Research Paper

Food and Knowledge

Have you ever noticed you can’t concentrate when you are hungry? Throughout literature, writers have given food a symbolic meaning associated with knowledge. In the Book of J, the story of Adam and Hava is presented, who ate the forbidding fruit gaining knowledge of their first sin. In the Odyssey we find the journey of Odysseus, an ancient Greek warrior whose experience through the world made him a knowledgeable man. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, the story of Tita, who through her culinary knowledge, communicated her feelings.

In the Book of J, Adam and Hava fall into knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit. They lived in a place called Eden, where Yahweh provided everything “from all the trees of the garden you are free to eat, but the tree of knowing good and bad” (62). Yahweh also made a clear warning to Adam about that tree, “Eat from it and on that day, death touches you” (62). Hava was told by the snake that eating from the forbidden tree would not harm her, but it would open her eyes like Gods knowing good and bad. She took the risk and ate from it, noticing that nothing had happened to her, she gave Adam to eat from it too. They immediately discovered their nakedness and went to get leaves to cover their bodies. Yahweh knew what Adam and Hava have done because they were hiding from him ashamed of their naked bodies “Who told you naked is what you are?”(64). Adam blamed Hava for giving him the fruit and Hava blamed the snake, for which Yahweh punished bounding it to the ground and making it enemy to the women. Then Yahweh punished the women “Pain increasing, groans that spread into groans, having children will be labor” (64). And finally Yahweh punished Adam “bitter be the soil to your taste, in labor you will bend to eat from it” (64).

Yahweh removed Adam and Hava from the garden because he feared that with the knowledge they had just gained, they could now go to the tree of life and eat from it, making them both Gods like him. Yahweh motives to remove Adam and Hava from the garden can be interpreted in my opinion to what a parent will do to protect his or her children. Maybe Yahweh wanted them to remain innocent to pain and struggles in life outside his circle of influence (the garden), or he just wanted them to remain under his authority and direction. With knowledge Adam and Hava could separate themselves from Yahweh ignoring his holiness, one example of this is when Hava and Adam conceived Cain, “I have created a man as Yahweh has.” (65) Hava said.

Although in the Book of J to eat food clearly means to gain knowledge, in the Odyssey, it often meant to loose or recover knowledge. One of the examples we see in the Odyssey is when Odysseus and his crew came to the land of the Lotus-Eaters. After eating and gathering supplies, two of the men went into town to explore and mix with the locals. The Lotus-Eaters, who meant no harm, gave lotus to the men. They immediately lost their will to go back and report to the ship instead preferring to stay there and eat more lotus, “Whoever ate that sweet fruit lost their will, munching lotus, oblivious of home” (Ody.X.95-100). The lotus was a powerful fruit that would make anyone lose their perception of time and place, only giving them the desired to eat more and more. Just like Morrison explains in his book, the very thought of home vanishes for men who have fought abroad for ten years, they no longer thought about Ithaca (Morrison 91), certainty a consequence of extreme forgetting

Another example in where food has a different connection with knowledge is when Odysseus went to the underworld, Hade’s home, to talk to Tiresias. Odysseus had a pit filled with blood. Any dead people he would like to talk to would have to come to him and drink from the blood to recover their human memory. “Move off from the pit and take away your sword, so I may drink from it and speak truth to you” said Tiresias to him (Ody.XI.90-93). After talking to Tiresias, Odysseus spoke with Agamemnon, an old friend whose wife had taken his life. Agamemnon told Odysseus to be careful and not to trust his wife, the same thing might happen to him, “Beach your ship secretly when you come home, women just can’t be trusted anymore” (Ody.XI.472-475). Odysseus gained knowledge through the conversations he had with different dead people in the underworld. The example of his dead friend gave him a hint of what could happen to warriors that spent a great amount of time away from home. He was now conscious of what to expect upon returning home.

Although to gain knowledge is an advantage, extreme knowledge can have terrible consequences. In the example of Odysseus and his encounter with the Sirens, he was curious to hear the Siren’s song which holds the promise of knowledge, for they knew everything that happened in Troy. According to Morrison, Odysseus curiosity out weighted the risk of dying in the hands of the Sirens, despite Circe’s warning, Odysseus had his crew tied him down to the ship so he could hear the song. (Morrison 133). This curiosity could have ended Odysseus life if it weren’t for his crew, who unable to hear anything because they had wax in their ears, never followed Odysseus command to release him to stay with the Sirens.

