EBook Snapshot: A Story of Three Plates

Within the stories Baking Cakes in Kigali, Fried Green Tomatoes, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, food is a central aspect of the driven narrative. Food is represented within these stories in their different ways, ranging from positive implications to negative representations. All three novels are told from different demographics, differing in location, period, setting, and character development. These other variables affect the characters and the environment around them; with that difference, the representation of food is unique to each story. The food in each level is influenced by the character's preconceptions, with each having a significant impact on how food is symbolized in each respective account. Each narrative provides a different symbol for their individual personalities.

In Baking Cakes in Kigali, Angel bakes cakes out of her home for clients during genocide and hardship. Angel has no less been affected by the chaos plaguing Rwanda, with the death of her children resting on her shoulders throughout the story. The cakes Angel bakes, however, are not the story's primary focus. They represent what Angel tries to achieve, with her cakes acting as a medium. The cakes she creates for shopkeepers, sex workers, and soldiers are incredibly elaborate and personalized; she describes one as "She thought of the cake that she was going to make for Solange's confirmation. She and Jeanne d'Arc have agreed on a vanilla cake in the shape of a Christian cross, white on top to convey purity, and with turquoise and white basketweave design piped around the sides to match the confirmation dress, which was white with turquoise ribbons threaded through it" (Parkin 258). These cakes not only tried to bring joy to the lives of her customers, but they remained to talk to Angel. Angel's motives are to find peace in the injustice that killed her children and destroyed her country. She attempts to justify and amend her pain through the cakes she creates. They are an outlet for her to hear about the lives of her neighbors and visitors to reassure herself that she is not alone in facing the hardships affecting her life.

While the food in Baking Cakes in Kigali symbolizes joy and hope for Angel, representing a positive theme, What's Eating Gilbert Grapes uses food to express a more neutral sense with Gilbert, some good and some bad. In the novel by Peter Hedges, Gilbert Grape is stuck in his uneventful small town in Iowa with his family of six. Like Angel, Gilbert has endured the hardship of life, losing his father and having to care for his neglectful mother and remaining family. Throughout the novel, Gilbert works at his town's local grocery store since he finished his formal education. Gilbert loathes his life but has minimal respect for the store he works at. When "Food Town" opens, a larger store threatening to drive Gilbert's smaller store out of business, Gilbert begins to feel the emotions of anger that have been building inside him all his life. The only thing keeping him together is the thought of his little brother Arnie's birthday.

The grocery store where Gilbert worked was a manifestation of the coils binding him to Endora. The store was minuscule and irrelevant once the "Food Town" moved in. The store represents what Gilbert was scared of becoming: minor and outside, and throughout the novel, that is what Gilbert already is. What changes this is his brother's eighteenth birthday, what Gilbert has been clinging to all these years. The cake for Arnies' birthday is the key to the story's outcome. While at the party, the celebratory symbol of triumph, the cake, is destroyed when Arnie causes their little sister Amy to drop it, resulting in the purchase of another cake from "Food Town" against Gilbert's principles. Following the events that proceed with the party, the story's conclusion shows the Gilberts rejoicing in their newfound freedom from Endora. Unlike the small grocery store, the cake represents a positive change for the characters. It means a time of space with the burdens of their previous lives lifted. Gilbert explains, "We all walk around the house with blank faces, sometimes smiling, an occasional giggle or sob—but mainly we walk around with blank faces" (Hedges 60).

The last novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, showcases food as a positive ideology. The novel weaves together two storylines: that of Evelyn and Ninny in the present and that of Ninny's sister-in-law Idgie and her friend Ruth from the past. Within the present tense story between Evelyn and Ninny, food is used as a catalyst for the introduction of Ninny to Evelyn when Flagg writes, "Evelyn had just escaped them both and had gone to the visitor's lounge in the back, where she could eat her candy bar in peace and quiet. But the moment she sat down, the woman beside her began to talk..." (Flagg 5). Along with their introduction, recipes were left to show gratitude to Evelyn from Ninny for listening to her stories and spending time with her. These recipes also tie into the past tense story between Idgie and Ruth because "All the recipes that were used at the cafe were hers [Ruth's]. She taught Idgie and Ruth everything they knew about cooking" (Flaggs 48).

Looking at Idgie and Ruth's story, we see positive ideology through the lens of food. This part of the novel takes place in the early 1900s in Alabama, where racial inequality, prejudice, and corruption impact the characters throughout the story. Food is used as an instigator for the predominant theme that all people are responsible for caring for all who are in need. The cafe is the focal point of all the events respectively. The restaurant is in a railroad hub, so homeless men like Smokey Phillips come to the cafeteria because they know Idgie will provide them a warm meal. A form of equality representation through food shown in the story is giving food to everyone. While the white men can eat inside the restaurant, black men must receive their food secretly out the back door, due to the social stigma of the time and fears of retaliation from the Ku Klux Klan. Regardless of the stigma of the time, Idgie and Ruth do everything they can to acknowledge and act upon their responsibility to themselves and others regardless of the demographic. They show this responsibility through the meals they make.

The stories told by Flagg, Hedges, and Parkin vary differently in their narratives, themes, and characteristics but simultaneously share tales of personal struggle, hardship, and recollection. Nonetheless, the outcomes of each story reflect each other through similar endings of enlightenment, overcoming emotional obstacles, and new beginnings. Along with similar conclusions, the relationship between food and the protagonists is strong. All novels hold food close to their respective storylines' central symbols, themes, and representations. Whether it's Angel and her cakes, Gilbert and his grocery store, or Idgie and Ruth's cafe, each represents who the characters are and what the story tries to reinforce about their lives. Even if the narratives are too time-consuming to read, one doesn't have to look past the titles to realize food is an imperative part of these stories.