Food in Mary Rowlandsons The Sovereignty and Goodness of God Essay

Food in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God "Food is a medium for life, a dynamic of life, and an expression of the whims, joys, terrors, and histories in life. Food, more than anything else, is life." - Anonymous Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflect ed in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ... ... Mary Caroline. The Days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970. [secondary source] Geree, John. "The Character of an Old English Puritan, or Non-Conformist." 17th Century Primary Source Documents <http://www.orst.edu/dept/history/primary17.htm> Accessed 21 May 2001. [primary source] Goodwin, Lorinda B. R. An Archeology of Manners: The Polite World of the Merchant Elite of Colonial Massachusettes. Boston: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999. [secondary source] Mintz, Sidney W. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. [secondary source] Mizruchi, Susan L. "The Place of Ritual in Our Time." American Literary History 12, no. 3 (2000): 467-492. [secondary source] Rowlandson, Mary. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.