would like for the child (little chicken) to be removed
(eaten), preferably by Ainsley having an abortion. The other way of interpreting
this scene is more closely related to the Western perception of animal offspring.
Western society generally frowns upon behaviour that promotes eating animal
offspring that are considered domestic (e.g. kittens, chicken and puppy) than
others (e.g. calf and stud).
30
One would assume that chocolate goes well with expressing sexuality
because of its sweet, sticky characteristic. In The Edible Woman, it is consumed
by the character to whom Marian certainly feels some attraction – Duncan;
however, Duncan uses chocolate to help him quit smoking. In a way, he replaces
one unhealthy habit with another, but we do not know how much chocolate he
eats. The description of his eating, licking, and smacking contributes to his
juvenile appearance and not to his sexual appeal.
Elspeth Cameron (1985: 54) analyses the lunch Marian and her co-workers
(the “office virgins”) have at the restaurant. Marian feels a certain disgust arising
from food: food makes men in the restaurant unattractive (she describes the
men as bread faced and pudgy). The choice of meal by the three women shows
three alternatives; a heavy meal (steak and kidney pie - fat category), a light one
(salad with cottage cheese - woman who is conscious of the idea of being thin)
and a medium one (omelette or cheese sandwich). Their different choices are
according to Cameron (1985: 55) an example of obsession with certain body
image to which women are exposed in Western society. The evidence that
Marian is aware of a certain social pressure related to body figure is seen at the
Christmas office party when someone mentions the word ‘immature’. She
examines other women at the party and realizes that they are mostly ripe and
have a mature figure, except for the thin and elegant Lucy. Marian thinks about
her boss in terms of having a ham-like bulge of the thigh, for example. Elspeth
Cameron (1985: 46) points out that women in the 1950s were perceived as a
confection, and a person who did not fit in this concept was under pressure.
31
Marian’s mind grasped at the word ‘’immature’’, turning it over like a
curious pebble found on a beach. It suggested an unripe ear of corn, and
other things of a vegetable or fruitlike nature. You were green and then
you ripened: became mature. Dresses for the mature figure. In other
words, fat. She looked around the room at all the women there, at the
mouths opening and shutting, to talk or to eat. (Atwood 2010: 166)
In one of the dinner scenes, we can observe the roles that Marian and Peter
play in their relationship. Peter is the one deciding on the wine and Marian
admires this characteristic. Cameron (1985: 58) also catches the indecisiveness
Marian shows by not making any decision and rather allowing Peter to choose
for both. He tastes the wine like an expert, which indicates his social position.
The whole fact of them dining out in a fancy restaurant signalizes some amount
of success and positions them relatively high on the social ladder. Being
successful (and seen as such by others) is an important value in modern Western
culture. Eating out is a distinguished class factor; in addition, Peter is someone
who is able to make an appropriate choice concerning food and wine. Peter is a
confirmed meat lover, and meat indicates strength and power. Fish, in contrast,
is more feminine because of its soft structure. Therefore, when he chooses what
they will eat, he opts for Filet Mignon, something that has been already classified
as male food. The reader knows that Peter enjoys steaks and roast beef and is
not fond of fish or sweetbreads. When Marian observes Peter cutting his steak,
she admires his preciseness; however, she senses the danger too. This is the
dinner where she starts to perceive meat as muscle, as flesh, as part of a real
animal. She tries to encourage herself to eat everything and that it is completely
natural to eat a cow because everyone is doing it and it has plenty of protein
human body needs, but she fails.
32
During the dinner with Peter, Marian makes another intelligent remark
while pondering the darkness of the restaurant. She concludes that eating and
chewing are usually more pleasant for the one doing it than for those who watch
and might ruin the atmosphere. Over the next weeks, Marian experiments with
food and realizes that she cannot eat anything that indicates bone, fibre or
tendon; except fish and re-shaped food (hot dogs, pork sausages and burgers).
She lives mostly on salads, cheese and peanuts. After some time, she gets tired
of salads because she has to eat so many of them. At one point, she compares
herself to a rabbit and wishes to become a carnivore again.
In Lady Oracle, we see the importance of social class when Joan buys tins
of caviar, fancy crackers and champagne, but lies to her husband Arthur that they
were on sale. At the beginning of their relationship, the couple spends most of
their time in cheap restaurants that smell of lamb fat. They eat fried eggs, chips
and peas. Arthur’s roommates also eat simple food, for example ketchup-
covered canned baked beans or curry. Some earlier kitchens Joan and Arthur
had, had been equipped with only a single-burner hot plate and no sink which
indicate that they were poor. Additionally, the Italian kitchen where Joan cooks
during her escape is cramped; the cracks are home to centipedes and scorpions
and at some point, Joan feels trapped in it. When she finishes with her hair-
cutting in the middle of this kitchen, she opens the bottle of wine, pours it and
toasts herself. She cannot go for a drink anywhere else because she is in a place
where women are not supposed to drink alone; this shows certain repression,
social order and gender rules.
When Joan escapes to Italy, she is fond of rewarding herself with tiny
sweets; when she invents a new personality, she goes to a café and buys herself
an ice cream to celebrate it. The distinction between female and male food is not
so obvious there. We can see that some characters drink martinis (for example
Aunt Lou) and scotch. There is one situation where Joan wants to order a double
Scotch, but she changes her mind. She is concerned that such an order might be
unladylike, so she decides to go for a grasshopper.
33
Proper behaviour and social class are common motifs in Joan’s life. The
Western demand for a thin figure is depicted in the memory Joan has about the
cake incident. She eats the cake she is not allowed to, and the fight over her body
weight reaches its peak. The mother leaves diet books everywhere. She tries to
bribe Joan with beautiful dresses, and she tries to show Joan potential health
risks (for example, heart attack). The mother sends her to the specialist, gives
her pills and prepares menus for every day with exact calorie intake, everything
to have a thin daughter. At one occasion, Joan’s psychiatrist asks her if she does
not want to get married, which indicates the importance of being skinny in order
to be marriage material. When Aunt Lou conditions the money from her will with
Joan’s loss of weight, she fulfils her wish, but at the same time questions the
motive for it. Does Aunt Lou know that a skinny body will make Joan’s life easier?
Does she not accept Joan as she is? When Joan loses weight, she hides that fact
from her adult connections.
Joan has frequent dreams of a Fat Lady. She dreams about a grotesque
artist from the circus. At one point, Joan explains that the Fat Lady has her
schoolmate’s face, so this is not necessarily a representation of herself. The
audience laughs at the Fat Lady, but they are also afraid because her stunt is to
cross the high wire. Arthur’s interpretation of this fantasy would be that society
pushes Joan in a certain feminine direction and does not accept her as she is. The
importance of the thin figure is also seen in Joan’s memory when she describes
preparations for a recital. She is enthusiastic about it and her role as a butterfly.
Her mother struggles with the costume and even Joan herself sees that she lacks
a graceful figure. Miss Flegg, who is the organizer of the recital, tricks Joan after
counselling her mother, and gives Joan the role of a mothball.
34
The problem was fairly simple: in the short pink skirt, with my waist, arms
and legs exposed, I was grotesque. I am reconstructing this from the point
of view of an adult, an anxious, prudish adult like my mother or Miss
Flegg; but with my jiggly thighs and the bulges of fat where breasts would
later be and my plump upper arms and floppy waist, I must have looked
obscene, senile almost, indecent; it must have been like watching a
decaying stripper. (Atwood 1998: 38)
It can be concluded that food in Atwood’s novels covers certain rules and
norms that are part of Western culture. Atwood indicates which alcohol and
food are most suitable for male or female protagonists. She directs our
attention to social pressure associated with body image and emphasizes
success as an important Western value that is manifested in dining out. Her
novels include descriptions of social class distinguishers; for example, caviar
and champagne.
What about Munro’s short stories and the intertwined relationship

