Celia del Pino: A Portrait of Feminism for the Modern Day?

When reading Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia, I was intrigued by the character Celia.  This pieced together story, spanning across decades and countries, focuses on the del Pino family and their relationships with one another.  As the matriarch of the family, Celia holds much power.  She is a woman of many roles and abilities, though knows she is not perfect.  As a mother, Celia worries that she has not done the best for her children.  Her oldest, Lourdes, has abandoned Cuba with her family for America, living a life that is foreign to Celia.  Her middle child, Felicia, stays in Cuba but is mentally unstable and a threat to herself and those around her.  Her youngest, Javier, left Cuba for Czechoslovakia (without telling his family goodbye) where he lives with his wife and daughter. He eventually returns to Cuba later after his wife leaves him and takes his daughter with her.  Celia feels less effective in her role as a mother than in her other roles, mirroring how many women feel in recent decades.  Sacrifices and shortcomings are necessary in order to "have it all."  She feels that she is partially to blame for her the problems of her children.  "How is it possible that she can help her neighbors and be of no use at all to her children?  Lourdes, Felicia, and Javier are middle-aged now and desolate, deaf and blind to the world, to each other, to her."

Celia later resumes the role of mother.  Celia cares for Felicia when she is mentally deranged.  Celia also provides comfort to her heartbroken son.  Her greatest acts of mothering, though, can likely be seen in her interactions with her grandchildren.  Celia is able to give Felicia's children the care and stability that Felicia cannot offer them.  She also mothers her grandchild Pilar from a distance by talking to Pilar at night and supporting Pilar's talents.

Celia's tenderness as a mother is balanced with her power in the community.  Celia revolutionizes the idea of what a woman's role is.  Not only are women mothers, wives, and workers, they are active and empowered in their community.  Celia, a strong believer in the revolution and communism, makes it her duty to be involved in the country's affairs.  Celia is driven by the idea of the common good and her ability to work for change.    "What would have been expected of her twenty years ago?  To sway endlessly on her wicker swing, old before her time?  To baby-sit her grandchildren and wait for death?  She remembers the gloomy letters she used to write to Gustavo before the revolution, and thinks of how different the letters would be if she were writing today.  Since her husband's death, Celia has devoted herself completely to the revolution.  When El Lider needs volunteers to build nurseries in Villa Clara province, Celia joined a microbrigade, setting tiles and operating a construction life.  When he launched a crusade against an outbreak of malaria, Celia inoculated the schoolchildren.  And every harvest, Celia cut the sugarcane that El Lider promised would bring prosperity.  Three nights per month too, Celia continues to protect her stretch of shore from foreign invaders."  Additionally, Celia serves as a civilian judge in the People's Court.  In one case, she alters the gender roles of a man when she sentences him to volunteer in the state nursery.

Finally, Celia's experiences of moving in with her aunt as a child, losing the love of her life, being abused by her husband's family, being in an asylum, and living through her daughter's death have shaped her.  Celia's life has taught her both power and compassion, both strength and tenderness.  Celia is a model of feminism for the modern day.  She shows all the capabilities of women.  Yet, as I stated previously, Celia is not perfect.  It is in her weaknesses and shortcomings that she shows women the difference between being superwoman and a superb woman.

The Temporal Meeting the Spiritual in Harris' Chocolat

          In the book Chocolat by Joanne Harris, Vianne Rocher arrives in a small French town and opens a chocolate shop.  Vianne soon becomes a source of worry for the town's priest, Reynaud.  Vianne's support of indulgence by chocolate, her distaste for religion, and her unorthodox beliefs scare Reynaud, who believes she is a temptress selling sin in the form of chocolate.

