final paper

Lenny David
ENG 102
Dr. McCormick
6/2/10

“Food and Knowledge”

For centuries philosophers such as Plato and Socrates have debated over the topic of knowledge. European as well as Western philosophers argued about where knowledge came from, who attained this knowledge, and what exactly is knowledge. The standard definition of knowledge according to Shope is a “justified true belief” (Harrison, 95). In essence, if someone has knowledge about something then it must be true, believed to be true, and then justified as truth. In using this standard definition, it may be safe to say that knowledge can be seen through the eyes of the believer. One of the common themes in The Book of J, Odyssey, and Like Water for Chocolate, is knowledge. Another common theme that is seen through the perspective of the authors is food. In the literature, the authors gave examples of how food symbolized knowledge and how knowledge comes through food. Through the use of food life can be saved as well as understood. When compared, these two themes were important to the lives and decisions made by the main characters Hava, Odysseus, and Tita.
In The Book of J, Yahweh created humanity along with every living organism that could be found on land, sea, and air. Rosenberg translates Harold Blooms’ interpretation of the Genesis story by giving similar accounts of how Yahweh created man and animal, as well as the instructions he gave to man concerning the Garden of Eden. Yahweh told them that they were free to do anything they wanted to do in the garden, however, they were forbidden to eat of two trees in the garden. The first tree they were forbidden to eat from was the Tree of Life and the other was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Yahweh had forbidden them of eating from these trees because they would have become knowledgeable about good and evil and would be faced with making decisions concerning their moral character, something that Yahweh may have intended to remain pure and unblemished.
By gaining knowledge, Hava and Adam would have become like immortal gods in one sense, which would defeat Yahweh’s purpose in creating them. It is evident that they knew that Yahweh was superior to them because they initially listened to Yahweh’s instructions and feared him when they realized that there were consequences for their disobedience. Food is used as sustenance to the life of humans as it is necessary for humans to eat in order to live. However, in The Book of J, food is also used to bring forth knowledge in the minds of man and woman and according to a well known phrase by Francis Bacon, “knowledge is power”. The more knowledge a person obtains is the more opportunity he or she may have to increasing the type of power and influence they may have upon others. The temptation by the snake enticed and encouraged Hava and Adam’s desire to be like gods and be powerful rather than obedient to Yahweh. In actuality, their desire to having god - like powers may have been the underlying reason for them to obtain knowledge. In other words, they were willing to get knowledge in order to obtain power. Hava and Adam’s decision to obtain knowledge was seen when they yielded to the temptation of eating from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. According to Rosenberg, “the woman sees how good the tree looks, to eat from, how lovely to the eyes, lively to the mind“… (63).　 Having knowledge was “lively”, exciting, and stimulating not only to the mind and the tongue but also to the eyes. Just a taste of knowing and a taste of power is all they had in mind, but unfortunately, through knowledge they tasted the bitter truth and reality about good and evil as well as laboring to survive and laboring to bring forth life that was clearly not gods.
In contrast to Hava and Adam in The Book of J, Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey was not lacking or seeking knowledge. Not only was Odysseus knowledgeable but he was also crafty in all his endeavors. Odysseus had no choice but to use the knowledge he attained in life to survive the various plots that were made by men, gods, goddesses, and mythical creatures to kill him. He tells the Phaeacians about his victorious conquests against the gods, goddesses, and creatures during his war in Troy and on his journey home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.
A central theme that is found throughout the epic story is the concept of food. Food is described as being delectable as well as barbaric and invasive towards the rights of others. It is clear that Odysseus was more intelligent or knowledgeable than his colleagues and those that had a mission to kill him. Unlike Yahweh in The Book of J, that forbade Hava and Adam to obtain knowledge, Zeus king of gods as well as his daughter Athena, had genuine interest in Odysseus whose knowledge and clever ways of escape seemed divine. There is a clear difference between Yahweh’s objective to protect humankind from knowledge which can bring forth evil and Odysseus’ knowledge that ultimately saves and protects him and other’s from the evil he encounters along his journey. The gods delighted in a level headed human such as Odysseus and those that had good intentions for humans and the other gods had favor towards him, thereby helping him along the way, perhaps because his knowledge and Intelligence was god - like.