In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, Tita was a girl whose mother had denied her the happiness she was longing for, to be with Pedro. Tita was a great cook from the moment she was born and, because she was the youngest of the three girls, she was introduced to the kitchen as her main duty. She learned the culinary arts through Nacha, the house maid. Tita was torn apart when her sister Rosaura married Pedro, but quickly learned ways to let Pedro know how much she still loved him through her cooking. Tita’s feelings for Pedro were so strong that the meal she prepared, the quail in rose petal sauce, had a different meaning to every single family member in the house. To Mama Elena, the food meant trouble as she knew Pedro was fascinated with every single meal day after day, “He let Tita penetrate to the farthest corners of his being” (Esequiel 52). To Rosaura, it meant competition; she knew her sister was gaining ground with her husband. To Gertrudis, it gave her an experience she never had before, an uncontrollable urge for sex, “That was the way Tita entered Pedro’s body, hot, voluptuous, perfumed, totally sensuous” (Esequiel 52). She felt the uncontrollable feelings her sister Tita had for Pedro through this meal. This knowledge was so strong that she ran away naked with a revolutionary soldier, leaving everything behind. All she could think of was satisfying her sexual arousal, it was like the effect that lotus had on Odysseus’s men. Tita’s feelings were reflected on her cooking and throughout the story everyone in her life knew her state of mind through it.

In these three stories we see how food and knowledge are interconnected. In the Book of J, the whole meaning of existence was revealed by just eating one fruit. Adam and Hava’s life style changed in a matter of seconds. They no longer had the protection and guidance of Yahweh, but they learned ways to survive. In the Odyssey, food led to the lost of perception, willingness, and it also led to the recovery of human memory after being dead. Odysseus’s crew paid with their life the experience their captain gained, because Odysseus was the only one who made it back to Ithaca alive. Finally, in Like Water for Chocolate, the continuation of love and acknowledge through cooking. Even in her dark hours of pain and sorrow, Tita let everyone know her feelings, especially when she made her sister wedding cake. Everyone at the wedding felt the pain Tita was feeling. Food and knowledge have being tied to each other since the beginning of our days. From the cave man hunting to the civilized man’s agriculture, we see how writers have used food as a symbol for knowledge.


Works Cited
The Book of J. Trans. David Rosenberg. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Grove, 1990.
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Ellen Claire. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2000.
Morrison, James. A companion to Homer’s Odyssey. Wesport: Greenwood Press, 2003.

Words: 1465.

Reactions on research

My experience with the research paper was ok, not too frustrating as I have used the library resource center before. I refreshed my skills on how to look up articles and books for this class. The kind of research I did before was for a different class but overall it’s the same principle. I have to say the most useful link is the EBSCO, which helps you find journals, articles and has full text too. Another one that is very helpful is JSTOR; I found most of my articles there. After sharing information with my classmates I was able to look for articles better and what kind of material to look for. One of my classmates also reminded me of the Google book research, which helps you by letting you look into the book and be able to read the introduction.

Babette's Feast Short Friday

In Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen and Short Friday by Isaac Bashevis Singer we find more similarities than differences. In one the story of two sisters whose lives were highly attached to their father’s Lutheran religion and in Short Friday the story of a Jewish couple who despite being old hoped base on religion to conceive children. Both stories are connected to food, and although their perception of food is different, at the end both clearly give us a unique taste of the traditions behind them.
In Short Friday we find the story of Shmul-Leibele and his wife Shoshe. Shmul-Leibele was a half tailor and half furrier whose work was not the best in town, he barely could make a living out of his business but whose moral standards were so high that he used the best materials to fix clothes and shoes. He was so devoted to his religion that he will follow every conduct to the best of his abilities. He was always worshiping and adoring his wife. To him Shoshe was the best and he took pride in praising her for the meals and the care she had for him. Shoshe also loved her husband despite the fact that he couldn’t have children; she stayed by him because she knew how much he loved her. The whole story revolves around Sabbath and the meal she prepared for them as the short Friday came upon. On that day he didn’t work and went to the study house to pray. After coming home they both followed their prayers and ate the Sabbath’s meal. They both indulged in food and following dinner had an intense sex encounter, for which Shmul-Leibele thought he was committing a sin, he did not care and made love to his wife in terms on great passion, something forbidding by his religion. On that day after they have committed two sins, they woke up unable to move and realized they have both died, funny despite being worried about what just had happened they end up going straight to heaven.
In Babette’s Feast, we had the two sisters whose father decided to keep untouched and to his service until the end of his days. These two girls were beautiful in their youth and both have had the opportunity to have been marry and have a family of their own, but in both occasions her father put and ending to their encounters and made them almost as virgins in his church. Philippa and Martine grew to be the heads of their church long after her father had died and were very resilient to change until Madame Babette came to their lives. This lady whose job was to serve as a cook for them was a great chef from Paris but who had not told anyone who she was. It was until she won the lottery that she decided to ask the ladies for permission to cook a special dinner for them, and the congregation on her father’s name. She spent all her money on the feast, which she arranged to have all ingredients shipped from Paris. The food was fantastic and because General Loewenhielm was familiar with Paris and a great restaurant he had once dine at, he was able to tell the famous cook was present at the house. The famous women at Café Anglais. It came out to be Babette.
In this two stories we see how religion has a very profound interaction in the main characters lives and also how the notion of being in heaven was expressed. In Short Friday it was noted at the end, when despite their minor sins both husband and wife go to heaven and in Babette’s Feast, the quote when Philippa told Babette “ in paradise you will be the great artist that God meant you to be”.

