Food and magic

It is amazing to see how a tiny seed of life sprouts out of the soil and grows into a tree as tall as a skyscraper. It is truly a magical moment. The texts “The Odyssey”, “The Book of J”, and “Like Water for Chocolate” also explore the magical aspects of the food in many different ways. The Odyssey play with all the bizarre and hallucinogenic effects of food, the Book of J tells us how magically food can bring knowledge in human, and Like Water for Chocolate talks about cooking food as an art to transform one’s emotion to another.

Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” is full of many occurrences in which special relation between food and magic can be noticed. The poem starts with the protagonist “Odysseus” having a feast in the palace of Phaeacians. Odysseus and his comrades come across many life and death situations, and in between all those situations they are depicted as feasting, feeding or killing another form of life, which signals the food as being an important factor behind the consequences presented in the Odyssey. In the poem, the Odysseus reaches a land of lotus-eaters where his comrades eat the strange plant and fails to report back. It can be quoted as “but whoever ate that sweet fruit lost the will to report back, preferring instead to stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home” (Homer 9.94-96). This gives us an idea of the Lotus plant as having some strange effect that, if eaten, makes a person forget about their being. In another setting, when the Odysseus is in Circes’ island, Odysseus’ men are fed with the potion that works its magical power and makes them forget about their homeland. In the same setting, Hermes gives Odysseus a magical herb that cuts the effects of the potion later to be given by Circe. In yet another backdrop, Odysseus is depicted as pouring libation, sprinkling white barley and sacrificing ram, ewe, and heifer to the dead. This can be quoted as “I poured libation to all dead, first with milk and honey, then with sweet win, and a third time with water. Then I sprinkled barley, vowing sacrifice on Ithaca” (Homer 11.24-29). This shows yet another magical power of food that even causes souls of the dead to come out of their underground caverns. Food in the form of wine is also shown to have a magical effect in the poem. While being inside Cyclopes’ cave, Odysseus feeds him with wine causing him to sleep. Thus, foods in The Odyssey are described to have magical, bizarre and hallucinogenic effects. It is shown as if it is the food that turns the impossible into possible in this epic journey.

Also, in The Book of J, we find many situations that describe the relation between food and magic. One of the situations is when the man and Hava eat the fruit from the tree of knowing good and bad; they immediately cover their body with the leaves. In the text, it can be quoted as “and the eyes of both fall open, grasp knowledge of their naked skin”(The Book Of J 63). Before eating the fruit from the tree of knowing good and bad, Hava and the man were oblivious of their naked body. But, after eating the fruit they notice the secret parts of their body and feel shame, and so cover up with leaves. Also in the text, it is explained that if the fruit is eaten from the tree of life, the man and Hava will become immortal as the gods themselves. Yahweh doesn’t want the man and women to eat form the tree of knowing good and bad, because if they eat they would become knowledgeable and would know that eating fruit from the tree of life would make them immortal. This can be quoted as “the earthling sees like one of us, knowing good and bad. And now he may grasp the tree of life as well, eat, and live forever” (The Book Of J 64). Thus, eating a fruit to become knowledgeable and immortal marks the relationship between food and magic in The Book of J.

The tale of food and magic continues in Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate.” The story presents a Mexican girl, Tita De LaGarza, who possesses an ability to transport her emotions to others through the food she prepares. Just like a painter expresses emotions through his or her painting, a singer expresses emotions through his or her songs, Tita, an artist of her own kind, expresses her emotions through her art of cooking. She believes that food has the power to relate one’s emotion to another. Thus, if prepared with love will spark feeling of love, and if prepared with hate will produce feeling of hate among people. In the story, while making a wedding cake for her sister’s wedding with watery eyes, Tita pours her sorrow in the cake in the form of tears. As a result, everyone in the wedding gets a bad stomach and starts throwing out. On the different setting, food is also shown as an element that can evoke sexuality in the living body. As in the story, after eating the “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce,” everyone starts acting like an aphrodisiac. “Gertrudis begins to feel an intense heat pulsing through her limbs” (Esquivel 51). The rose petal that is used in the dish is of the same rose given by Pedro. That is why, it seems like the reason behind everyone acting crazy is because Tita makes the dish with her own sexual desires that she wants to gratify with Pedro but can’t as being watched by Mama Elena. She blends her own sexual desire in the food and transforms the desire to everyone in the dinner table. Also, in the setting where Pedro smells Tita’s frying of almonds and sesame seed, he feels sexual arousal growing inside him; he feels like something delightful is going to come. In the novel it can be quoted as “the smell of the almonds browning kindled his sexual feeling” (Esquivel 51). Apart from sexual arousals, we can also notice some other effects of food in the novel. To make her relation healthy with Pedro, Tita prepares food for him, as she knows that the food she prepares is always packed with a magical message for the eater. In this way, Tita conveys her emotions through the food in Like Water for Chocolate.

So, it can be noticed that food, in different ways, affects the characters in the texts. Odysseus does much bizarre magic with food, Hava and the man gains their knowledge eating fruit, and Tita exchanges her strong emotions through the dishes she prepares. Above mentioned explanation on food and magic may seem too magically exaggerated to fit real life situations, but it is true that food affects us in varieties of different ways. If it weren’t about the magic in food, how would a small living body grow into a giant mass feeding upon a bit of grain or a crumb of bread?

Work Cited

The Book Of J. Trans. David Rosenberg. Editor. Harold Bloom. New York : Grove, 1990.