On several occasions, Odysseus was able to avoid evil outcomes by using his knowledge to escape Circe’s plot to turn him into a pig. In other instances he was not eating food to protect himself of evil spells but was in fact the object of other creatures delight. Poseidon’s son Cyclops Polyphemus was a one eyed creature that ate humans and his main objective was to eat Odysseus and his men, however, due to his foolish way of thinking, which was no match for Odysseus’ knowledge, as well as his gluttony to eat all of the travelers, he was cleverly tricked by Odysseus and his men. Odysseus knew that by merely getting Cyclops drunk with wine and cleverly putting a plan together to disguise who he was would ultimately allow them to be free. Scholar Ralph Hexter writes, “Odysseus, having sized up his opponent’s intelligence (low) and wanting to make a joke at least he can enjoy, claims that his name is Outis [366], virtually indistinguishable from ou tis, “on one” …Likewise, Fitzgerald presents “nobody” in the slightly disguised form “Nohbdy” (132 - 133). Odysseus identifies himself as “no man” or what is later defined as “nobody” so that when he and his men were able to take the staff and blind Cyclops who screams out in pain, when asked by fellow giants what’s wrong, he responds “nobody is killing me”. Thereby not alerting the others to come to his aid. Only quick thinking and knowledge was able to save Odysseus and his remaining men. Unlike some of the men he was traveling with that was eaten by these creatures along the way. According to Shein, “Throughout the poem, improper eating, like that of the Suitors, is a mark of moral inadequacy, as one would expect in a poetic universe where every meal is, or involves, a sacrificial ritual. The cannibalistic Polyphemos, the Companions who eat the cattle of the Sun, as well as the Suitors who devour the herds of Odysseus are all on the wrong side of the poem’s moral dividing line… All are punished for appropriating another’s property to satisfy their own appetites and for thinking they can get away without paying for this appropriation” (8 - 9).
There is an evident difference between the epic war hero and those that were fighting with him to get home. Odysseus had impeccable knowledge and seemed as though he was always one step ahead of his enemies. He thought with clarity and could lead those with him out of destruction. Odysseus was clearly a leader because of his sharp skill to remember and think ahead. There are several instances that get him and his men into trouble because they were not thinking. Shein goes on to say that “The Odyssey is filled with characters who do forget, who can’t or won’t concentrate mentally and so fail, both ethically and practically”(8), however he goes on to give examples of why they fail. It is not simply because they are not knowledgeable but it is also because when enticed by the things of life such as food, they reach their downfall. In the Odyssey, the men ate the lotus flower and lost the desire as well as knowledge that they had to get home and the Suitors back at home was feasting not only on the food but also the women, forgetting that there was a possibility that Odysseus would return home. In these examples it is clear that food symbolized a person’s knowledge and their knowledge came through food, thereby bringing their moral character to light.
In The Book of J and Odyssey there is a clear connection between food and knowing. The desire to know caused Hava and Adam to reach their downfall. The same is seen in the Odyssey whereby, the unintelligent characters of the story met their downfall because food enticed them as well. Odysseus was able to save himself from the same enticing delectable food because his knowledge about future outcome/consequence and his quest to return home was embedded in his mind and soul. However, in Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, food begins to symbolize something a little different than what we have previously read.
Tita grew up in an oppressed society that caused oppression to pervade into the houses and personal lives of many Mexican families. This book covers three generations and the story is being told by Esperanza’s daughter who found Tita’s cookbook and happens to be in the third generation of women. In this book we see that Knowledge can be passed down from generation to generation through food. Esperanza’s daughter reads about Tita falling in love with Pedro and being forbidden to marry him because of generational commands to care for her mother until she passes away. Tita takes her learned right of passage to womanhood and puts all of her emotions and dreams into her cooking and continues to struggle through life. After many cooked meals and horrible encounters, Tita became emotionally drained. Finnegan summarizes the basis of the book by simply saying that “Tita becomes increasingly brutalized by the sadistic behavior of her mother and after a nervous breakdown, is taken to family friend, Dr. John Brown, to be treated in Texas”(112). Esperanza’s daughter is receiving knowledge about her culture, family, love, and cooking.
