By Ryan B.
While reading the memoir, I noticed a certain significance in the portrayal of the treatment of food. I am curious to know what everyone thinks of this revelation:
In Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Bich Minh Nguyen uses the abstinence from food as a symbol of appreciation and gratitude, creating a parallel between the older and younger Vietnamese generations. In both Noi's practice of "feeding" the Buddha and the sisters' tendency to stockpile food, Nguyen conveys the importance of anticipation in the appreciation of one's good fortune. The act of refraining from eating food, particularly in times of financial hardship like the Nguyen family endured, communicates an appreciation for the possession of food in both the sisters and their elders.
When Noi places fruit in front of the Buddha statue, she does so to symbolically feed her ancestors. It is a symbol of reverence, and yet, after the food remains in front of the statue for a few days, Noi gives it to the sisters. Because they were not allowed to eat it immediately, their gratitude was more profound: "All of these were set upon the altar before making their way into our mouths, and it was a lesson in patience and desire. We were eating gifts every time" (19). This custom, a vestige of Vietnamese culture from Noi's generation, is truly a method of increasing one's appreciation for life and the ability to eat food. By remembering one's ancestors, one realizes that they have no need for sustenance and thus one gains appreciation for one's own ability to enjoy the fruit, which by then tastes better as a result of this new awareness. This practice exemplifies the role of expectancy and gratitude.
Similarly, when the sisters receive fruit from Noi, they often cherish it for so long that they forget to eat it. This also portrays a respectful anticipation of one's enjoyment; for the sisters, the fruit was so divinely delicious that they enjoyed the suspense of eating it without every actually consuming it. "We held on to oranges and plums, desserts from Noi, saved so long we forgot to eat them" (13). By never eating the fruit, Bich and Anh prove that their true reward is their recognition of the food's value. Through their prolonged desire, the sisters have inadvertently connected with their Vietnamese-Buddhist roots. Their abstinence parallels the moral of Noi's religious practices.
Through this religious symbolism of refraining from indulging one's desires, Nguyen effectively creates a parallel between the older Vietnamese generation and the younger one assimilating to life in America. The two are inextricably linked through their respect for the importance of anticipation, exemplified by their treatment of food.
Ryan, I appreciate the fact that you have emphasized the fact that Bich comes to realize all of the life lessons she was not catching onto when she was growing up. Along with not fulling appreciating all that her parents did for her and her siblings to give her the life she had, she was not aware of the great life she had. Bich was so focused on the hardships of being ostracized for being from Vietnam that she was not aware of why she was in America to begin with. I agree that there is parallelism between the older and younger Vietnamese generations. Bich admits that she was bored of food easily. She would crave certain foods, and as soon as she had the food in her possession, and even had a few bites, she may not want it anymore. I also felt that this was symbolic that she could not understand the importance of the access she had to it now that she was in America.
ReplyDeleteBy: Michele Garrett
This is a really meticulous analysis on the relationship between the sisters' anticipation in waiting to eat the sacred fruit and the religious observance to refrain from temptation. The fruit has become symbolic through these observations of the novel and gains even more value in your reading. There are other occurrences within Bich's story that involve anticipation, and it seems that in these periods of waiting Bich's realizations take place. For example, in recalling waiting for the fruit, it was that interval that made consuming the fruit even more pleasurable. Contrary to this, it is the long periods of anticipation that cause Bich to be disappointed when her fantasies of eating American food come true. When she is nine, Bich pretends to eat the same American dinners as her classmates, and comes across pork chops when eating at her childhood friend, Holly's. She describes the pork as "tough" and says, "inside the meat was a duller gray, and dry straight through" (92). Her descriptions evoke a feeling of discontent, as if finally eating a "real" American dinner was not as satisfying as she hoped it would be. The anticipation she had built in dreaming about the dinner led her to hold higher expectations for this moment, which ended up as dull as the meat she was eating.
ReplyDeleteBy Alyssa B.