Barbecued Husbands: A Literary Analysis

Gluttony is described as an “excess in eating and drinking” according to American Heritage Dictionary; the Oxford English Dictionary adds that the word may also refer to an excessive desire for food and drink and by a natural extension to many kinds of overindulgence. The story which talks about gluttony is from the book Barbecued Husbands which is a collection of wonderful stories from the Macurap. Barbecued Husbands have many similarities with Greek literature in terms of, myths, fairytales, fables or even some people consider these stories will come as no surprise. Indeed, one of humanity’s shared characteristics is that, wherever it is, it contrives similar narratives as a means to explain and explore its existential predicament. Here heads move of their own desire as in Akarendek, the flying head, or the ravenous wife, shape-shifting is the norm, the inanimate moves and the corporeal and spiritual merge. The woman in Barbecued Husbands had greed of gluttony and for this desire of food she destroys her life and her family, a microcosm of the community. The works like Barbecued Husbands and Dante’s Inferno are often seen as cautionary tales and they expose human weaknesses and strengths, among

them. Also they have desire to take revenge and penance from other people but at other times there is transcendence, redemption and resurrection in characters.
The story of Akarendek, the flying head, or the ravenous wife is about a husband and a wife, who love each other a lot, but the woman has strong desire of food, in other words she is greedy over food. They are very happy couple, in spite of the fact that the wife had a strange habit. Every night her head separated itself from her body and went searching for game meat in other huts and villages. No matter how much the husband hunted or how much food he provided, his wife always wanted to go somewhere else and eat more. Due to her excessive desire for food, this woman removes herself from her family in order to go hunting for stuff to eat. In the process she destroys her life and her family, a microcosm of the community. The greed for food is her weakness; she could do anything to get food into her mouth.
According to Gregory the Great, who helped define the seven deadly sins for the medieval tradition, took a sterner and more encompassing view: “In another manner are distinguished the kinds of gluttony, according to Saint Gregory. The first is eating before it is time to eat. The second is when someone gets himself too delicate food or drink. The third is when men eat too much, and beyond measure. The fourth is fastidiousness, with great attention paid to the preparation and dressing of food. The fifth is to eat too greedily. These are the five fingers of the Devil’s hand wherewith he draws folk into sin. This is also recognition that beyond the health harms of gross gluttony, gourmandizing wastes time and causes one to pay less attention to what is truly important? It depends on one’s view of human flourishing and the purpose of life. The woman in the Barbecued Husbands always has imagination of food, but never really thinks about what can be the consequences of her actions.
In the case of gluttonous eating, the most obvious harms fall on the glutton itself. Excessive eating leads to obesity and the health dangers of obesity are well documented in the scientific literature. Now day’s obesity can be very harmful, of the ten leading causes of death in around the world, four show positive correlations to being overweight or the diet and activity patterns that lead to being overweight. These include the three leading proximate causes of death such as heart disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (stroke) as well as diabetes mellitus, which is the seventh leading cause. In addition to direct harms to health, obesity decreases happiness and well-being in less obvious ways that are harder to measure. Overweight people tend to feel more inactive. Obese individuals participate less often in many enjoyable physical activities; from sports to sex this is a positive feedback problem: less physical activity leads to less energy, leading to less physical activity. Even thought the woman in the story has no knowledge of these things but these are the things that are very important in today’s world.
Greed is “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth” (Dictionary). In the case of this story the woman has greed over food. It is natural to enjoy material possessions; it is necessary, and in modern society, to deal with food. But the desire for food may prove excessive for several reasons. It may leave oneself perpetually unsatisfied; as one philosopher puts it, greed is “an insatiable longing” that actual possession cannot slake. The greedy person is often portrayed as rich, but also a greedy person is poor from inside. Even though the woman has more than most people, more, perhaps, than she knows what to do with, but still it is not enough. For example from the story of flying head “that it was the lice were always hungry and cut her head off from neck at least what people say” (Barbecued Husbands 54). Greed may also lead a person to neglect other, more important aspects of life, so in this story the woman gives more importance to food than any other aspect of her life
Another picture of greed is the miser counting gold pieces, alone in a windowless room, without friends, without interest in the world outside. Greed is perhaps the most selfish-making vice; in its grip the woman become incapable of generosity and immune to the demands of justice. Later in the story when everyone sees that the body of the woman is lying without the head and her husband is being accused of her death. Then the head rests on her husband’s shoulder all the times, and the husband starts to feel burdened with his wife’s head on his shoulder asking for food. The husband tries to get rid of the head by telling the head “go back and eat the meat” and the husband escapes. Head tries to find her husband’s shoulder again but she could not find the husband, and the head makes a nest on a tree to rest. The head becomes so miserable that no one passes by it, because the head always hunted for food, so whenever someone passes by it the head eats the person miserably. One day a strong and fearless young man passes by the head, and he was able to escape from the head. Then later he lets everyone know that the head smells really bad and that man throws the head away far. In these ways, greed harms nature, but it also harms greedy people themselves. In the first place, there is no strong connection between increased food and happiness. Sages and philosophers have taught that “food can’t buy happiness” for prosperity.
Another example of greediness is found in Dante’s Inferno, Inferno, the most basic and most forgivable category of sin is incontinence, or a lack of self-control. The incontinent sinners constantly indulge their impulses whether it’s for more food or more sex. The core of the incontinent’ wrongdoing lies in their failure to use their God-given minds to judge their actions as good or evil. Because they don't think and act on their feelings, the incontinent sinners deny their human civility. This is why Dante often paints them using animal imagery. In the sinners’ defense, however, incontinence is instinctive and primitive; lust, hunger, and wrath are universal urges, felt by all human beings. “I answered him: "Ciacco, you’re suffering so weights on me that I am forced to weep; but tell me, if you know, what end awaits the citizens of that divided city; is any just man there? Tell me the reason why it has been assailed by so much schism." (Inf. VI, 58-63) Even though Ciacco does not tell a pathetic story or even attempt to gain Dante’s mercy, our poet is "forced to weep" for Ciacco’s horrible punishment. Ciacco because of his terseness is not considered a likeable character, so it is strange that Dante feels so deeply for him. On second thought, perhaps Dante does not. Instead of asking Ciacco to tell his story, to elicit greater sympathy, Dante does not ask any personal questions, but instead focuses on the fate of their shared city, Florence.
Dante describes greed as the third deadly sin is the sin of greed or avarice.