Clearly Esperanza’s daughter had interests in her great aunt Tita, how she lived her life and solved the problems she went through. Through this lost cookbook she was able to gain knowledge of how Tita’s life actually changed the generation rule concerning mother’s and daughters. Esperanza’s daughter was able to marry the man she loved regardless of race as well as leave her mother’s home to pursue a life of love. In essence it is because of Tita’s teachings to Esperanza why this was made possible. Through Tita’s cooking Esperanza learned the secret to love and family. Tita’s spirit lives on because she changed the oppressive views of love and family through her food. Suzanne Ruta writes an article titled, “In Grandmother’s Kitchen” and she is quoted as saying “ ’Food,” says Jungian analyst Marion Woodmand, ’is a symbol operating between the inner and outer world, and between the inner and spiritual world. This mysterious truth gives the book its power and its title. Water for chocolate means water about to boil over, an apt metaphor for Tita’s life of constrained passion and thwarted rebellion“ (7). Tita had great knowledge about food and what it can do to the hearts of those that ate it. On several occasions we saw how food affected Gertrudis when Tita takes the pink roses that Pedro brings her and cooks them in the quail. Tita’s passion and strong emotions for Pedro was passed on into the dish and Gertrudis left the ranch filled with passion to pursue her lover. The effects of food in this instance can be compared to the passion of Circe in the Odyssey, who fell in love with Odysseus and had him to herself for a year until he came to himself and was removed from under her spell. Food is seen almost as a potion to get what a person wants. Through food, Tita was able to cry her tears into a cake as well as make people smile. Through food she was also able to have the love of her life eat and desire her even more in his heart. Pedro and Tita had a special bond, they didn’t even have to talk in order to communicate and understand each other. He was able to know her heart and mind by what she cooked and how it made people feel. Esperanza’s daughter was also able to gain knowledge about the same thing.
Food has many meanings in the different examples throughout these three books and it is safe to say that food actually symbolized knowledge in the lives of the main characters. Whether they understood what knowledge meant, Hava and Adam received it after being enticed to eat food. Or whether knowledge was second nature like Odysseus’s was, we see that the tricks that brought on the downfall of many concerning food helped him to keep from meeting his own demise. And finally we see that Tita could leave behind a legacy giving instructions on how to live and love through her cookbook. It is evident that food nor knowledge can be taken for granted. Food can cause you to reach your downfall if you are gluttonous and have no moral understanding or respect for others and food can also be used to save the lives not only in immediate circumstances but also over the course of a person’s life and their legacy. In all things there is a balance to life, good and evil, simplicity and knowledge, love and hate, but overall in reading these books, it leaves its readers with food for thought.
Works Cited:
Esqivel,Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Carol and Thomas Christensen. New York: Double Day, 1989.
　
Finnegan, N. “At Boiling Point: “"Like Water for Chocolate" and the Boundaries of Mexican Identity”
Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 311-326 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3339168
Harrison, Jonathan. “Review: Recent Work in Epistemology”
The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 138 (Jan., 1985), pp. 95-104 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2955526
　
Hexter, Ralph. A Guide To The Odyssey: A Commentary On The English Translation of Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books A Division of Random House, 1993.
　
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 2000.
　
Schein, Seth L., et al. Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays. New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 1996.
　
Ruta, Suzanne. “Review: In Grandmother’s Kitchen”
The Women's Review of Books, Vol. 10, No. 5 (Feb., 1993), p. 7 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4021446
　
The Book of J
. Trans. David Rosenberg.Ed. Harold Bloom. New York:Grove,1990