Hungry for more : food imagery in Kate Chopin's the awakening

Hungry for more : food imagery in Kate Chopin's the awakening

Chopin, Kate, 1850-1904 -- Criticism and interpretation

Food in literature

McLeod, Julia Poindexter

2008

Debo, Annette, 1964-

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The thesis analyzes the use of food in Kate Chopin's The Awakening as a means of symbolizing the search of the heroine, Edna Pontellier, for self actualization within the societal constructs of late nineteenth-century America. This cultural studies examination incorporates the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, the feminist theories of Helene Cixous, and the food studies of Sara Sceats, Mary Papke and Debra McGee. The analysis begins with an examination of food as a reflection of cultural meanings and assumptions concerning marriage, identity, sexuality, and woman's place. While food meets a basic human need for survival, it also serves as a means of nurture of others and of self, as a connection to community, as a means of establishing and preserving social systems. In nineteenth-century literary texts such as The Awakening, food practices represent the complex, often opposing, social mores and constraints that govern the choices for women's lives. An examination of the food-related behaviors of Edna Pontellier reveals the oral nature of her search for fulfillment. Her awakening encompasses a multitude of oral functions: the beginnings of sexual desire and fulfillment, the expression of repressed emotions and dreams, the enjoyment of sensual pleasure, and the taking in and expulsion of culture as symbolized by the foods that she eats and refuses. Tracing the use of the word "delicious" throughout the text reveals Edna's attempts to satisfy her inner longings through what she takes in and spits out of her mouth. Edna's final dinner party marks her attempt to forge her own path, not from the religious and familial systems of patriarchy that function in the tension between the Eros and the death-drive defined in Freud's theories, but from the female deities of mythology. Throughout the novel, Edna violates established food-related practices, and the dinner is her coup d'etat, a rebellion against all the societal constraints that impede her freedom. The important items served at her dinner- the garnet cocktail and the pompano- and the elaborate table setting reveal her desire for ultimate omnipotence as she seeks to identify herself with Flora, the mythological goddess of love, fertility, and flowers. Edna's swim at the end of the novel is her final attempt at apotheosis, a Floralia that ultimately fails to establish her autonomy outside of society.

2015-06-07

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