First revision draft

Food and Knowledge

Have you ever noticed you can't concentrate when you are hungry? in the Book of J, the Odyssey, and the novel Like Water for Chocolate, we find different relationships and meaning for food and knowledge. In the Book of J, the story of Adam and Eve who according to Christianity and Judaism are our first parents is presented. In the Odyssey we find the journey of Odysseus, an ancient Greek warrior. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, the story of Tita is presented. All three have a different relationship and meaning between food and knowledge.

In the Book of J, Adam and Eve fall into knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit. They lived in a place called Eden, where Yahweh provided everything "from all the trees of the garden you are free to eat, but the tree of knowing good and bad" (The Book of J.62). Yahweh also made a clear warning to Adam, :Eat from it and on that day, death touches you"(The Book of J.62). Eve was told by the snake that eating from the forbidden tree would not harm her, but it will open her eyes like Gods knowing good and bad. She took the risk and ate from it, noticing htat nothing had happened to her, she gave Adam to eat from it too. They immediately discovered their nakedness and went to get leaves to cover their bodies. Yaweh knew what Adam and Eve have done because they were hiding from him ashamed of their naked bodies "Who told you naked is what you are?"(The Book of J.64). Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit and Eve blamed the snake, for which Yahweh punished bounding it to the ground and making it enemy to the women. Then Yahweh punished the women "pain increasing, groans that spread into groans, having children will be labor"(The Book of J.64). Finally Yahweh punished Adam "biiter be the soil to y our taste, in labor you will leanr to eat from it"(The Book of J.64). Yahweh removed Adam and Eve from the garden because he feared that with the knowledge they had just gained, they could now go to the tree of life and eat from it, making them both Gods like him.

Although in the Book of J to eat food clearly means to gain knowlege, in the Odyssey, it meant to loose or recover knowledge. One of the examples we see in the Odyssey is when Odysseus and his crew came to the land of the Lotus-Eaters. After eating and gathering supplies, two of the men went into town to explore and mis with the locals. The Lotus-Eaters, who meant no harm, gave lotus to the men. They immediately lost their will to go back and report to the ship instead preferring to stay there and eat more lotus, "whoever ate that sweet fruit lost their will, munching lotus, oblivious of home"(Ody.X.95-100). The lotus was a powerful fruit that would make anyone who eats it lose their perception of time and pplace, giving them the desired to eat more and more lotus. Another example in where food has a different connection with knowledge is when Odysseus went to the underworld, Hade's home, to talk to Tiresias> Odysseus had a pit filled with blood. Any dead people he would like to talk to would have to come to him and drink from the blood to recover their human memory. "Move off form the pit and take away your sword, so I may drink from it and speak truth to you"(Ody.XI.90-93) said Tiresias to him. After talking to Tiresias, Odysseus spoke with Agamemnon, an old friend whose wife had taken his life. Agamemnon told Odysseus to be careful and not to trust his wife, the same thing might happen to him, "beach your ship secretly when you come home, women just can;t be trusted anymore"(Ody.XI.472-475). Odysseus gained knowledge through the conversation he had with different dead people in the underworld. The example of his dead friend gave him a hint of what could happen to warriors that spent a great time away from home. He was now conscious of what to expect upon returning home.

