"Betrayed by food, I let her go and wept some watery tears into the kidney juices, which were designed to evade cohesion, being thin and in its nature inexact." Pg.734 Meatless by Sara Suleri
Word Count: 272
The story Meatless by Sara Suleri a story that talks about differences in food. Not only differences in food but shows differences in cultures between America and Pakistan. Sara Suleri writes meatless as a memoir of her days in order to show her life at home and through her culture, which is very different. The story itself talks mostly about food, and how food was used as a sort of tool. Sara Suleri learned discipline, structure, truths, lessons, culture, and ideas. Sara Suleri used her memoir in order to demonstrate the changes in food, and how they were used in order to control in ways. Sara even talks about her time in Pakistan and how they did meatless days.
The quote I chose was to show how her family forced her to eat kidneys. Sara Suleris's family forced her to eat kidneys in order for her to stop eating the cauliflower heads. Her family did this in order to force her to stop doing it but also to get her use to textures like the kidney and the juices that the kidney made. They even asked her what the function of the kidney was, she was essentially challenged by her family and their cultural ideals. One of the bigger things that she dealt with was her betrayal of food with the kidney but also finding out that something she had eaten her entire life was balls. Sara Suleri’s family had exposed her to her culture but didn't want her to completely know in order to get her to try things. Food symbolizes betrayal but also discipline, beauty, and in a sense family.
I love how you connect food and discipline together. I agree strongly because of the punishment she got for eating Qayuum's cauliflower in his garden. Forcing her to eat kidney pushed her to learn the new flavors and textures, but also a way to tell her she may not ever do that again. As you also mention, food is beauty and family as well, and we can see this throughout Sara's memoir.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very interesting to learn about the cultural differences that us Americans face versus Pakistan. I like how you touched on what Sara learned and what she exploited throughout her memoir, because I thought her knowledge was very well. Going off what you mentioned with the kidneys, I thought it was intriguing how in the beginning of the chapter, Sara said she felt betrayed when all this time she thought she was eating kidneys, but in reality it turned out to be testicles. Ive never really read anything about others culture when it comes to food, and I don't know if you agree or not, but I found this excerpt to be very interesting to read about.
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