between culture and food? In “Wenlock Edge”, the protagonist is taken out for
dinner every Sunday evening by her mother’s cousin Ernie. She is a student who
does not have a stable income. As Vancoppernolle (2010: 29) suggests, the
protagonist knows dining out is expensive; however, she thinks that city people
earn enough to be able to indulge in such events carelessly. These dinners lead
us to assume that Ernie is rather a successful man, and the protagonist herself
interprets these invitations as a simple act of politeness among relatives. Their
menu consists of French food and sweets. The protagonist can order exotic
dishes (for example, chicken vol au vent), while Ernie always eats roast beef - a
manly meal. These heavy dinners cause the protagonist to have a fast every
Monday, which might indicate a certain body-awareness.
35
The protagonist works in a student cafeteria and is often warned that
she will not find a husband in such a place. She has a roommate named Nina
who spends her evenings eating snacks like oranges, almonds and chocolate
kisses. When the protagonist is having dinner at Mr. Purvis’ place, we can
observe a distinction between what males and females can eat or drink. Mr.
Purvis is her roommate’s extravagant older lover. He is rich and the food served
at his dinner is a sign of his sophisticated taste. Mr. Purvis drinks wine and does
not offer it to his guest; later, however both sip coffee in the library. This coffee
is quite different from what the protagonist is used to because the ultimate
coffee for students seems to be Nescafé. We can notice that he inflicts a more
traditional perception of the world and cultural norms when he decides to keep
his wine for himself and does not offer it to the protagonist. Additionally, he
insists that the protagonist dine naked, which is something unusual and
perverse in Western cultures, especially when people lack an intimate bond.
We will analyse this aspect of their dinner in another chapter.
Two alcoholic drinks in “Free Radicals” and “Deep-Holes” deserve

attention. In the first story, this is red wine. The protagonist is not allowed to
drink it because she has cancer. On the other hand, when her husband was
alive, they had drunk red wine in reasonable quantity believing it is good for
the heart. As Vancoppernolle (2010: 38) suggests, free radicals invade cells in
our body and can cause cancer, while antioxidants (from the red wine) combat
them. In “Deep-Holes”, the mother notices at the picnic, one of her underage
sons is drinking her champagne, but she does not react because she does not
want to upset her husband. In Western culture, alcohol is an adult drink and it
might be a sign of bad parenting if children have access to it. Sometimes,
alcohol is labelled as one of the deadly sins.
36
The story “Working for A Living” presents the Canadian wildlife. Fishing,
hunting, making traps for animals (especially otter, weasels and foxes) to sell
their fur or skin is a lifestyle and an important part of survival. It also means
freedom. The bait consists of apples, parsnips or home-made fish mix. The
family in the story lives a modest life. On one occasion, the father buys his
daughter an ice-cream cone. The cone is soft and stale and the rest of it is partly
melted and refrozen. Of course, this affects the taste of it. It also reflects the
family’s social class and their unpleasant current situation with a failed
business. This contrasts with the fancy hotel where the mother sells the fur.
When the daughter and father arrive at the hotel, the daughter complains
about the ice-cream, so the dining-room hostess brings her a new ice-cream
from the kitchen. This is a vanilla ice-cream covered with chocolate sauce and
with a cherry on top, a sundae, or total opposite of what she got earlier.
Several indicators of social class distinction and special food are

recognized in “Hired Girl”. One of these is the glass of iced coffee Corrie, one of
the servants on the island, brings to Mrs. Foley, the owner of the island. The
freezer is a piece of equipment, perceived in the 1950s, when the story is
happening, as a novelty and a symbol of luxury. Mrs. Foley has a habit of sucking
the ice cubes, although she is not allowed this, but at the same time it shows
that they have enough ice, if she can perform such actions. Additionally, the
men enjoy sipping gin while watching sailing races on the island. On the other
hand, in the same story we have the narrative of a wartime, when Corrie
explains that they saved potato skins to prepare soup. The protagonist herself
explains that people in her hometown sometimes eat only dandelion leaves for
supper. Later, she reveals to the reader that she has been exaggerating slightly,
but at the same time she describes the food of the middle class: junket, bread
pudding and fried liver. In contrast, Mary Anne, the daughter of the house
owners, points out that fish is something rich people eat. The protagonist
describes the difference between the kitchen at home and the Montjoys’
kitchen. The Montjoy’s kitchen has a shining floor, and they have hot and cold
37
water and combined stove, while the kitchen at home has worn-out linoleum,
dark, rusty old spice tins, and barn clothes are hanging by the door. This
example of a class distinguisher implies a difference in (social and economic)
power of the protagonist’s family and the Montjoy’s. We can observe certain
rules and cultural roles the protagonist has to follow when she becomes a hired
girl. For example, she has to eat her meals alone and be attentive to serve
masters who eat in the dining room or on the deck. At first, she expects that
she will eat with the family, but Mrs. Montjoy objects. The strong hierarchy
between servants and masters is of extraordinary importance for Mrs.
Montjoy. The protagonist spends her time reading old magazines while eating
and that displeases Mrs. Montjoy. Whether this is a signal of bad manners or a
lack of permission is not clear, but a Western reader knows that such behaviour
is rarely accepted as a proper table manner.
Breakfast and what you eat for breakfast is an indicator of ‘the good life’
as we can see in “Half a Grapefruit”. The opening scene is set in the classroom
where the teacher asks her students what they had for breakfast to see if they
follow Canada’s Food Rules. Rose sits in that classroom and perceives this
question as a potential social indicator. The reader gets a description of her
typical breakfast (tea and bread, porridge) however, her classmates and the
teacher witness a different announcement: that she has eaten half a grapefruit.
Rose, the protagonist, is aware of the expensive meals her schoolmates from
town are used to (orange juice, raisin pie, Corn Flakes, waffles and syrup) and
that leads her to lie about her breakfast. Pupils outside the town (presumably
poor children) consume nutrient-lacking food, while the town pupils indulge in
bacon, eggs and orange juice. Rose’s breakfast is a profound expression of her
low social status. Boyd and Hollison (2016: 10) simply explain Rose’s lie as a way
of expressing what we would like to be in comparison with who we are. Such a
breakfast gives colours and excitement to an otherwise plain lifestyle. Rose
knows that Flo, her stepmother, would think that grapefruit is as bad for
breakfast as a glass of champagne. The fact that she does not sell grapefruits in
38
her store indicates that this is a prestigious fruit. The reader is informed that
the country people (Flo included) were at that time convinced that any food
not well-cooked could evoke issues in the stomach.
In the short story “Home”, Munro provides another detailed excerpt

about the kitchen. The protagonist describes the kitchen in her parents’ home.
The father and stepmother Irlma buy a new table with a plastic surface and four
chairs with comfortable cushions that have a yellow flower pattern. This
renovation signalizes economic improvement in their life. For example, lights
are now everywhere because they use to spend most of their time using coal-
oil lamps. However, the kitchen ceiling is made of narrow, smoke-stained
boards, and the wallpaper is splotched because of the chimney leaks which
signal that they still live a modest life.
Observing cultural aspects in Munro’s short stories associated with food,

