By Nikolai Robinson
To be completely honest, food in literature is a difficult subject, because food can be symbolic of so many things- life, love, energy, etc. Depending on what it is, it can also reflect the state of the character consuming it. It can represent depression and spiritual stagnation, like when Holden Caulfield admits that he can’t make himself eat much in Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” (1951) or it could represent social status, like the opulence of the buffets and drinks at Jay Gatsby’s parties in “The Great Gatsby” (1925).
However, those have already been talked about in essays and analyses. I’m going to focus on a couple of the simplest, yet meaningful portrayals of food in literature, written and drawn by the ever-popular and ever-relevant Dr. Seuss. Seuss occasionally used food as objects of agreement and harmony, like when the Grinch carved the roast beast for the Who-ville citizens at the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1957), or when Peter teams up with his friends to help find the most delicious eggs to scramble in “Scrambled Eggs Super!” (1953), but Seuss’ best use of food was when it was used as a catalyst of contention.
To be completely honest, food in literature is a difficult subject, because food can be symbolic of so many things- life, love, energy, etc. Depending on what it is, it can also reflect the state of the character consuming it. It can represent depression and spiritual stagnation, like when Holden Caulfield admits that he can’t make himself eat much in Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” (1951) or it could represent social status, like the opulence of the buffets and drinks at Jay Gatsby’s parties in “The Great Gatsby” (1925).
However, those have already been talked about in essays and analyses. I’m going to focus on a couple of the simplest, yet meaningful portrayals of food in literature, written and drawn by the ever-popular and ever-relevant Dr. Seuss. Seuss occasionally used food as objects of agreement and harmony, like when the Grinch carved the roast beast for the Who-ville citizens at the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1957), or when Peter teams up with his friends to help find the most delicious eggs to scramble in “Scrambled Eggs Super!” (1953), but Seuss’ best use of food was when it was used as a catalyst of contention.
In “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” (1958), the zany character from Seuss’ magnum opus returns to the house of Sally and her brother, this time eating cake and subsequently creating an infectious pink stain that exponentially grows and eventually covers everything. In “Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose” (1948), Thidwick is so generous to his parasitic guests that he forgoes getting more supplies of “moose-moss” because he would have to migrate across a lake to do so, consequentially risking starvation. To investigate further Seuss’ use of food to create contention, I took a closer look at two of his most famous and most socially-relevant children’s books, “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Butter Battle Book.”
“Green Eggs and Ham,” one of Seuss’ most iconic works, focuses on Sam urging the main character to eat green eggs and ham, who refuses even though he’s never tried it. They continue on through one of Seuss’ stereotypically strange fantasy lands, and Sam continues to ask the protagonist if he would try green eggs and ham in different situations- in a house, with a mouse, you know the story. At the end, the character gets so frustrated that he tries the green eggs and ham just so Sam could stop pestering him about it. He enjoys it, much to his surprise, solidifying the message of being open-minded to new experiences, and not being afraid of the unknown.
Seuss uses the green eggs and ham because he knows his audience. Fear of the unknown is a primal, natural human flaw that even the most mature adults deal with, but Seuss knows that he must use the most basic and understandable of objects to represent this concept and teach this lesson to young children. In addition, the food is green, the same color as those disgusting vegetables that all children hate, yet were forced to eat.
“Green Eggs and Ham,” one of Seuss’ most iconic works, focuses on Sam urging the main character to eat green eggs and ham, who refuses even though he’s never tried it. They continue on through one of Seuss’ stereotypically strange fantasy lands, and Sam continues to ask the protagonist if he would try green eggs and ham in different situations- in a house, with a mouse, you know the story. At the end, the character gets so frustrated that he tries the green eggs and ham just so Sam could stop pestering him about it. He enjoys it, much to his surprise, solidifying the message of being open-minded to new experiences, and not being afraid of the unknown.
Seuss uses the green eggs and ham because he knows his audience. Fear of the unknown is a primal, natural human flaw that even the most mature adults deal with, but Seuss knows that he must use the most basic and understandable of objects to represent this concept and teach this lesson to young children. In addition, the food is green, the same color as those disgusting vegetables that all children hate, yet were forced to eat.
Seuss also uses a simple, mundane food to make a political statement in his lesser-known 1984 classic, “The Butter Battle Book.” This book is about two civilizations divided by a wall, the Yooks and the Zooks. There is no discernable difference between the two groups, except for the fact that the Yooks eat their bread with the butter side up, while the Zooks like their bread butter side down. The physical conflict starts when patrolmen on opposite sides of the wall start firing their slingshots at one another, and it develops into an arms race full of whimsical machines, guns, and vehicles, culminating with the creation of bombs by both sides. The reader never knows if the Zook or Yook generals ever get the gall to use the bombs on the opposing side, because the story ends there.
This story was especially significant, given it was a satire of the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, between the United States and the Soviet Union. The fact that so much effort went into all of the machinery, manpower and prejudice of both cultures, simply because of how the other eats toast, is perplexing to even the youngest of readers, and ultimately illustrates the futility of it all. The Cold War was the biggest issue of the last half of the 20th century, and it was adapted into a book for kids. Again, Seuss brilliantly uses the mundane nature of food to translate adult problems for the youth of America, and it’s a narrative tool that helped establish himself as one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century.
This story was especially significant, given it was a satire of the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, between the United States and the Soviet Union. The fact that so much effort went into all of the machinery, manpower and prejudice of both cultures, simply because of how the other eats toast, is perplexing to even the youngest of readers, and ultimately illustrates the futility of it all. The Cold War was the biggest issue of the last half of the 20th century, and it was adapted into a book for kids. Again, Seuss brilliantly uses the mundane nature of food to translate adult problems for the youth of America, and it’s a narrative tool that helped establish himself as one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century.