You are what you eat: the politics of eating in the novels of Margaret Atwood

Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 1995 by Emma Parker

What a luxury. The counters are like candies, made of peppermint, cool like that. Humbugs, those were called. I would like to put them into my mouth. They would taste also of lime. The letter C. Crisp, lightly acid on the tongue, delicious. (149)

Like the other novels, Cat's Eye is centered on a power struggle. Here, however, Atwood focuses on the relationship between girls. Cordelia is Elaine's best friend. She is also her tormentor. With her accomplices, Grace and Carol, Cordelia tortures Elaine into believing she is "nothing" and sets her on a cruel program of reform. Elaine's powerlessness and her struggle to overcome the psychological hold her tormentors have on her is traced by her relationship to food. The relationship between eating and power is epitomized by Elaine's father. Whenever he appears in the novel he is eating voraciously and, as he eats, he speaks with authority on the subjects of science, philosophy, ecology, and culture. Elaine internalizes the association between eating and power that she sees operating in the world around her. She dreads going to school, where she cannot escape Cordelia, and in the mornings is unable to eat her breakfast. She identifies with her father's associate, Mr. Banerji, because, as a foreigner, he too feels alien and isolated. Like Elaine's, his powerlessness is reflected by his non-eating and the way he bites his hands. At the Christmas dinner he shuffles his food around his plate and leaves most of it. Elaine relates this sense of powerlessness specifically to food: "He's afraid of us. He has no idea what we will do next, what impossibilities we will expect of him, what we will make him eat" (130). However, correspondingly, Elaine's power is also reflected by her eating. Her encounter with the Virgin Mary in the ravine induces a sense of protection which enables Elaine to defy Cordelia's control. Her act of defiance is accompanied by an act of eating. Leaving the house for school, Elaine ignores her friends and walks on alone. They follow her along the street insulting and criticizing her:

I can hear the hatred, but also the need. They need me for this, and I no longer need them. There's something hard in me, crystalline, a kernel of glass. I cross the street and continue along, eating my licorice. (193)

Henceforth, the balance of power begins to change between Elaine and Cordelia. The scene in which Elaine threatens to eat Cordelia contributes to this. Playing in a graveyard at dusk, Elaine teases her friend that she is a vampire and will suck her blood out. While Cordelia maintains a facade of disbelief, she is unnerved by the possibility this may be true. From this point on, the positions of power the two girls have assumed are irrevocably altered.

For all Atwoodian heroines the search for self hood is symbolized by the search for something satisfying to eat. Initially, although Marion eats, she eats poorly. She lives on snack food, frozen meals, and TV dinners. Marion is hungry throughout The Edible Woman but cannot find anything to satiate her. Whatever she eats makes her sick. In Surfacing the narrator's search for physical sustenance in the natural world becomes symbolic of her lack of spiritual sustenance in the social world. At the end of Lady Oracle Joan has nothing to eat except some biscuits which are "hard as plaster and tasted of shelf" and "some cooked pasta, drying out already, and a yellowing bunch of parsley" (311). She has failed to escape her old life and her old self, and the absence of proper, nourishing food indicates that, at the end of the novel, Joan is still trapped in the role of victim. In Bodily Harm Rennie seems to spend the entire novel searching for something decent to eat. All her food is awful. In hospital the food is "unbelievable. Green Jello salad and a choice of peas or peas" (35); on the plane the butter is rancid and the beef leaves a taste of rotting flesh in her mouth; in the hotel there is no choice and all the food is unappetizing and unnourishing. There is no fresh fruit or yogurt, the milk is tinned, the orange juice powdered, and the food is either uncooked, burned, or stale. In prison, the guards put salt in the tea. Throughout Cat's Eye Elaine never eats substantial or nutritious food. The sections of the novel set in modern-day Toronto trace her search for something to eat. When she wakes up in Jon's flat she finds the kitchen devoid of food. She decides she needs "to go shopping and get some decent food, organize. . . . I will buy oranges, yogurt without jam. I will have a positive attitude, take care of myself, I'll feed myself enzymes and friendly bacteria" (111). Her intention to eat health food signals her desire for a positive sense of self. Nevertheless, she is never able to provide herself with the food she knows she needs. She wanders around Toronto moving from one location of food to another without eating. She goes shopping in Simpson's Food Hall but does not buy anything because she feels intimidated by the luxurious nature of the items. She eats leftovers and eggs mashed up in teacups. She eats "haphazardly now, snack[s] on junk food and take-outs without worrying about balanced meals" (330). Because of her poor self-image, she is unable to nourish herself. She abuses herself with a poor diet. When she arrives at the gallery or the opening of her exhibition nobody is there because they have gone out to eat. Elaine stands alone and unnourished. After the party, Charna invites her to dinner but she declines. By the close of the novel Elaine has not rediscovered Cordelia and so has not been able to redefine her relationship with her old tormentor by breaking the strong bond between victim and persecutor. It is possible to interpret the scene in which Elaine returns to the ravine and conjures up a vision of Cordelia as a child as the point of reconciliation, the point at which Elaine finally forgives her old foe and the interdependent positions of victim and victor are transcended. However, the moment of epiphany is equivocal, and at the end of the novel Elaine is still eating mashed-up eggs in teacups.