            For Vianne, the making and eating of food is the closest the temporal can come to the spiritual.  “There is a kind of alchemy in the transformation of base chocolate into wise fool’s-gold, a layman’s magic that even my mother might have relished…The mingled scents of chocolate, vanilla, heated copper, and cinnamon are intoxicating, powerfully suggestive; the raw and earthy tang of the Americas, the hot and resinous perfume of the rain forest…The Food of the Gods, bubbling and frothing in ceremonial goblets.  The bitter elixir of life” (Harris 53).  Vianne’s experience of food is not sacrificial or burdensome on her part, it is liberating and pleasurable.  Through her work in the kitchen, Vianne becomes a sort of priestess, transforming the ordinary into the sacred.  It is for this reason that Vianne knows Reynaud is threatened by her shop:

 Perhaps this is what Reynaud sense in my little shop: a throwback to times when the world was a wider, wilder place.  Before Christ – before Adonis was born in Bethlehem or Osiris sacrificed at Easter – the cocoa bean was revered.  Magical properties were attributed to it.  Its brew was sipped on the steps of sacrificial temples; its ecstasies were fierce and terrible.  Is this what he fears?  Corruption by pleasure, the subtle transubstantiation of the flesh into a vessel for debauch?” (Harris 53)

Vianne’s smorgasbord of beliefs and practices troubles Reynaud.  While Vianne isn’t necessarily demeaning Christianity, her multitude of beliefs (the belief in the powers of chocolate being key among them) destroys the culture of homogeneity and fervent devotion to the church that Reynaud has worked to maintain.  

          How seriously should Reynaud take Vianne's presence in the community?  Is indulgence in chocolate even a moral issue?

Happily Ever After?

            A couple of years ago I met my friend Phil for dinner at Applebees.  Phil was home for spring break and we dedicated the evening to catching up with each other and swapping stories.  Phil had asked me what my post college plans were and I had told him that I hoped to stay in the area.  To my repulsion, Phil asked, “But how are you going to find a man that way?”  It angered me to think that the sole basis for my decisions should be the likelihood of finding a man.  I don’t recall Jane Austen writing, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of some commonsense, must be in want of a husband.”

            The story is not an uncommon one; it’s continuously rehashed and retold.  A smart, successful, hardworking woman, dissatisfied and unhappy with her life, tries to find her joy and passion again.  Maybe she should find a new job?  Maybe she should go back to school and get another degree?  Maybe she should travel, clear her mind, and experience the world?  No, no, and no.  The solution is far simpler – all she needs is a man.  Yes, once this man waltzes into her life, the woman’s days of unhappiness are over.

            While this may originally seem to be the case in Like Water for Chocolate, the relationships between female and male characters are more often a source of unhappiness and emotional pain than a source of happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction.  It is through relationships that the female characters experience their greatest struggles, to the point that many of the female characters would be better off without a relationship, lover, or marriage.  Tita longs for the love of her life, Pedro, but Mama Elena dictates that Tita must remain single so that she can care for her mother until her mother dies.  Tita must remain passive when her sister Rosaura marries Pedro instead.  The grass is no greener on Rosaura’s side of the fence, either.  Rosaura feels neglected by her husband, Pedro, and fears that Pedro’s love for Tita will turn her into a fool and the subject of mockery.  Though she and Pedro marry, she must live with the knowledge that Pedro has always loved and continues to love Tita more.  The third sister, Gertrudis, experiences a different kind of dissatisfaction when it comes to men.  When Pedro gives Tita roses to show that he still cares for her, Tita refuses to throw them away despite Mama Elena’s wishes.  Instead, Tita clutches the roses so tightly that she begins to bleed and then proceeds to use the flowers to cook quail in rose petal sauce for her family.  After eating the quail, Gertrudis is filled with a lust so great that the lover she later meets cannot satisfy her and she ends up in a brothel in hopes that some man (or many men) could satisfy her.  Finally, both Nacha and Mama Elena lost the men they loved and lived out the rest of their lives unfulfilled. 

            I will be focusing on Tita’s relationship with Pedro.  Despite her love for Pedro, she grows angry with him for having abandoned her.  During her mother’s funeral, readers see a more vindictive side of Tita.  (“Pedro didn’t deserve to have her love him so much.  He had shown weakness by going away and leaving her; she could not forgive him.  John took Tita’s hand on the way back to the ranch, and Tita in turn took his arm, to emphasize that there was something more than friendship between them.  She wanted to cause Pedro the same pain she had always felt seeing him beside her sister.”)  Tita feels that her bitterness is justified.  Tita knows that if Pedro would have been more assertive, he could have refused to marry Rosaura and could have even run away with Tita.  Furthermore, Tita and Pedro don’t view the marriage similarly.  Pedro believes that his marriage to Rosaura will allow him to continue his relationship with Tita since they will continue to see each other and live under the same roof.  Tita, however, is pained by the marriage and does not see Pedro’s proximity as a silver lining to having to watch her sister marry him instead. 