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. New York: Double Day, 1989.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: HacketPublishing, 2000.

Master Chef without a taste

A real family comedy drama "Tortilla soup" is a story about an old chef, living with three beautiful grownup daughters, all of who have chosen their own way of living life. The oldest is Letitia, a prim schoolteacher who is also presented as being religious. The middle daughter Carmen shares the taste of cooking just like her father, but has her own plan of achieving something big in a corporate world. Maribel, the youngest, is presented as a confused teenager who is not sure of her ambitions. There are some other supporting characters; like Gomez, a friend chef; Yolanda, a neighbor; Hortensia, Yolanda’s mom, that spice up the movie. Out of all the characters, the one that got my consideration was Martin (dad).

A retired chef, Martin is presented as a responsible character that cares for his family. His care and love can be identified from the delicious foods that he prepares for his family. He is, by far, the most complicated character in the movie too. After his wife’s death, he takes on the responsibility of raising his daughters. He gives up the second marriage because he gets so involved in raising his kids and his work. He makes sure that they get a good life. Despite that, Carmen, his middle daughter, thinks that her dad doesn’t really care about what she is doing in her life. But the reality is that Martin doesn’t want Carmen to go far from him because he loves her very much. He can also be spotted as being a man with the rules, as he orders his daughters to live according to his will under his roof. He makes sure that nobody messes up his traditional Sunday evening dinner. Along the movie, it is shown that Carmen forces her father to start thinking about himself and stop caring a lot for his family.

Martin, at the beginning of the movie, is shown as if he is not experiencing joy in his life. He even talks about the tensions related to his daughter with his chef friend Gomez. His loss of joy can be depicted in the movie as him not being able to taste and smell. He can prepare the food just right but cannot even taste himself. At the end of the movie, when he gets through with his life’s stresses, he finally becomes able to taste the food. This happens in the movie when his daughter Carmen cancels her trip to Barcelona and prepares her version of his dad’s recipe. This incident marks the return of his joy in his family. Now, he not only can give other people joy but can also feel himself. After this incident, he finally realizes the importance of joy in his life and manages to express his suppressed desire for Yolanda.

All in all, tortilla soup is the movie about discovering the joy in life as seen in the life of each character presented in the movie. The movie gives us all, the message that there is so much joy in the life, but all we do is live without even tasting it.

Food Got Magic

We eat, we drink, we sleep, and we work. We do a lot of crazy stuff in our life, but how are we able to do so many fatiguing tasks? Where does the magic happen? From where do we get all the magical powers to do what we do every second? It’s very unfathomable, the idea that various foods have their own peculiar influence in the living body. Food is one of the life essential elements, and also the one whose broad effects are not wary to us. Food is used as a form of communication, could be used as a means to show culture, or can also have a magical effects that might not make sense straightaway but might have a very strong meaning hidden behind it.

Laura Esquivel’s “like water for chocolate,” presents the story of a Mexican girl, named Tita De LaGarza, who possesses an ability to transport her emotion through the food she prepares. She believes that the food has that power to relate one’s emotion to another. Thus if prepared with love will spark off feeling of love in other people or if prepared with a broken heart will generate feeling of hate among people who feed on it. In the story, Tita, while making a wedding cake for her sister’s wedding with a watery eye, pours her sorrow in the cake and thus as a result everyone in the wedding gets a bad stomach. On the different context food is also shown as an element that can evoke sexuality in living body. As in story, after eating the “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce,” everyone starts acting like an aphrodisiac. The rose petal that is used in the dish is of the same rose that Pedro hands it to her. It seems the idea that everyone acting crazy as being Tita’s own sexual desires that she wants to gratify with Pedro but can’t as being watched by Mama Elena. Also, to make her relation healthy with Pedro she prepares the food for him. Thus, In the story, Tita conveys her emotions with the help of the foods she makes.

The tale of food and magic continues in the Homer’s epic poem “ The Odyssey.” The poem starts with the protagonist “Odysseus” having a feast in the palace of Phaeacians. They come across many life and death situations, and in between all those situations they are depicted as feasting, feeding, or killing another form of life which signals that food has to do a lot with the consequences presented in the Odyssey. In the poem, the Odysseus reaches a land of lotus-eaters where his comrades eats the strange plant and fails to report back. It can be coated as “but whoever ate that sweet fruit lost the will to report back, preferring instead to stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home” (Homer 9.94-96). In another setting, when the Odysseus is in Circes’ palace, Odysseus’ man are fed with the potion that works its magical power and make them forget of their homeland. In the same setting, Hermes gives Odysseus, a magical herb that cuts the effects of the potion later to be given by Circe. In yet another backdrop, Odysseus is depicted as pouring libation to all the deads and sacrificing ram, ewe and heifer. This shows yet another magical power of the food that even causes the souls of the dead to come out of their underground caverns. Food in the form of wine is also shown to have a magical effect in the poem. While being inside Cyclopes’ cave, Odysseus feeds him with wine causing him to sleep. Thus, foods in the odyssey are described to have magical, bizarre and hallucinogenic effects. It is shown as if it is the food that turns the impossible into possible.

So, food in our life has a very vital meaning. It is the one to make our day go bright and it is the one to make it hateful. Perhaps that is the reason behind people saying you are the direct representation of what you eat. If it weren’t about the magic in food, how would a small living body grow into a giant one feeding upon the bit of grain or a crumb of bread? It is the question to ponder on.

Work Cited:

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. New York: Double Day, 1989.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: HacketPublishing, 2000.