we can conclude that she does not hesitate to use food as a social class
identifier: French food in restaurants, exotic dishes and extravagant dinners (at
Mr. Purvis’ place), and fictional breakfasts (half a grapefruit) are a picturesque
part of her narratives. However, she also depicts more ordinary life, habits, and
meals; from student meals to Ontario working-class dinners, significant
especially for the 1950s, and therefore provides cultural insight. Additionally,
Munro writes about Canadian wildlife culture that consists of fishing, hunting
and selling fur. Her kitchens are luxurious or modest and repainted several
times and their users differ whether they drink gin from crystal glasses or
whiskey from cream cups.
39
4.3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS
In The Edible Woman, we can see that coffee and lunch breaks are
important social glue. Even though Marian does not have a particularly close
relationship with her three co-workers, they share intimate pieces of
information during those breaks. They use breaks to escape from work when it
becomes tiresome. As Marian informs the reader, she announces her
engagement during the lunch break. Gatherings around the coffee table help
them to strengthen their intimate bond, allow them to identify easier within
the company and work as a tool for socialization.
In the office, there is a small lunchroom with a tea and coffee machine.
This is a place where another social event happens – the office Christmas party.
The ladies are expected to bring a variety of items and as usual that contributes
to a large amount of food. There was certain social pressure that everybody
should bring something and Marian, having trouble cooking, buys brownies at
a bakery, but switches the bag. Others bring sandwiches, salads, desserts,
cookies and cakes. Marian knows there is another social pressure present that
demands from each to try a bit of everything. The ladies socialize and chat while
eating cakes, sandwiches and salads, however they eagerly anticipate exchange
of compliments related to served goods. Marian learns at the party that, since
the company has become larger, the departments are separated and do not
socialize in the same place at the same time during the party; the ladies are in
the lunchroom and the men from upstairs are in their offices. The Christmas
dinner with the family also causes Marian difficulty since she has trouble eating
some foods. Relatives gather and Marian’s mother prepares turkey, but Marian
leaves it untouched on the plate, which upsets her mother. However, she
decides that her daughter’s lack of appetite is a result of being excited about
the wedding. Marian makes an excuse and secretly eats plenty of cranberry
sauce, mashed potatoes and a mince pie.
40
Marian and Ainsley are out of their apartment most of the day, but
occasionally they spend evening together eating in front of the TV. This is
becoming more and more of an alternative for Marian when Peter cancels their
dinner dates. Marian and Peter occasionally dine at his place, and these dinners
are not as fancy as they are when eating out: they eat frozen peas and smoked
meat. The dinners of the two girls are not thoroughly described, but it seems
that they help to create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere between the
roommates. On one occasion, TV dinners are replaced by Clara’s invitation to
dine at her place. However, Marian is not thrilled about it because she knows
Clara is inviting her to entertain her. That is why Marian takes Ainsley with her
– to reduce the pressure. Clara, preoccupied with her toddlers and tired of her
pregnancy, is a perplexed hostess but luckily, her husband Joe takes care of the
guests and serves beer and vermouth before dinner. Joe proves himself as an
enchanting host that has everything under control. He successfully socializes
while cooking and taking care of children. After dinner, they move into the living
room and Marian wants to help Joe cleaning up, but he asks her to entertain
Clara.
The engagement with Peter speeds up the occasions of getting to know

his friends and colleagues. Peter takes Marian to cocktail parties where she
meets his formal colleagues, while dinners are reserved for Peter’s intimates.
Here and there, Marian is invited to lunch with some of the lawyers, where she
spends most of her time silent. These occasions resemble an initiation process
Peter is inflicting on Marian to see whether she is acceptable for his social circle.
Marian organizes a dinner where Peter would get to know Clara and Joe. The
organization of this dinner causes Marian plenty of trouble. Her ordinary food
(vitamin pills, milk, peanut butter and salad with cottage cheese) is
inappropriate, Peter hates fish, but any other meat is impossible for Marian to
serve and it would look strange if she served it but would ate none of it. She
decides to light the candles and serves her guests sherry as quickly as possible.
Marian prepares a casserole with mushrooms and meatballs, and salad. She has
41
prepared the casserole the night before, so her main occupation is with slicing
radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and garlic. The dinner is quite chaotic
because Clara and Joe bring the children along and that affects their
conversation. When they are gone, and Marian is cleaning up, she is upset
because the dinner did not go according to her expectations and she feels
responsible for it.
Another party Marian helps to organize is a party at Peter’s place. When

Marian decides at the last minute to invite some of her people, Peter makes
clear that he hopes she has not exaggerated because the liquor quantities are
limited. After some pondering, Marian realizes that especially Duncan and his
roommates could ruin the atmosphere and say something unexpected. In the
kitchen, Marian and Peter prepare everything for the party. The glassware is
new and bought especially for the party. They have scotch, rye, beer, ginger ale,
tonic water, soda and gin for the guests, and Peter polishes the glasses. He gives
Marian a glass of scotch, but the drink is too strong for her. Marian fills the
bowls and platters with chips, peanuts, olives and cocktail mushrooms. Peter
serves the first guests (the “office virgins”) and the party becomes more and
more lively with bowls circulating and people chatting. Marian fixes drinks for
the guests. The beer-baptism marks the party, but the real incident is Marian’s
escape from their party.
There is also a dinner where Duncan invites Marian to dine with his
roommates. Trevor, one of the roommates, cooks the dinner and greets her
wearing his apron, feeling very excited about the dinner. Trevor serves them a
sherry in crystal glasses that belongs to his family, he puts a white cloth over
the table, brings silverware and lights the candles. Marian compliments politely
Trevor’s food and silverware, and it is obvious that Trevor enjoys it. The table
manners of Fischer, the other roommate, are questionable, since he eats while
speaking and after the soup, his beard is covered in food. After serving a shrimp
soup, Trevor makes a dramatic appearance by having two flaming swords in
either hand (preparing a shish kebab). That makes Marian uneasy because she
42
knows she will have to find a polite way to dispose of it. When the dinner is
over and Marian walks home, she is surprised that nobody asked her anything
about herself. At first, she assumes the invitation is motivated because
Duncan’s roommates want to get to know her, but she concludes that they just
want a new audience.
In Lady Oracle, Joan sits in her apartment in Italy and thinks about how
miserable it is to cook for one person. At that time, she still eats at the table,
but she could easily picture herself eating out of the pots and standing. This
serves as a proof that Joan perceives cooking and eating as inherently social
activity. Joan also remembers dinner parties her mother organizes; the mother
invites people whom she dislikes, but she feels it is necessary to host them
because these are important men from her husband’s hospital. The mother
prepares chicken breasts in cream sauce with wild rice, mushrooms, salads with
cranberries and celery, Duchess potatoes and a dessert with mandarin oranges,
ginger sauce and sherbet. The mother does not want Joan to attend these
dinners because Joan has reached her maximum growth at that time and she
ruins her hostess act. Joan also describes that at one particular dinner party,
Joan’s mother is slightly drunk, so she makes a scene that ends up in a fight
between the parents in the kitchen. The mother is also very concerned about
who is allowed to sit at her table; she does not invite Aunt Lou very often to
dine with them because she is embarrassed by her.
When Joan publishes a book, Arthur suggests going out to celebrate. He

invites Joan to a cheap restaurant with good food. However, Joan anticipates
drinks and candles, so she is not enthusiastic about it. They are expecting the
company, Arthur’s co-worker and his wife. The group order sweet-and-sour fish
and pay little attention to Joan. Throughout the dinner, nobody mentions
Joan’s book, and she forces herself to be cheerful.
To summarize, Atwood uses food in a variety of social events. She shows

us that coffee and lunch breaks are of vital importance among co-workers and
43
countless information and decisions are achieved during those breaks. A
Christmas party is filled with anticipation, social pressure and demands, rules
and normative behaviour associated with bringing and tasting the food. Dinners
reunite friends and parties are often an opportunity to introduce people from
different social circles. Parties and dinners demand a certain amount of
preparations and ingredients are carefully selected. Shared meals bring people
together and cooking alone seems to be a tiresome task. Protagonists celebrate
achievements (published book, engagement) and look for potential signs of
affection or red flags while observing people eat and drink.
What about social eating and cooking in Munro’s short stories? “Deep-
Holes” opens with a scene of preparation for the picnic. The family goes for a
picnic and they take devilled eggs, ham sandwiches, crab salad, lemon tarts,
Kool-Aid and champagne. The reason for having a picnic is to celebrate the
father’s publishing his first solo scientific article and spend some time together.
When Sally, the mother, puts down the picnic blanket, she nurses the baby
while unpacking food for the others. The parents touch glasses filled with
champagne and Sally wishes she could have more champagne and more alone
time with her husband. The relaxed event is disrupted by a cry caused by the
older son who falls to the bottom of the crevasse, but parents manage to save
him together.
In “Fathers”, we witness a forced friendship that results in organizing a