            When Tita prepares to move on with her life by accepting John Brown’s proposal, it is once again Pedro who interferes with her happiness.  Tita is able to have a chance at happiness and asks that Pedro respects her decision.  (“Pedro, you’re hardly the one to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.  When you were going to get married, I didn’t ask you not to do it, even though your wedding destroyed me.  You have your life, now leave me in peace to have mine!...I entreat you, never bother me again for the rest of my life…Ah, and let me suggest, next time you fall in love, don’t be such a coward.)  Through these statements, Tita temporarily gains power in her relationship with Pedro and is no longer a victim.  By calling Pedro a coward, she asserts her emotional dominance.  Tita is once again able to demonstrate that she would rather be without Pedro in her life than have to watch him with Rosaura.

            Despite Tita’s wish that Pedro leave her alone, Pedro continues to exercise power over her, through his viewing of Tita in the shower and his seduction of Tita after the engagement dinner.  (“When Tita saw that Pedro was approaching her, with lust in his eyes, she went running out of the bathroom, throwing her clothes on any which way.  As fast as she could, she ran to her room and shut the door.”)  Pedro feels that he has the right to view Tita in the shower, a very vulnerable and sensual place.  Tita, however, does not feel that Pedro has this right, resulting in her quick escape from the shower.  Pedro’s inability to allow Tita to find happiness in a life without him results in his destruction of Tita’s engagement.  Pedro acts as though his actions are not only justifiable, but welcome.  (“Sensing another’s presence, Tita spun around; the light clearly revealed the figure of Pedro, barring the door.  “Pedro!  What are you doing here?”  Without answering, Pedro went to her, extinguished the lamp, pulled her to a brass bed that had once belonged to her sister Gertrudis, and throwing himself upon her, caused her to lose her virginity.”)  It is alarming that Pedro is already in the storeroom waiting for Tita.  Pedro had planned to sleep with Tita.  When Pedro surprises Tita in the storeroom, he does not ask for her consent or even state his purpose, but proceeds to seduce her.  The phrase “throwing himself upon her” also shows Pedro’s aggressive and dominating nature.  Pedro is more concerned with his satisfaction and desires than Tita’s.

            Even at the end of the novel, Tita is so controlled by her love for Pedro that she kills herself to be with him.  Even from beyond the grave, Pedro is able to manipulate Tita.  Earlier in the novel, Tita symbolized independence and the ability to carry on with one’s life in the face of hardship.  She was able to conduct herself with grace and find a life outside of Pedro.  Now that Pedro is free of Rosaura, Tita has abandoned her independence and seeks only to be Pedro’s love.    She becomes dependent on Pedro, even to the point of death.

Is that what it means to live “happily ever after?”

The Particular Sadness of Cake

"Food is all those substances which, submitted to the action of the stomach, can be assimilated or changed into life by digestion, and can thus repair the losses which the human body suffers through the art of living." (Brillat-Savarin)

Today I will be focusing on two compatible books: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (by Aimee Bender) and Like Water for Chocolate (by Laura Esquivel).  The protagonists of both novels seem to have a  mystical connection to food.  The protagonist of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, young Rose Edelstein, discovers that she can taste the emotions in food that others have prepared.  Alternatively, the protagonist in Like Water for Chocolate, Tita, seems to have the ability to infuse her cooking with her own emotions.  Ah, the power of food!

We've all heard the expression 'made with love,' but what if there was a different, more unsettling, emotion behind your food.  Rose used to love her mother's lemon cake, but suddenly she tastes something besides sugar and frosting in the cake: she tastes her mother's emptiness and dissatisfaction.  Rose gets an unwilling glimpse into her mother's emotional life, one which differs from her mother's typically cheery public facade.  Rose says, "  "I knew if I ate anything of hers again it would likely give me the same message: Help me, I am not happy ... And now my job was to pretend I did not get the message." Rose's sixth sense when it comes to food does not just end with her mother, though.  Rose can taste any emotion felt by anyone preparing her food, or even the ingredients in her food.  Anger, despair, joy - Rose can taste them all.  The power becomes too strong for her to handle, though, and Rose soon resorts to eating only highly packaged and machine made food to minimize feeling others' emotions.