In the Novel Like Water for Chocolate, Tita was a girl whose mother had denied her the happiness she was longing for, to be with Pedro. Tita was a great cook from the moment she was born and, because she was the youngest of the three girls, she was introduced to the kitchen as her main duty. She learned the culinary arts through Nacha, the house maid. Tita was torn apart when her sister Rosaura married Pedro, but quickly learned ways to let Pedro know how much she still loved him through her cooking. Tita's feelings for Pedro were so strong that the meal she prepared, the quail in rose petal sauce, had a different meaning to every single family member in the house. To Mama Elena, the food meant trouble as she knew Pedro was fascinated with every single meal day after day, "he let Tita penetrate to the farthest corners of his being"(Esquivel.52). To Rosaura it meant competition, she knew her sister was gaining ground with her husband. To Gertrudis it gave an experience she never had before, an uncontrollable urge for sex, "that was the way Tita entered Pedro's body, hot, voluptuous, perfumed, totally sensuous"(Esquivel.52). She learned the uncontrollable feelings her sister Tita had for Pedro through this meal. This knowledge was so strong that she ran away naked with a revolutionary soldier, leaving everything behind. All she could think of was satisfying her sexual arousal, similar to the effect that lotus had on Odysseus's men. Tita's feeling were reflected on her cooking and throughout the story everyone in her life knew her state of mind through it.

In these three stories we see how food and knowledge are interconnected. In the Book of J, the whole meaning of existence was revealed by just eating one fruit. A whole life style changed in a matter of seconds, a whole generation of humans were corrupted and Adam and Eve's struggle to survive day by day begun with just eating from a tree. In the Odyssey, a crazy like state of mind with lose of perception and willingness by one fruit, or the recovery of your human memory by drinking sheep's blood after being dead. Finally, a continuation of love and acknowledge through cooking. Even in her dark hours of pain and sorrow, Tita let everyone know her feelings, especially when she made her sister's wedding cake. Everyone at the wedding felt the pain Tita was feeling. Food and Knowledge have being tied to each other since the beginning of our days. From the cave man hunting to the civilized man's agriculture, we see how one led to another, which is food led to Knowledge.

Works Cited

The Book of J. Trans. David Rosenberg. Editor. Harold Bloom. New York:Grove, 1990.
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Ellen Claire. New York:Doubleday, 1989.
Homer, The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. New York:Random House, 1961.

Leticia

In the movie Tortilla Soup, I was attracted to the character Leticia, a chemistry teacher in her mid thirties, who the author introduces as a religious woman. We first see her at the beauty salon where Yolanda was getting a new hair look. We can see that she was closed minded, very opponent to change when the hair dresser tried to persuade her to have her hair done. She immediately refuses and storms out of the salon and on her way out, she stops in the mirror and takes a second look at the hair dresser suggestion, which is to have her hair cut at mid shoulder.


Leticia was very devoted to her students and we started to see her change when a baseball ball stroke into the classroom and she first meets the baseball coach. The students noticed her attraction towards the coach and started sending her love letters. As naive as she was, she believed it was the coach that was secretly in love with her. Leticia was perceived as the woman that was going to stay with her widow father for life. We saw this when her father and best friend talked about the girls, his best friend made a comment that she was getting old and that the train had left her.


The letters the students were sending her started to change her character, she started to be seem as a much happier person, often feeling guilty for her feelings, she will take longer at super praying to God for forgiveness and strength. She also started to loosen up when the sisters were having a discussion after one of them had purchased her own apartment and gave the news to the family at dinner. She broke some dishes and sang along with her sisters after. She also started to be concern with her appearance after the coach said they should work out and mentioned something about her wrinkles; he was out of worlds to try to connect with her. Soon after she broke up the news to her sister that she was falling for the coach and her sister helped her with her make over. The following day she went straight to the baseball game and kissed the coach in front of the whole crowd.


The coach's reaction wasn't what she had expected and that's when she found out about the whole prank. She was devastated but that was the incident that united her with the coach, soon after she secretly ran with him to Vegas and married him. She also had the courage to brake the news during dinner to her family and introduced her husband to her father.

Food and Knowledge

Whether you are religious or believe in the scientific development of man, we have books, songs, paintings, and every single form of human expression that indicates how food and knowledge are linked to one another. In the book of J, we find the story of Adam and Eve, according to Christianity and Judaism our first parents; and in the novel Like Water for Chocolate, the story of Tita, both in which food and knowledge go hand by hand.

Adam and Eve was a happy innocent couple that lived in a garden full of food and did not know what it was to work hard for anything. God had given them everything they wanted and the only thing he required them to do was not to eat from the tree of knowledge and life. It was said to them that if eating from the tree of knowledge, they will die. After being "seduced" by the snake, Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and did not die, she went and gave Adam from the tree also and the innocent veil was lost. They immediately discovered their nakedness and covered themselves, distinguishing right from wrong. God decided to remove them from the garden because they now were ignorant no more, and if they were to eat from the tree of life, they will become gods like him.