dinner to express gratitude. Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright have a daughter, Frances,
and they move close to the protagonist’s house. Frances is younger than the
protagonist is, but on the first day of school, Mrs. Wainwright asks her if she
would accompany Frances to school and show her where her classroom is. Days
go by and they both carry lunches on their way to school, but they do not eat
together, therefore more intimate bond between two girls is never developed.
The protagonist does not want to eat and socialize with Frances. To be more
44
precise, she does not want to be seen with her at all. After some time, Frances
gives up and eats her lunch alone - a signal that she is not good at befriending
people. One day, Frances offers the protagonist a cookie, but the protagonist
declines it because she wants to avoid any obligation. Frances explains to her
that her mother had put it in for her. That is the moment of realization for the
protagonist; Mrs. Wainwright has no idea they do not eat together. Additionally,
one could assume that Mrs. Wainwright knew that Frances is not socially skilful,
and she recognized the sociable potential of these cookies. From that day on, the
protagonist starts taking the cookies and talking more with Frances. Around
Christmas time, Mrs. Wainwright invites the protagonist for a Sunday supper.
She organizes a thank-you and a farewell party, the last opportunity for two girls
to spend time together. The parents put plenty of effort and make ceremonial
dinner. They set the table for two girls aside, so they could eat as they are in a
sophisticated restaurant. Mr. Wainwright declares himself as a personal waiter
for the two girls. He pours them lemonade and offers them sweetbreads (meat
wrapped in bacon) and potatoes (rolled in hot butter). They eat fancy food that
is unusual for the protagonist’s social class; Frances’ family comes from a city and
they are more familiar with such extravagant and ceremonial dinners. For
dessert, they eat vanilla pudding with golden-brown baked sugar and tiny cakes
iced with dark, rich chocolate. The protagonist is fascinated by how delicious and
tender the food is and she ponders the extravagant event long before she falls
asleep.
In the story “Hired Girl”, the central social event is the cocktail party the
Montjoys organize one Saturday in August in honour of some friends. The
protagonist is instructed to polish all the silver while Mrs. Montjoy inspects her.
Guests drink in the living room or on the deck, they chat and enjoy their time.
The protagonist spends all morning preparing canapés, arranging them on
platters and serving them. She evaluates their preparation as tiresome and
fiddly, yet she knows that Mrs. Montjoys is meticulous and enjoys ceremonies.
The shapes have to be perfect and even one of the guests subliminally signals
45
that this is silly work. The hired girl also has trouble serving the food, because
people are busy talking and they do not notice her. She has to wash the glasses,
heat the meatballs and pour the gin. The hostess sprinkles parsley among the
meatballs when these are ready and asks the protagonist to make herself a
sandwich and not return to the party.
In “Half a Grapefruit”, a family waits for help from a neighbour, Billy Pope,
who has a car. He is supposed to drive the ill father to the hospital. Billy informs
the family that his car will be ready the next day, so he will stay overnight and
head to the hospital in the morning. Flo decides to prepare supper and talks
with Billy, who brings a bottle of whiskey with him for the men to drink. This
whiskey is a signal for informal socializing among relatives and an opportunity
for light conversation before sleep. They drink from glasses that used to hold
cream cheese. They do not allow Rose to drink the whiskey, but she drains Flo’s
glass when Flo is not around. Alcohol makes Rose fonder of her relatives and
she accepts their remarks and ideas more fondly.
In “Simon’s Luck”, Rose thinks about her loneliness when she is in new
places. She would love to be invited to the Saturday-night parties and Sunday
family suppers because she seeks attention and acceptance at such events. The
hostess of the party has made glazed and braided loaves and the pate that Rose
wishes to be able to do because she would like to organize ceremonies and
throw parties. As an actress, she feels comfortable surrounded by people and
she likes the spotlight a host of a dinner party usually receives. At this party,
she drinks her gin quickly because she is anxious, and she tries to reduce her
nervousness with alcohol. The whole event is later ruined for Rose because of
an insult from her drunk former student; this is a complete contrast to what
she has expected from the party.
Before moving to the last category, we must consider the social activities
associated with food that are present in Munro’s short stories. Munro’s
narratives include many social activities that are inseparably linked with food.
46
She describes informal events such as picnics where the family gathers and
celebrates the father’s publishing his scientific article but on the other hand
hides suppressed fear. There are more eccentric dinners where parents make
a ceremony when moving away and they prepare extravagant dishes even
though friendship between the two girls is not genuine. Cocktail parties are
organized for a high society where carefully prepared canapés are served on
silver plates. On the other hand, Munro does not forget about evening
discussions over a bottle of whiskey among friends and relatives gathered when
someone is ill.
4.4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER AND CONTROL
What happens when food is prepared? Who serves it? Who decides what
will be on the menu and who will set the table? Is it possible to exercise power
through eating conventions? What happens in the kitchen? How do
(traditional) gender roles intertwine with food and power? According to Emma
Parker (1995: 363), eating in Atwood’s novels is often a metaphor for power
and sometimes draws the relationship between genders. Those who eat are the
most powerful characters and those who do not are limited in their power.
Mária Huttová (2012: 72) states that Marian (in The Edible Woman) stops eating
because she wants to express and demonstrate her dissatisfaction. At first,
dissatisfaction focuses on the relationship with her fiancé Peter, since she stops
eating roughly around the time of the proposal. Additionally, Marian starts
eating again after she breaks up with Peter. After careful observation, the
reader is aware that the broader issue is the consumerism of society. Marian
embarks on a journey of self-exploration that is marked by her episodes of
accepting and denying food. As Lahikainen (2007: 66) writes, Marian has a
desire to eat, but her body rejects most meals, so she cannot be interpreted as
having classic anorexia nervosa. Lahikainen (2007: 66) sees Marian’s attitude as
47
a displaced desire: Marian wants to eat but cannot properly enjoy her meal;
her fear that Peter and society will consume her is bigger than her appetite;
when she loses her appetite, she loses her sense of self. At the end of the novel,
she starts eating again to regain her inner balance. The reader is informed that
Marian had never been a fussy eater and her upbringing consisted of eating
whatever was on the plate.
When it comes to Peter, the disposal of power within their relationship is

seen through examples where he is the one who decides what they will order
in restaurants. Marian tries to explain his behaviour by saying that she is terrible
at making decisions. Scholars (Lahikainen 2007, Parker 1995, Nicholson 1987)
interpret this as an expression of her lack of power. It is also a form of self-
consumption because Marian’s submission is voluntary. Marian is trying to play
by Peter’s rules and fulfil his expectations, behaving as she thinks he would like
her to be. The reader witnesses how meticulously she fixes gin and tonic for her
fiancé in order to please him. He often asks her to get him a drink (for example,
when they are both lying in bed) even though he could go and get one himself.
I knew where everything was. Peter has a cupboard shelf well-stocked
with liquor, and he never forgets to re-fill the ice-cube trays. I went to the
kitchen, and carefully assembled the drinks, remembering not to leave
out the twist of lemon peel Peter likes. It takes me longer than average
to make drinks: I have to measure. (Atwood 2010: 59)
What can we assume from their organization of dinner dates? If they

decide to go out, Peter is usually the one choosing the place and food. However,
if they decide to cook at home, Marian is always the one to walk over to his
apartment and she buys something to cook on her way. Even though he has a
car and could have picked her up, he does not do that because errands irritate
him. The location of his apartment is inconvenient in terms of transportation.
When Marian cooks him a dinner (frozen peas and smoked meat) when he is
48
suffering from a hangover, he is cranky and accuses her of never cooking proper
food. That hurts Marian's feelings because she was avoiding cooking at his place
so he would not feel threatened.
When Marian gets her steak while dining out with Peter, and observes
Peter cutting his steak, she has all kinds of vivid images and thoughts. She
identifies with the beef on Peter’s plate, and that is the moment of realization
for her. According to Lahikainen (2007: 60), she realizes that she will be
moulded, measured and slowly consumed like a cow, when becoming his wife.
Gradually, the list of items she cannot eat lengthens. Marian’s lack of power is
recognized when she is preparing dinner for her guests. She is peeling a carrot
and starts thinking about it as a victim of ruthless people. People are insensitive
and cannot hear its scream, which is similar to Marian’s situation. She is unable
to eat properly, but nobody pays attention to it.
She became aware of the carrot. Itʼs a root, she thought, it
grows in the ground and sends up leaves. Then they come along
and dig it, maybe it even makes a sound, a scream too low for
us to hear, but it doesnʼt die right away, it keeps on living,
right now itʼs still alive. (Atwood 2010: 178)
An important part of The Edible Woman is a cake that Marian uses instead
of speaking her mind. She carefully selects the ingredients for her cake and
focuses during baking. Lahikainen (2007: 83) interprets this scene as an act of
liberation. The cake is common at weddings, but this cake is no ordinary cake.
It is not white (symbol of virginity); it is pink (representing frivolity) and
represents a real woman, Marian herself. Marian carefully decorates the cake
as she was decorated the night before at the party. When offering the cake to
Peter, she accuses him of trying to destroy her and therefore, she offers him a
substitute for herself. Peter hurries out of the apartment, and Marian eats the
cake without a problem. Lahikainen (2007: 84) adds that one can interpret the
49
scene as Marian’s being at the same time the consumer and the consumed.
Cameron (1985: 46) compares the cake-lady to the ritual common for the
Catholic mass, when people consume bread and wine as symbols of Christ’s
body and blood.
Lahikainen (2007: 49) thinks that heterosexual relationships and love in