Like gluttony, this sin is a sin of excess. Its most common form is the excessive love of money, manifested in various forms such as miserliness and unethical business practices. This sin turns the sinner away from God by promoting selfishness, destroying charity, and creating a preoccupation with the acquisition and preservation of material things and possessions. As such this sin blinds the sinner to the fact that material possessions such as gold are worthless compared to the everlasting rewards of heaven. But because the sinner guilty of greed does not see that what he covets the most is worthless, he ignores the treasure and rewards of Heaven and therefore does not follow the right

path.
On the other hand, in the story of the flying head, the husband of that woman has some sort of sense of betrayed from his wife’s actions. Theoretically, any kind of relational transgression may be appraised by relationship partners as a betrayal, depending on the extent to which relational expectations and trust have been violated. In general, however, the most commonly acts of explicit betrayal involve sexual and emotional infidelity, lies, and deception, and in this case greed for food. Gluttony, in particular, is regarded by many as the personification of marital betrayal, and with good reason. For example, found gluttony to be a significantly more common cause of marital dissolution in this than any other factor except murder in this society. This type of betrayal leads to desire for revenge and justice for affected people.
After the head was in front of everyone, the husband is being accused for his wife’s murder. In result the mother of the woman calls on take revenge from the husband about what he has done with her daughter. According to the dictionary, the word revenge is described as an act “to exact punishment or expiration for a wrong on behalf of, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit” (dictionary). The reason why the mother of the woman wanted to take revenge is the betrayal that the husband of the woman has done by killing her daughter. Revenge is essentially an act of regaining power. The person with revenge feels that they have been wronged and therefore some sort of power has been taken from them. Power could be taken from them financially if money is stolen, or sexually if they have been cheated on. Whatever it may be, power was lost in some form or another. This loss of power is the driving force behind revenge. The revenge dynamics is an act of repossessing power. The person having revenge loses power, takes matters into their hands like the mother of the woman does, and enacts revenge, which then causes the one who revenge is being enacted upon to feel the need for revenge against the revenged. It is an act that breeds revenge until finally, the revenged is stopped. Dante describes revenge as the fifth deadly sin is the sin of wrath anger or hatred. This sin leads to other serious sins and transgressions including violence, a desire to seek revenge, and a failure to forgive. Dante described vengeance as "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite"(Dante).
In conclusion, the main reason this women is very harmful to her community, because she is ignorant, selfish gluttonous, arrogant, greedy, and apathetic. Due lack of understanding her obligations to others or her own self-interest she falsely assume that she can keep separate harms to nature and harms to humanity, harms to others and harms to herself. She does not see that environmental vices do not just harm nature; they harm oneself and the people around her. Many of these harms are scientifically verifiable; the rest can be understood by anyone with open eyes and an open heart. The greedy vices are bad for everyone and are bad for her community. Sages and philosophers have taught that “food can’t buy happiness” for prosperity. Dante does not ask any personal questions, but instead focuses on the fate of their shared city, Florence. This type of betrayal leads to desire for revenge and justice for affected people. The sin of revenge leads to other serious sins and transgressions including violence, a desire to seek revenge, and a failure to forgive.