In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, Tita was a girl whose mother had denied her the happiness she was longing for, to be with Pedro. Tita was a great cook, from the moment she was born and because she was the youngest of the three girls, she was introduced to the kitchen as her main duty. She learned the culinary arts through Nacha, the house mate. Tita was torn apart when her sister Rosaura married Pedro, but quickly learned ways to let Pedro know how much she still loved him, through her cooking. Tita's feelings for Pedro were so strong that the same plate had a different meaning to every single family member in the house. To Mama Elena, the food meant trouble as she knew Pedro was fascinated with every meal day after day. To Rosaura, it meant competition; she knew her sister was still in love with her husband and she was gaining ground with him. And to Gertrudis, it gave her an experience she never had before, an uncontrollable urge for sex.

In these two stories we see how food and knowledge are interconnected. In one the whole meaning of existence was revealed by just eating one fruit. A whole life style changed in a matter of seconds, a whole generations of humans corrupted and the struggle to survive day by day begun with just eating from a tree. In the other story a continuation of love, acknowledgment of the uncontrollable love through cooking. Even in the dark hours of pain and sorrow, Tita let everyone know her feelings, especially when she made her sister's wedding cake. Everyone at the wedding felt the pain Tita was feeling.

We have something inside that drives us to dare and discover "curiosity", and because of this curiosity we have gain knowledge, whether it was good or bad to know what we know now, religious or scientific, it has giving us a better insight at what being human means.

Paneton..a brief history and what it has become in Peru

Paneton has become one of Peru's main desserts for Christmas in the last decades. I was introduced to it by my step mother, which is from Peruvian decent. Ever since I could remember paneton has never missed Christmas at my parents house and even today, as I live on my own, I carry out the tradition of having it for the special holiday even though I am Colombian. But besides being a Christmas dessert, panetone's true meaning is giving to the poor.

Paneton is a cake of Italian origin that became popular in south America through Italian immigration. It is said that in the 15ht century a nobleman from Milan, Ughetto Atellani fell in love with the daughter of a poor baker man named Toni. To win her love, Ughetto disguised himself as a baker and invented a rich bread in which he added to the flour and yeast, butter, eggs, dried raisins, candy lemon and orange peel. The duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro Sforza, agreed to the marriage, which was held in the presence of Leonardo Da Vinci,and encouraged the launch of the new cake-like bread; Pan del Ton, or Toni's bread.

Panetone's true meaning is giving to the poor. My step mother is an active member of the political Peruvian party APRA. A socialist political party tied to the poor and working class in Peru. She always emphasized the importance of making sure poor children in Peru had the opportunity of having panetone and hot chocolate for Christmas. She said such a tradition needed our help and she worked hard at raising funds to send panetone to the different community restaurants her political party has in Peru. For our family and members of the Peruvian community in New York, sharing a panetone with he less fortunate became a tradition also besides having it during the month of December.

Panetone was born out of the love a nobleman in Italy felt towards a poor baker's daughter. This love was blessed from the beginning and in today's society; it still does resembles the based in which it was created, love. this love has crossed centuries and just like it was transmitted towards a poor girl, it is show today with the less fortunate, the poor.

What do I think about food?

Food is more than an essential need. To me food is the link between the outside world and the capacity to store current events in our long term memory. I can just like Tita in the book, smell a dish similar to my moms cooking and transport myself to a past memory reviving the events that took place at that moment. It's funny how one particular smell can mean so much that it leaves a permanent stamp in your brain which activates every time you sense it and triggers all those feelings. Food is also a means to show your appreciation or resentment towards someone. I remember how exciting it was to make a meal for my ex or even friends when they came over for dinner. Just knowing that a meal could have us all together talking and enjoying each others company was an incentive to cook for hours and do it all over again. However it can also be a form of showing your resentment. I remember getting upset at my mom and not eat her food, no matter how hungry I was. It was my way of telling her I was mad and rebellious. Food can also have an intimate meaning. I remember going to the candy store with my ex and spent about five euros buying all kinds of sour candy because she loved it. Then we will walk to the beach near by and sit in the boardwalk enjoying the view while eating the candy, even though I was not a big fan of sour candy, I could eat it for days if it was with her. Now that we are not longer together, I could care less about it, the connection between sour candy and the pleasure related to it, is not longer there.