Atwood's novels are illustrated with images of hunting, owning and eating.
Some characters have the roles of hunters; on the other side are victims to be
eaten. Sometimes, characters are hunters and victims at the same time;
heterosexual desire is thus complex and potentially harmful. In hunting, Peter
and Marian have almost equal roles, because, at some point, they both think
about each other in terms of possession, belonging and ownership (Lahikainen,
2007: 78). One can suggest that Marian, while acting the way Peter wants, is
trying to seduce him into marriage. At the end of the novel, Marian watches
Duncan eating the cake without any hesitation or remarks on its shape. Scholars
(Adams 1990, Nielsen 1994, Mycak 1996) disagree about whether Duncan is
next in line to “eat” Marian, or if she is in control again.
The most important place in preparing and consuming food is the kitchen.
As Nicholson (2010: 29) writes in her thesis, a kitchen is often a central place
for women and by no doubt a place where food preparation happens.
According to Lahikainen (2007: 69), for Marian, the kitchen represents a
threatening place because it symbolizes a trap and potential submission. As her
anxiety piles up, the kitchen becomes more and more filthy, threatening and
uncomfortable. There is rotten food, dirty dishes, mould and leftovers in the
refrigerator and the sink. Peter’s refrigerator, on the other hand, is sparkling
clean and arranged. We could interpret this as another indicator showing their
incompatibility. The mess Marian has in her refrigerator and her kitchen
suggests that she is not wife material, at least not by Peter’s criteria. He values
good cooking as an important quality a wife should possess. According to
Lahikainen (2007: 70), one way of thinking about that specific kitchen is a
paradoxical one: Marian avoids cleaning the place because she is going to marry
50
and will leave the apartment. However, when she becomes a wife, cleaning and
housekeeping will be her main chores. On the other hand, Lahikainen (2007:
71) suggests interpreting the aversion to cleaning Marian and Ainsley
demonstrate as a clear indicator that domestic chores are not a natural part of
women’s personality. Marian cleans the apartment thoroughly after she breaks
up with Peter; however, the refrigerator is not completely under control even
at the end of the novel.
Huttová (2012: 73) thinks that Marian represents the idea of women
taking an active, non-conformist role in society. However, at the same time
these women are designated to accept the social order, if they want to survive.
Marian’s attitude towards food is a tool a woman can use for self-expression
and self-liberation. She interprets Marian’s situation as a protest; Marian is
against the male-dominated society that threatens female independence and
identity (Huttová 2012: 73). On the other hand, Huttová (2012: 73) is aware
that Marian’s non-eating might be perceived as a female compliance with
demands men have concerning the female body (to be thin).
In Lady Oracle, Joan describes several events where she drinks and eats
uncontrollably, which can imply that she has little control over her life and often
feels powerless. Orbach (1998: 17) argues that people look for comfort, joy,
and warmth in food; they try to fill voids or meet needs. Joan often thinks about
her younger self as a voracious eater. Her symptoms could be something that
we nowadays call compulsive eating.
51
I suffered from fits of weakness and from alarming, compulsive relapses
during which I would eat steadily, in a kind of trance, anything and
everything in sight – I recall with horror consuming nine orders of fried
chicken in a row – until my shrunken and abused stomach would protest
and I would throw up.
(Atwood 1998: 105)
Lahikainen (2007: 110) points out that, in a symbolic way, the mother was
cannibalising Joan. Her first signs of disapproval of Joan’s body show when the
mother stops taking photos of her daughter on Joan’s 6th birthday – she does not
want to have Joan’s growth recorded. The mother forces Joan to lose weight with
unpleasant comments, pills, laxatives, and specialists, while Joan was filling
herself with French fries and chocolate. Joan fights two battles at the same time:
one with her mother who forces her to lose weight and another with her own
body and appetite. When Aunt Lou dies, she exercises some of her power
through her will and money. Aunt Lou sets a condition saying that Joan has to
lose a hundred pounds to inherit the money. Joan sees Aunt’s money as an
empowering tool to move away and live independent life. The process of losing
weight is frustrating because Joan has false expectations about the effort, she
would have to put in. At one point, it seems that food win over her. Later, as Joan
gets thinner, the mother leaves pies and cookies around the kitchen for Joan to
tempt her. Joan tries to explain the mother’s behaviour being a consequence of
distress; the mother hopes getting Joan thin will be her life-long project and she
is running out of projects since the house is finished. The mother feels bereft and
uses sweets to keep Joan close.
52
Preparations for the wedding push Joan closer to her old eating habits
(muffins, cookies and doughnuts), not to a great extent but enough to gain some
weight. Food gives her comfort and calms her nerves because she is terrified that
Arthur will find out about her past. Joan herself recognizes that her healthy
eating habits vanish when she feels nervous and powerless. Some scholars
(Lahikainen 2007, Orbach 1998) imply that her overeating could indicate that she
does not want to get married because the dishonesty bothers her. Parker (1995:
351) observes that even when Joan loses weight, she is powerless because of her
victim mentality. When she has no power, she has no control around food, which
can be seen through her cooking and shopping. Both activities are quite random
and chaotic; she frequently forgets to take her handbag when heading to the
store; she forgets the car keys and the shopping list.
After the wedding, Joan is introduced to Arthur’s expectations of her being

a cook. He expects to prepare proper meals. Arthur even objects to the fast food
Joan likes. Unfortunately, Joan lacks knowledge of cooking because her mother
never allowed her to participate in the kitchen while she was preparing food.
Lahikanen (2007: 117) points out a classic gendered pattern where the woman
cooks, and man gives comment. Even though Joan is surprised and not very
pleased with the fact that she is expected to do the cooking, she wants to fulfil
her husband’s expectations. After some time, it is obvious that Arthur predicts
her lack of cooking knowledge and enjoys watching her miserable attempts. Here
and there, she completely forgets to prepare any food. Joan wishes for her
husband to help in the kitchen, which is seen from the scene where she
compliments one of his male co-workers because he helps in the kitchen
preparing the coffee. He is as clumsy as Joan is, but he also reveals a softer side
in the kitchen.
53
I then discovered to my dismay that Arthur expected me to cook, actually
cook, out of raw ingredients such as flour and lard. I’d never cooked in my
life. My mother had cooked, I had eaten, those were our roles; she
wouldn’t even let me in the kitchen when she was cooking, for fear I would
break something, stick my germ-laden finger in a sauce, or tread too
heavily, causing her cake to fall. (Atwood 1998: 180)
The lack of proper food at the end of the novel (yellowing parsley and dried
pasta) indicates that Joan has failed to regain control over her life. During her
escape in Italy, her swinging moments of being confident and powerful and being
terrified are recognized in the battles she has with ants. At some point, they hunt
her spinach and meat, but Joan learns that they like sugar and water. She
observes how thin they are while marching toward sugar and how fat they are
when returning. Later, Joan realizes that she has made a syrup that trapped ants.
She tries to rescue them, but her attempts fail miserably. At that moment, she
writes SOS in sugar-water; this is a sign of how terrified she is.
Joan has two romantic relationships that differ in expressing power

