I agree with Foster's claims that eating together is symbolic of something larger than just the food. I feel that Foster's is implying most often than not meals are more than a just a meal, it is communion. Even so when meeting up with someone, food is often the place to go. Sharing a meal with someone brings more than just the food aspect but the mutual feelings of like brought upon another. In the movie, The Blind Side food is a connecting source during the first Thanksgiving with Micheal.
I know the theme is acceptance strengthens bonds between family and friends.Because the text says Henry is on lunch duty in his all white school when he is joined by a Japanese girl named Keiko. At first, he is dumbfounded but slowly starts to accept her as the other white kids are teasing them. They share a can of peaches in the school pantry and Henry enjoys his time with her very much. A quote from the text Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet says “Then they ate their lunch, together, splitting a can of pears in the storage room. Henry thought they tasted especially good that day.” These sentences have a much deeper meaning than they appeared to have. The moment Henry and Keiko shared in the storage room was the blossom of their friendship.
After accepting Suzy’s offer to dinner, Thomas and Victor sit down to watch cowboys vs. Indians on TV while Suzy serves them fry bread. Thomas tells Victor it’s almost as good as Arlene’s. Victor says that’s impossible and that his mother cooks the best fry bread in the world. Then Thomas starts to tell a story about how there was a huge feast on the reservation with over 100 Indians. They had deer meat and a lot of mashed potatoes and some fry bread. But Thomas goes on to say that the fry bread made all the difference in the world. And that “a good piece of fry bread turned any meal into a feast”. The problem was that there were only 50 pieces of fry bread. So Arlene ripped each piece in half to feed everyone. The story ends up being untrue but it shows just exactly how important fry bread is to this film. Suzy is able to relate to Thomas and Victor simply by feeding them fry bread and talking about it. It breaks down the tension between these strangers. Thomas’s story shows how important fry bread is among the people at the reservation. It can change a regular meal into a feast. The idea of feast seems so much grander than a meal, it means people coming together to celebrate. For Native Americans fry bread, a symbol of their culture, is reason enough to celebrate. They may have been persecuted for centuries, but they can hold onto their heritage through fry bread. The filmmakers make Thomas’s story especially memorable through lighting and framing. When Thomas is telling his story we are watching images of Arlene preparing the bread. At one point she holds the fry bread over her head to tear it. The image seems almost Christ like. During the last supper Jesus breaks bread in a similar way. The lights are directed towards the bread which makes it pop on screen. Arlene is standing at the head of the table and is perfectly centered in the shot. The combination of lighting and framing makes the fry bread
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, is a movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993. Leonardo Dicaprio and Johnny Depp, play Arnie and Gilbert, two brothers who have a bond unlike any other. Arnie is autistic and it is Gilbert’s role in the family to lead him through each step in his life, whether it be the simplest of tasks or the most complex process, Gilbert is there. The title itself is a question that is not rhetorical, but rather a question the viewer must answer themselves. Gilbert appears to have the burden of being the father figure in Arnie’s life. Gilbert must keep Arnie in line and perform standards up to Arnie deserves. With a father that has passed away and an absent mother, Gilbert
In sociology symbolic interactionism explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change. This theory was compiled from the teachings of George Herbert Mead in the early 20th century. Mead believed that the development of the individual was a social process. People are subjected to change based on their interactions with other people, objects or events and they assign meaning to things in order to decide how to act. This perspective depends on the symbolic meaning that people depend on in the process of social interaction. This paper will examine the movie “The Blind Side” through the symbolic interaction perspective.
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
While this invitation produced anxiety for every person that attended this meal, the toll that it took on my nephew was rather difficult to watch. His father chose to attend the day before Thanksgiving; but a half-hour before the scheduled 2 p.m. time for dinner, he let his son know that his girlfriend and her children had decided to come as well. While the adults scrambled to add additional seating, my nephew excitedly stood outside on the porch anticipating his guests’ arrival. An hour later, this little boy dejectedly wondered whether his father had changed his mind. When his guests finally arrived, we all ate an awkward, cold dinner, and my ex-brother-in-law whisked them all (including my nephew) away to his family’s Thanksgiving meal, which meant that my disappointed nephew never got to share the chocolate pie that he had helped make.
In the book The Other Side, the author uses tone, symbolism, and audience. She uses them in different ways throughout the story. This essay will be analyzing here use of tone, symbolism, and audience.
After reading the article “Why we eat what we eat: social and economic determinants of food choice”, Posted by Christy Tremino. I was thinking of how examination has demonstrated that we eat more with our loved ones than when we eat alone and the amount of sustenance increments as the quantity of kindred cafes develops. I agree with this study because, when I’m with my love ones and friends I eat way more than I would by myself. I eat just for fun sometimes we want to do something to enjoy ourselves, we go out to eat just to eat whether we’re hungry or not. However, when I’m by myself I eat way less than I would with others and I do not go out I actually just eat whatever I can find at home. Therefore that’s why I highly agree with this study.
Food has always been a large part of identifying an individual in US history. Food is something that we can’t live without because we need it to maintain life and growth. Within a larger country such as America, many different ethnic groups come in and are able to bring their own cultural ways and practices regarding food. It doesn’t matter whether it was voluntarily or involuntary for the individual or group to come into the nation they are still able to declare their identity with food. It is not a secret that America has many different groups of people living in the country, with that in mind foodway deals greatly in shaping identities of many Americans. Through foodway people can show their identity to their ethnic and racial groups. Ever since the first immigrants came to the America the idea of America having one particular foodway to shape their identity was no more. Native American and African enslaved people food traditions are linked to American’s food identity.
Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.
In Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Together”, the author describes the cultural values of his family and days ahead of them without his father who lost his life last week. “My mother who will/taste the sweetest meat of the head” indicates that his mother will take over the role of head of family moving forward. Lee is so proud of his food and tradition, and mentions how they do prepare food and sit together when it is time for meal. They are fond of eating together. He respects his father and remember his role of head of family till last week. Lee definitely misses his father on dining table but fully aware that death is inevitable. When Lee writes, “Then he lay down / to sleep like a snow – cover road” symbolizes the death of his father was quietly
Throughout history, both men and women have struggled trying to achieve unattainable goals in the face of close-minded societies. Authors have often used this theme to develop stories of characters that face obstacles and are sometimes unable to overcome the stigma that is attached to them. This inability to rise above prejudice is many times illustrated with the metaphor of hunger. Not only do people suffer from physical hunger, but they also suffer from spiritual hunger: a need to be full of life. When this spiritual hunger is not satisfied, it can destroy a life, just as physical hunger can kill as well.
The value of keeping family members together as one is a struggle. There are many families today that are still doing traditional events to celebrate one another's accomplishments. In the movie Soul Food, it tells the story of a big African-American family from Chicago. Although each family member displayed love for one another, trust was broken when a family member slept around with another family member's spouse. Soul Food displayed how black families stay in constant communication over large family dinners.
“Chef’s House” by Carver presents us with a story that certainly transmits as realist fiction. This is achieved by having the story told from Edna’s point of view, in a way that makes it feel as if she is retelling events to someone else, perhaps a friend. An example of this is, “I said I was still thinking. He said, We’ll start over. I said, If I come up there, I want you to do something for me. Name it, Wes said.” By having embedded dialogue within paragraphs it seems as if story was told aloud, and makes it feel as if it’s being told rather than being played out.
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.