Tita, on the other hand, uses her food as an outlet for her emotions.  While the kitchen begins as a source of sanctuary for Tita and a place where she can freely express herself before Nacha, the cook, Tita soon is able to express herself outside of the kitchen through her food.  Cooking serves as a form of communication and empowers Tita to express her emotions without offending her sister Rosaura (who married the man Tita loves) and her mother (who forbid Tita to marry, since the youngest daughter must remain single and care for the mother).  Tita, having been trained in the art of cooking since she was a child, is able to reach the heart of Pedro, whereas Rosaura, having no culinary experience, is unable.  (The quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right?)  Tita's frustration and despair over Pedro's and Rosaura's wedding manifests itself in their wedding cake she helped prepare.  After tasting the cake, the couple and the guests are subject to this same despair and frustration.  "The moment they took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing.  Even Pedro, usually so proper, was having trouble holding back his tears....But the weeping was just the first symptom of a strange intoxication - an acute attack of pain and frustration - that seized the guests and scattered them across the patio and grounds and int he bathrooms, all of them wailing over lost love."  The following chapter shows how Tita's sexual desire for Pedro is poured out into her dish of quail in rose petal sauce and the startling effects it has on her sister, Gertrudis.

Now I would like to return to the starting quote by Brillat-Savarin, 19th century French author of The Physiology of Taste.  While it is unlikely that Brillat-Savarin wrote this metaphorically, the quote can describe what both Rose and Tita are experiencing.  For both characters, food serves to repair a loss.  For Rose, food mends the emotional disconnect she feels with those around her, even if reestablishing that connection is painful.  For Tita, food repairs the losses in her personal life (her inability to become a wife and mother) and allows her to find other fulfillment.

With that being said, let all food you cook be cooked with love.

Sexual Politics in The Edible Woman

In Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman, both Ainsley (Marian’s roommate) and Duncan trick others into having sex with them.  Ainsley poses as a younger, innocent girl to catch the eye of Marian’s college friend Len.  Ainsley hopes to become pregnant by sleeping with Len, though she wants nothing to do with Len after the fact.  Ainsley justifies her act of deception with the knowledge that Len sleeps with many young girls and by doing so, bolsters his ego.  Ainsley doesn’t foresee that Len will feel violated by her actions.  After Ainsley becomes pregnant, Len tells her, “All along you’ve only been using me.  What a moron I was to think you were sweet and innocent, when it turns out you were actually college-educated the whole time!  Oh they’re all the same.  You weren’t interested in me at all.  The only thing you wanted from me was my body!”  While it would be difficult for many readers to applaud or even justify Len’s behavior towards young women, can we applaud or justify Ainsley’s behavior towards Len?   Is Ainsley acting out of selfishness?  Though she may be acting out of selfishness during her “seduction” of Len, later readers see her feelings of guilt over not thinking her scheme through.  (“But then they had this psy-psy-psychologist and he talked about the Father Image…He says they ought to grow up with a strong Father Image in the home…It’s good for them, it makes them normal, especially if they’re boys.” )  While Ainsley is able to mend her situation by finding a husband in Fischer, Len is still unable to accept his role in the ordeal.  Len is for once rendered powerless, unable to persuade Ainsley to have an abortion and unwilling to step into the role of fatherhood. 

Duncan also presents himself as innocent and weak and allows Marian to believe she holds the power, at least in the bedroom.  Duncan plays Marian by saying, “The thing is, I’d like something to be real…I thought maybe you would be.  I mean if we went to bed, god knows you’re unreal enough now, all I can think of is those layers and layers of woolly clothes you wear, coats and sweaters and so on.  Sometimes I wonder whether it goes on and on, maybe you’re woolen all the way through.  It would be sort of nice if you weren’t.”  Though Marian is aware of Duncan’s self-centered nature, she continually believes she reaches a point of honesty and vulnerability with him and is continually deceived.  Marian wants to be Duncan’s Florence Nightingale and Duncan is willing to let her assume the role if it satisfies his hunger for physical intimacy.  After sleeping together, Duncan tells Marian, “You want me to say it was stupendous, don’t you?  That it got me out of my shell.  Hatched me into manhood.  Solved all my problems.  Sure you do, and I could always tell you would.  I like people participating in my fantasy life and I’m usually willing to participate in theirs, up to a point.  It was fine; just as good as usual.”  This admission strips Marian of her Nightingale identity and she subsequently destroys her identity as Peter’s fiancée.  While Duncan helps Marian to see that her engagement to Peter was a mistake, Marian finally realizes that Duncan is no suitable replacement for Peter.  Marian sees that Duncan is just as manipulative as Peter and likely more dangerous to her wellbeing.  