through gender roles and food. When Joan meets the Polish Count, he invites
her into a restaurant. They sip tea, eat black currant tart and he places the order
and covers the bill. On the other hand, when Joan has an affair with the Royal
Porcupine, Joan is the one who pays for their very ordinary food (burgers and
milkshakes). One reason for choosing fast food when interacting with her lover
is that the Royal Porcupine is not wealthy and cannot afford to pay for fancy
restaurants but another could be that Joan wanted this affair not to be serious
and complicated, and fast food could be interpreted as such.
54
As can be seen, eating in Atwood’s novel is a metaphor for power since
some of her protagonists cannot eat when they feel powerless or endangered.
Marian stops eating when she becomes engaged, but the reader knows she
objects to the consumerism of society. On the other hand, Joan eats without any
control when she feels powerless. Peter shows his power by deciding about what
they will eat and drink in the restaurant, who will fix drinks in his apartment and
who will buy groceries. Atwood’s protagonists hunt and own each other and they
manipulate with the appetite of others (for example Joan’s mother). There are
expectations associated with certain gender roles that disempower protagonists:
female characters are expected to cook even though they lack such skills.
Munro’s short stories are filled with power and food ceremonies that are
seen through gender roles, interpersonal rules associated to eating habits and
food’s presumably powerful characteristics. In “Wenlock Edge”, the relationship
that carries the most power is the one between Nina, the protagonist’s
roommate, and Mr. Purvis. Mr. Purvis is older than Nina and after several years
of frantic relationship, he encourages her to get an education. Nina wants to
spend part of the time like an ordinary student and they set some rules. She is
allowed to go out at night if she goes to a concert or a lecture and she has to eat
dinner and lunch at the college. Mr. Purvis is not satisfied knowing that Nina eats
old doughnuts and drinks Nescafé for breakfast. However, his rule is to have a
hot meal once a day. Nina checks the menu of the cafeteria and reports it to him.
One Sunday, Nina asks her roommate, the protagonist of the story, to dine with
Mr. Purvis instead of her. When the protagonist arrives at Mr. Purvis’ home, she
must take off all her clothes. Later, the protagonist explains that she wanted to
prove to herself and others that she was no bookworm. Mr. Purvis waits for her
in the dining room, fully clothed. He serves her delicious food, pours himself wine
and offers her water. He helps her remove the meat from the bones as a true
gentleman while they discuss philosophy. The protagonist tries to be relaxed but
she is not very successful. After dinner, Mr. Purvis invites her to read some
poetry. Her buttocks make a noise when she stands, but the delicate coffee cups
55
also clatter because Mr. Purvis’ old hands shake. In the library, the protagonist is
more relaxed and confident with her nudity, because she is a student of literature
and reading aloud represents a familiar environment. He asks her not to cross
her legs while reading and after several poems, their evening reaches an end.
Throughout the evening, Mr. Purvis proves to be more powerful and the
protagonist, at the same time, feels excited and concerned about his strange
wishes. Clearly, he likes order and discipline. He steers the course of dinner and
undoubtedly there is something perverted in his demand that the girls should be
completely naked during dinner. He controls Nina’s eating habits and he sets the
rules for dinner, including the dress code or lack of it.
We can identify classic gender roles and power division concerning food in
“Deep-Holes”. A careful analysis shows that who decides what to cook and where
to eat is frequently a matter of gender and traditional patterns attribute more
power to male protagonists. As Vancoppernolle (2010: 33) writes, the
introduction begins with preparation for the picnic. The first slight inconvenience
happens when the mother wants to pack plastic champagne glasses because it
seems more practical, but her husband Alex insists on taking the real ones. He
wraps them himself which is a signal that only a man is capable to deal with
fragile items and that his decisions are final. Alex selects as a picnic place a rather
unusual and dangerous location. Sally wants to protest because she worries
about the possible danger, but she does not want to enrage him. Their division
of tasks is quite traditional; the father carries the picnic basket while Sally carries
the baby and the diaper bag. Almost immediately when they arrive, she has to
nurse the baby and at the same time she unpacks the food and delegates, which
sandwiches are for whom. She has her hands full while others already enjoy.
In “Free Radicals”, the fake electrician asks Nita for a meal. For him it is
natural that Nita should act as a host and prepare him food, even though he is
an intruder. When she hears one of the plates smash on the floor, she is alarmed
that something is wrong. The man does not allow her to pour boiling water into
the cup because she could hurt him. He is attentive and knows that boiling water
56
is a potential tool that could harm him; therefore, he does not want to give her
an opportunity to escape (and gain power over him). Nita is thinking whether
giving him some wine would make him more careless (possibly powerless?) or
would enrage him. In Nita’s story about the vegetable poison, there is an
implication that plants have potentially harmful characteristics and can, if
prepared by experts, cause death. That story makes the fake electrician worry
that his eggs were poisoned and a reader sense that he is slightly afraid of Nita.
In “Working for a Living”, fishing and hunting are essential to provide for a
family. These are also the fields where human power is exercised in relation with
the weaker subject. Living on a farm, making traps, selling skin and fur and
cooking rabbits are some of the aspects we analysed through the scope of
culture. However, another event illustrates power connected with food. Around
Christmas, the family receives the Foundry’s Christmas basket. It is filled with
fruit, nuts, and candy. The mother interprets the fact that they were the receivers
and not distributors as proof of their lack of power and success. She forces the
family to return the basket to show their upstanding position. By next Christmas,
the protagonist insists that she lives in straitened circumstances, so the mother
allows her to keep the treats. The mother’s way of understanding this basket is
that poor, unsuccessful and ill-fated people receive baskets filled with food while
successful people fill the basket for the unlucky ones. She perceives this
bestowed basket as a symbol of her failure.
In this short story, the father is a dominant figure outside the house who
provides income by hunting. The mother was first a schoolteacher. However,
when seeing the foxes, she recognizes a business potential. After some time, she
has to drive to work further away, so grandmother controls the household.
Arrival of the grandmother is an example of a reuniting capacity food has. Apart
from more traditional tasks (e.g. the grandmother bakes bread and pies), she
also takes care of the garden and cows. The grandmother is the dominant figure
in the household and replaces the absent mother in a role of a housewife.
Grandmother’s willingness to cook and help softens (and obliges) his son to
57
swallow his pride and he reaches a reconcilement with his mother as a sign of
gratitude.
In “Hired Girl”, the difference in power between the servants and the
owners of the house is noticed in separated meals. The servants eat alone, and
their meal can be interrupted because they must serve something. Additionally,
they are not allowed to eat in the dining room or on the deck. Women (mostly
servants) are the one preparing food and on those rare occasions, when men
offer to help, they make more mess than necessary.
I had begun to spear the meatballs with toothpicks and arrange them on a
platter. Ivan said, “Care for some help?” and tried to do the same, but his
toothpicks missed and sent meatballs skittering onto the counter. “Well,”
he said, but he seemed to lose track of his thoughts, so he turned away and
took another drink. “Well, Minnie.” (Munro 2006: 234)
In “Half a Grapefruit”, Billy Pope, Rose’s father, and Rose discuss some past
events where people who are supposed to have special power cure instead of
doctors. Flo remembers her encounter with the “local witch”. She has to go over
her place for green onions because her mother had troubles with nerves, and
green onion should supposedly help. Similarly, as in Nita’s (“Free Radicals”) story,
we have presumed powerful characteristics attributed to food. Also, the fact that
Flo runs the store at home and provides an income by selling vegetables and
fruits shows how owning a store and selling food can provide women certain
independence.
In “Simon’s Luck”, Rose and Simon take turns cooking when they are
together. Their relationship is mostly based on equality and one does not possess
more power than another. They talk about the young village boys who have a
habit of taking a case of beer during the weekend when shooting groundhogs.
This might suggest that alcohol empowers him to be more indifferent while
58
shooting or their shooting skills become sharper. Rose admits to Simon that she
is not very successful in her attempt to have a garden; she lost a war against
worms in the cabbage. Simon poses as a saviour who will dig up a garden for her;
they will grow radishes, onions, and potatoes. Later, the reader discovers that
Rose also believes in the power of fortune-telling from cups of coffee. When she
hears something about the man who will change everything in her life, she takes
this as a sign. When Simon does not appear, she attributes special meaning to
her ceremonial preparations and food selection – in a way, one could say that
Rose thinks food has ability or power to attract or repel people.
When analysing “Spelling”, it is necessary to remember earlier stories

about Flo and Rose. As Nicholson (2010: 28) writes in her thesis, we learn that
home changed its nature for Rose soon after Flo had arrived and married Rose’s
father. She changed part of the house into a grocery store. Rose also disapproves
of Flo’s kitchen arrangement. There is an implication that if Rose’s mother had
been alive things (and life) would have had more order.
The old arrangement of the kitchen: mysterious, personal, eccentric. Big
pan in the oven, mediumsized pan under the potato pot on the corner
shelf, little pan hanging on the nail by the sink. Colander under the sink.
Dishrags, newspaper clippings, scissors, muffin tins, hanging on various
nails. Piles of bills and letters on the sewing machine, on the telephone
shelf. You would think someone had set them down a day or two ago, but
they were years old. (Munro 2006: 179)
Another notion of the kitchen is recognized at the beginning of “Spelling”

