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.