What's (or Who's) Eating You?

In Margaret Atwood’s 1969 novel, The Edible Woman, protagonist Marian is consumed with a growing sense of emptiness.  Marian, an employee at Seymour Surveys and the girlfriend of domineering, but successful Peter, begins to see a relation between her identity and food.  When Marian and Peter go out to a restaurant for a steak dinner, Marian takes notice of how Peter treats his food.  “He [Peter] was almost finished.  She watched the capable hands holding the knife and fork, slicing precisely with an exact adjustment of pressures.  How skillfully he did it: no tearing, no ragged edges.  And yet it was a violent action, cutting; and violence in connection with Peter seemed incongruous to her.”  Peter’s treatment of his food foreshadows his treatment of Marian. 

Marian begins to see food as a metaphor for her identity – she is always consumed.  “She looked down at her own half-eaten steak and suddenly saw it as a hunk of muscle.  Blood red.  Part of a real cow that once moved and ate and was killed, knocked on the head as it stood in a queue like someone waiting for a streetcar.”  Marian is unable to finish her dinner and soon swears off all meats and animal products.  The longer she is consumed by Peter, and her less-than-helpful and non-platonic friend Duncan, the stronger her rejection of food becomes.  Her identity becomes lost in the roles others have formed for her.  For Peter, Marian molds herself into a sensible and naïve fiancée, envisioning herself as his happy housewife.  As soon as Peter shows Marian a sign of commitment by asking her to marry him, Marian gives up control in the relationship.  (“My first impulse was to answer, with the evasive flippancy I’d always used before when he asked me serious questions about myself…But instead I heard a soft flannelly voice I barely recognized, saying, “I’d rather leave the big decisions up to you.”  I was astounded at myself.  I’d never said anything remotely like that to him before.  The funny thing was I really meant it.”)  For Duncan, Marian is willing to put her emotional needs on the back burner and lets herself be deceived by Duncan’s supposed interest in her.  Duncan uses Marian to satisfy his hunger for sexual intimacy and even makes himself appear vulnerable and helpless to gain her trust and interest. After Duncan has achieved this, he dismisses Marian and her problems and says, “You shouldn’t expect me to do anything.  I want to go back to my shell.  I’ve had enough so-called reality for now….You aren’t an escape any more, you’re too real.  Something’s bothering you and you’d want to talk about it; I’d have to start worrying about you and all that, I haven’t time for it.”

In the end, neither Peter nor Duncan can give Marian the satisfaction she needs.  In order to reclaim her identity, Marian fashions a cake in her image and offers it to Peter.  She tells him, “You’ve been trying to destroy me, haven’t you.  You’ve been trying to assimilate me.  But I’ve made you a substitute, something you’ll like much better.”  Since both Peter and Duncan have consumed Marian’s identity, it is fitting that she reclaims her identity through food.  Though food once enslaved Marian, it has now become a source of liberation. 

Welcome

Hello!  I am writing this blog as part of my Women's Literature course.  I am an English major (teaching emphasis) and a History and a Theology minor.  The literary works I will be using for this blog include (but are not limited to) Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood), Mint Snowball (Naomi Shihab), Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel), Chocolat (Joanne Harris), The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan), and Dreaming in Cuban (Christina Garcia).  As part of the course I will also be paying special attention to food imagery in women's literature.  The struggle between hunger and feeling full (or fulfilled) is not isolated to the kitchen table and through this blog I hope to analyze how food comes to represent this struggle.  Finally, I will explore how food intertwines with our emotions and even our sense of identity, especially as women.  Thanks for reading!