where Rose is full of ideas of what she will do around the house. As soon as she
arrives, she realizes that Flo’s kitchen is quite a messy place, so Rose starts
cleaning it up. However, the next morning the mess returns.
59
The plastic cloth was gummy, the outline of the plate and saucer plain on
it as the outline of pictures on a greasy wall. The refrigerator was full of
sulfurous scraps, dark crusts, furry oddments. Rose got to work cleaning,
scraping, scalding. Sometimes Flo came lumbering through on her two
canes. She might ignore Rose’s presence altogether, she might tip the jug
of maple syrup up against her mouth and drink it like wine. (Munro 2006:
179)
When visiting the County Home, Rose explains to Flo that people who are
still capable can go and dine in the dining room, while others have trays in their
room. She describes the menu (roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans), but
what seems to have the most powerful effect on Flo’s decision are desserts. The
complications of their relationship and the stubbornness Flo possesses is also
seen when Rose wants to make a cup of tea before going to the old age home,
but Flo coldly refuses her offer.
To summarise, Munro depicts power combined with food through

protagonists who are powerful enough to inflict their strange wishes, rules, and
order to weaker subjects. Mr. Purvis is an example of a protagonist who is
extremely powerful in comparison to Nina and he steers her life according to his
rules. His demand that the protagonist is naked during the dinner and the mere
fact that the protagonist accepts his wish unconditionally proves his power.
There are plenty of classic gender roles present in Munro’s stories that imply the
difference in power, although this is not a rule. Mothers and daughters are
occupied with nursing, cooking, packing, preparing food, etc., while fathers are
hunters. Additionally, female protagonists are usually more inclined to believe in
powerful characteristics of food (fortune-telling from a cup of coffee, certain
food will attract lovers, etc.). Those who provide food and donate Christmas
baskets are perceived as powerful and successful people. The distinction
60
between who serves food and who is served signalizes the social distance and
difference in power.
This chapter proves that power and food express a variety of conditions
and relations. Sometimes, food is a powerful source that completely absorbs and
controls the protagonist’s appetite (for example Joan or Marian). Food dictates
eating habits, health condition, and people’s characteristics. Dominant and
powerful people place orders in restaurants, hunt animals, pay bills and decide
whether one should eat naked while powerless people receive food baskets,
prepare picnic sandwiches and serve at cocktail parties. Kitchen is a crucial place
where food preparation happens, people fight there or make love, the mess or
meticulous order resemble personal traits. Protagonists believe that certain food
has a healing or poisonous characteristic and can predict the future or attract
love and affection.
61
5 CONCLUSION
A variety of scholars (e.g. Mervyn Nicholson (1987), Sara Mills (1995),

Sarah A. Sceats (1996), Charlotte Boyce and Joan Fitzpatrick (2013)) claim that
food in literature is of extreme importance when setting the literary frame and
helps in analysing and understanding protagonists, their characteristics and
behaviour. Food in fiction offers concreteness: it is a backbone of socio-
historical background and contributes to realism. The topic is relatively new and
unexplored; therefore, this thesis aimed to determine if the four predominant
food categories apply to the selected prose fiction by Alice Munro and Margaret
Atwood and to what extent. As seen from the analysis, the four categories are
commonly present in fiction by the two authors, although the use and meaning
of food differ. This is a consequence of every writer’s ability to be unique and
to narrate the story under individual terms.
I have defined food’s varied roles, their characteristics, and importance

and focused on the relationship between protagonists and food roles. I have
also shown how the two writers use food in their stories and outlined the
pattern using the four categories. Given the varied food roles, the one related
to nurture and care was most frequently depicted. Sexuality was not as present
as had been expected; however, it was not absent, only subtler. Munro’s
protagonists are caring mothers and daughters; however, she does not
romanticise the providing nature of hunting and farming in her short stories.
Atwood’s protagonists care and poison people with food, they seduce and hunt
lovers. Gender relations were present along with traditional gender roles;
nevertheless, the association with food was often weak. Since both writers
belong to Western culture, it is self-evident that they both cover topics and
themes that are close to them and are more significant to the Western world.
62
Munro’s short stories are filled with social class identifiers (e.g. exotic dishes,
dining in restaurants, working-class meals) and descriptions of Canadian
wildlife culture that consists of hunting, fishing and selling fur. On the other
hand, Atwood writes more about social norms and rules associated with food
(e.g. certain body image). The categories of social events and power
occasionally overlapped because food preparation and serving frequently go
hand in hand with the amount of power one has. Social activities associated
with food in the selected stories covered picnics, eccentric dinners, cocktail and
Christmas parties as well as more intimate family gatherings. We show that
such ceremonies come with numerous social demands, rules, pressure, and
anticipation. The power category was the most salient, together with the
category of care. The analysis shows that food has the power to control
appetite; it dictates the eating habits, dinner rules and behaviour of
protagonists. Food can empower or kill, and kitchens prove to be a crucial place
not only for food preparation but for interpersonal relations also. Additionally,
food donations, kitchen equipment and ability to pay the bill in the restaurant
complement already powerful characteristic of the protagonists.
This thesis analysed only a selection of prose fiction; therefore, we

cannot generalize our findings to the entire opus of both writers. Further
research could involve analysis of more stories, including an additional category
of food as a tool of enslavement, for example. The topic of food in literature is
still not well researched. Since the food trends, gender roles and cultural
interferences evolve constantly, further analysis could be conducted and cross-
compared to research changes in the meaning and use of food and how it
affects literature.
63
WORKS CITED
Adams, Carol J. The Sexual Politics of Meat: a Feminist-Vegetarian Critical

Theory. Polity Press, 1990.
Álvarez, Alejandra Moreno. “Subversive Literature: Uses and Abuses of Food in

Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman.” Canadaria, vol. 1, no. 2, 2006,
pp. 19-25, http://digibuo.uniovi.es/dspace/handle/10651/31046,
accessed 19 Oct. 2018
Atwood, Margaret. The Canlit Foodbook: From Pen to Palate—A Collection of

Tasty Literary Fare. Toronto: Totem, 1987.
Atwood, Margaret. The Edible Woman. McClelland&Stewart Ltd. 2010.
Atwood, Margaret. Lady Oracle. McClelland&Stewart Ltd. 1998.
Boyce, Charlotte and Joan Fitzpatrick. A History of Food in literature: From the
14th Century to the Present. Routledge: 2013.
Boyd, Shelley and Nicole, Hollinson. “The CanLit Dinner Party: Feasting on
Books in the Literature Classroom.” The Journal of Canadian Food
Cultures, vol. 7, no. 1., 2016.
Brumberg, Joan, J. Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. Vintage

Books, 2000.
Cameron, Elspeth. “Famininty, or Parody of Autonomy: Anorexia Nervosa and

The Edible Woman.” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 1985,
pp. 45-69.
Comellini, Carla. “Recurring Images of Disease, Death and Food in Alice Munro’s
Short Stories”. Alice Munro and the Anatomy of the Short Story. Ed.
Oriana Palusci. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, pp. 139-147.
Evans, Heather A. “Kittens and Kitchens: Food, Gender, and The Tale of Samuel
Whiskers.” Victorian Literature and Culture 36 (2): 603-23, 2008.
Farb, Peter and George, Armelagos. Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of

