Draft: Food and Dominance

Food is not only symbolic in literature to reinforce how essential it is, but is also used to show a bold message. Some messages can be Messages food and communication; food and magic; or food and knowledge. Yet, I was quickly drawn to the conveying message of food and dominance. In Like Water for Chocolate, The Odyssey and The Book of J, certain characters use food as a domain of obtaining control. Hence, in these books, we can see that a reward when food is used as control is to gain through one's actions or efforts a higher dominance, where through food they are now in control of a certain situation. However, their actions of using food as a control method can also lead to a punishment like an equality being taken away.

In Like Water for Chocolate, Tita is a very likeable character that drives the reader with anticipation throughout the story, hoping she can finally be reunited with her long love, Pedro, though he is married to her older sister, Rosaura. Yet, what is so amazing and differentiates Tita from her sisters and other characters is not only her great cooking ability, but that the emotions she undergoes before or while cooking are in some way instilled into the food while it is being cooked. She came out of the womb in that kitchen, on a table, surrounded by the smells of thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro and has made an identity for herself in that kitchen. Being the youngest of all sisters, she was cursed with the tradition of never being able to marry because she would have to take care of Mama Elena. It’s no surprise Tita had to find a place to dominate and though Nacha taught her all she knew, Tita surely took control of the kitchen. A great example of Tita taking control with her magical emotions in food is when she is preparing the meringue icing for Rosaura’s wedding cake. She can't help herself but cry and cry so much that the color of the icing turned pink. Later, everyone who ate from the cake also began to cry, with “an acute attack of pain and frustration-that seized the guests and scattered them across the patio grounds and in the bathrooms, all of them wailing over a lost love” (39). Tita’s tears were so powerful that all the guests who feasted on the cake became sick to their stomachs throwing up with an immense uproar of nostalgia in their hearts. This after effect only happened because Tita prepared the cake heartbroken knowing she must now accept the notion of her never being allowed to be with her newly wedded love. Another great example of Tita taking control through food is when she made “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” from roses Pedro had just given her. The feelings she imputed into this meal from Pedro watching her body sway as she cooked turned the food into an aphrodisiac for Gertrudis. She had an intense heat running through her body that when she went out to take a refreshing shower she could not enjoy it because the drops would evaporate before they hit her.”Her body was giving off so much heat that the wooden walls began to split and burst into flame” (pg 54). Gertrudis began to panic because she didn’t want to burn to death that she began to run completely naked. Yet, she did not know that the heat running through her body let out a strong aroma which had attracted the man she fantasized at dinner. She rides off with the soldier, Juan, while making love on his horse. Tita’s emotions while cooking augmented a wave of eroticism for Gertrudis that she finally let out her inner sexual desire. Through food Tita became dominant, doing things her way with an unconscious effect, where Mama Elena could not stop the aftermath of those who ate from her food.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men arrive at the island of Aeaea. Odysseus sees “smoke rising up through the brushy wood” on the island and asks half of his men to go and see what is occurring. The men go about and hear the voice of a beautiful goddess singing as she was weaving. They call to her and she, Circe, calls them in to her glorious home. She offered them food and they feasted eagerly. Yet, she lavishly feed them Pramnian wine, "she laced this potion with insidious drugs that would make them forget their own native land. When they had eaten and drunk, she struck them with her wand and herded them in the sties outside. Grunting, their bodies covered with bristles, they looked just like pigs, but their minds were intact" (X, 253-58). She was cunning and enticed them with delicious food and great wine when she struck them with her wand and turned them into swine, ironically enough becoming food themselves. There can be numerous reasons to why she did this, but dominance is where I’m lean toward with Circe. She is a goddess, yet still a woman who must prove herself, so she lured them with her food and turned them into one of the lowliest forms an animal could be-pigs. The potion also made them forget their native land, causing them to lose the knowledge of their families and future destination, though they couldn’t go far being pigs. She definitely has a feminine agenda because she wanted to show who was boss through food and her magic. This is also why Hermes explains to Odysseus that once Circe knows who he is and asks him to go to bed with her that he must make her swear not to un-sex him once he is naked. Circe took control through means of her food and magic and her dominance was something she upheld virtuously.

In The Book of J, Yahweh told “the man” (Adam) he can eat of any tree but forbade the tree of knowing good and bad. Nevertheless, Hava (Eve) partook of the fruit because the snake told her death will not touch her if she eats from it. She saw how “good” the tree looked and reached for it, ate, then gave to man. Yet, when Yahweh realized of their disobedience and that Hava and the man knew they were naked he said to Hava that she would have "Pain increasing groans that spread into groans: having children will be labor. To man's body your belly will rise, for he will be eager above you"(8). Hard and heavy labor just was not enough because now she is also ruled by her husband. Hava is a great example of the imperfect nature of not just woman but human beings in general because we desire to be in control. Now Hava ate out of curiosity and desired to gain wisdom out of the tree of knowing good and evil, which made her more dominate in the moment than the man. Yet, one of the many results in tasting the fruit is her husband shall rule over her. Therefore, as a punishment she lost her dominance or "equality" to man by food.

By comparing Tita, Circe, and Hava you see that all women in some way find themselves doing what they wanted in the end, either because Tita no longer wanted to care what anyone else thought of her love for Pedro, Circe wanting to prove herself as a strong woman, or because the serpent beguiled Hava. They also had a new insight for example, Tita’s outlet will always be cooking but she learned to express her inner feelings in other means and finally stood up to her domineering mother. Circe’s insight may not be permanent but once she fell in love with Odysseus she gave in and turned his men back to humans, and they were even more handsome than before. Hava also gained a new perspective of life and new knowledge in things she did not know before. Their contradictions are even more evident because Tita found authority in the kitchen by making food; meanwhile Hava lost her dominion or “equality” by eating of the fruit. Circe just played her tricks on men because she could do so making her dominate almost always with her food and magic. All these stories are good examples of various ways food can help one feel and or become dominate or even loose the only dominance they had.

Through all these examples from Like Water for Chocolate, The Odyssey and The Book of J, we can quickly tell that food is an essential tool that characters use to obtain authority. Tita, Circe, and Hava all used food under their control to gain or keep the control they were receiving through food. The reasons on why they used food as their control can simply be told that everyone usually wants things to go their way. That is why food comes so handy in literature because these characters can easily take food and make it a domain of obtaining control.

Works Cited:
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. New York: Double Day, 1989.
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: Hacket Publishing, 2000
The Book of J. Trans. David Rosenberg. ED. Harold Bloom. New York: Grove, 1990.