Eating. Houghton Mifflin, 1980.
Fitzpatrick, Joan. Food in Shakespeare: Early Modern Dietaries and the Plays.
Aldershot. Ashgate. 2007.
64
Freud, Sigmund. On Sexuality: Three essays on the Theory of Sexuality and Other
Works. Penguin, 1991.
Huttová, Maria. “Margaret Atwood – Changing Perspectives: Some Notes on

the Variability of Atwood’s Characters and Themes”. Central European
Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2012, pp. 71 – 76,
https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/bitstream/handle/11222.digilib/125685/2_Central
EuropeanJournalCanadian_8-2012-1_10.pdf?sequence=1 Accessed 19
Oct. 2018
Jackson, Eve. Food and Transformation. Toronto, 1996.
Kittler, Pamela G. and Kathryn P, Sucher. Food and Culture in America. Belmont:
1998.
Lahikainen, Johanna. “You look delicious” Food, Eating, and Hunger in Margaret
Atwood’s Novels. 2007. PhD dissertation. Jyväskylä: University of
Jyväskylä.
Lupton, Deborah. Food, the Body, and the Self. Sage, 1996.
MacEwen, Gwendolyn. A Breakfast for Barbarians. The Ryerson Press, 1966.
McGee, Diane E. Writing the Meal: Dinner in the Fiction of Early Twentieth-
century Woman Writers. University of Toronto Press, 2002.
Moss, Sarah. Spilling the Beans: Eating, Cooking, Reading and Writing in British
Women’s Fiction, 1770-1830. Manchester University Press, 2009.
Mover, Alexia and Nathalie, Cooke. Measuring Out Life in Coffee Spoons:
Canadian Literary Breakfasts. Cuizine, vol.8, no.1, 2017.
Munro, Alice. “Deep-Holes.” Too Much Happiness. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, pp. 93-
116
Munro, Alice. “Fathers.” The View from Castle Rock. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, pp.
165-188
Munro, Alice. “Free-Radicals.” Too Much Happiness. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, pp.
155-184
Munro, Alice. “Half a Grapefruit.” Who do You Think You Are? Penguin Books
Ltd., 2006, pp. 38-54.
Munro, Alice. “Hired Girl.” The View from Castle Rock. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006,
pp. 216-242.
65
Munro, Alice. “Home.” The View from Castle Rock. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, pp.
269-297.
Munro, Alice. “Simon’s Luck.” Who do You Think You Are? Penguin Books Ltd.,
2006, pp. 152-173.
Munro, Alice. “Spelling.” Who do You Think You Are? Penguin Books Ltd.,
2006, pp. 178-192.
Munro, Alice. “Wenlock Edge.” Too Much Happiness. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006,
pp. 62-93.
Munro, Alice. “Working for a Living.” The View from Castle Rock. Alfred A.
Knopf, 2006, pp. 122-162.
Mills, Sara. Feminist Stylistics. Routledge: London and New York, 1995.
Mycak, Sonia. In Search of the Split Subject: Psychoanalysis, phenomenology

and the novels of Margaret Atwood. ECW Press, 1996.
Nicholson, Debra. “Spelling”: Alice Munro and the Caretaking Daughters.

2010. Master Thesis. Bowling Green State University.
Nicholson, Mervyn. “Food and Power: Homer, Carroll, Atwood and Others.”
Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, 1987, pp. 37-
55.
Nielsen, N. Helge. ″Four Feminist Novels by Margaret Atwood. ″American

Studies in Scandinavia, vol. 26, no. 2, 1994, pp. 126-139,
https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/download/1458/1470 Accessed
24 Apr. 2019
Orbach, Susie. Hunger Strike: The Anorectic's Struggle as a Metaphor for our
Age. Faber and Faber: 1986.
Polišenská, Zuzana. Symbolic Function of Food in Contemporary Women’s

Literature. 2011. Diploma Thesis. Masaryk University Brno.
Parker, Emma. “You Are What You Eat: The Politics of Eating in the Novels of
Margaret Atwood. Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 41, no. 3, 1995, pp.
349-68, https://www.jstor.org/stable/441857 Accessed 20 Oct. 2018
Sasame, Kiyomi. “Food for Survival in Margaret Atwood’s Dystopian Worlds.”

The Japanese Journal of American Studies, no. 21, 2010, pp. 89-109.
66
Sceats, Sarah. Food, Consumption and the Body in Contemporary Women's
Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schur, Edwin M. Labeling Women Deviant: Gender, Stigma and Social Control.
Random House, 1984.
Schofield, Mary Anne. Introduction and Preface. Cooking by the Book: Food
and Literature and Culture, by Schofield, Bowling Green State UP, 1989,
pp. 1-5.
Vancoppernolle, Elisa. Haunted Families: Gothic Realism in Alice Munro’s Too

Much Happiness. 2010. Master Thesis. Universiteit Gent.
Visser, Margaret. The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities

and Meaning of Table Manners. Penguin, 1993.
Wessman, Charlotta. Gender Construction in Alice Munro’s Writing: A

Comparative Study of Early and Late Stories. 2014. Diploma Thesis.
Gӧteborgs Universitet.
67

Stories Behind The Dining Table The Mean

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Stories Behind The Dining Table The Mean

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lucija Dežan

STORIES BEHIND THE DINING TABLE:

ZGODBE IZZA JEDILNE MIZE: POMEN

STORIES BEHIND THE DINING TABLE:

ZGODBE IZZA JEDILNE MIZE: POMEN

THE MEANING AND USE OF FOOD IN

ZGODBE IZZA JEDILNE MIZE: POMEN

Študentka: Lucija Dežan

Ključne besede: hrana, književnost, kanadska književnost, kultura

V nadaljevanju se magistrsko delo osredotoči na vlogo hrane v literaturi. S

V zaključku magistrskega dela sledi podrobna analiza izbranih dogodkov, v

V primeru raziskovanja hrane kot kulturnega subjekta se magistrsko delo

V poglavju, povezanem z izražanjem moči, so preko odlomkov iz del obeh avtoric

V zaključku je opozorjeno, da so bila predmet raziskovanja le izbrana dela obeh

Keywords: food, literature, Canadian literature, culture

2 FOOD’S VARIED ROLES...................................................................................................... 3

2. 1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY ................................................... 3

2. 2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD ................................................................................... 5

2. 3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS ............................................ 6

2. 4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER ............................................................................ 8

4 FOOD IN STORIES BY MARGARET ATWOOD AND ALICE MUNRO.................................... 16

4.1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY ................................................. 16

4.2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD.................................................................................. 29

4.3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS ........................................... 40

4.4 FOOD AS AN EXPRESSION OF POWER AND CONTROL ................................................... 47

WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................... 64

Food in literature used to be a neglected topic but nowadays, scholars

Food gives power to our body; it is the empowering and enabling

2. 1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY

In the process of breastfeeding, women become a source of food.

Lupton (1996: 18) draws a connection between food and sexuality,

2. 2 THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF FOOD

The body is a subject of complex and contradictory attitudes in Western

Numerous food items carry specific connotations in Western culture.

2. 3 FOOD AS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF SOCIAL EVENTS

Pamela G. Kittler and Kathryn P. Sucher (1998: 3) think that societies

Conventions, taboos, and table manners are essential when it comes to

Alejandra M. Álvarez (2006: 19) writes that when analysing food in

Joan J. Brumberg (2000), who is an advocate of such theories, assumes

Mervyn Nicholson (1987: 38) writes that eating in literature has a

Diane E. McGee (2002: 3) writes that dinner in literary criticism serves as

Sceats (1996: 291) thinks that writers address philosophical, moral,

In this chapter, we will comment on selected scenes and examples from

4.1 FOOD AS A TOOL OF NURTURE, CARE AND SEXUALITY

time. I chewed through a piece of bread while Ainsley watched me in

nauseated silence and grabbed up my purse, leaving Ainsley to close the

apartment door behind me. (Atwood 2010: 12)

A character who expresses a need for care and nurture is Duncan. He is

As mentioned before, food can carry a sexual and seductive connotation.

Up to this point, we have been discussing motifs of care associated with

playing a crippled opera singer, groped her mournful way through

Interrupted Melody. (Atwood 2010: 69)

Sexuality in Lady Oracle is recognized in the comparison of the old and

To summarise motifs of food, nurture, care and sexuality in Atwood’s

to a person in any stage of love. (Munro 2006)

In “Half a Grapefruit”, lack of care is recognized in the story Flo is telling

In “Deep-Holes”, a mother of three named Sally is breastfeeding her

In “Free Radicals”, there is another implication of tea being a liquid of care

Another indication of (self)-care is connected with the rhubarb tart story

honey. It is just a couple of hours since we finished supper. (Munro 2006:

Altogether, Munro's symbols of care and food extend over a wide

In The Edible Woman, Marian classifies potential survey-takers by their

fashioned relaxing – needs a beer with a healthy, hearty taste, a deep-