Food Processing

Undisputed, eating is a universal experience. However, the human species has separated itself in that it is accustomed to eating for its sensual capability in addition to survival. As humans, we cook, spice, prepare and taste food similar to an art form and hold food in our hearts as a symbol of love. Food is gatherings, it is family, it is culture, it is memory and mostly it is who we are. Gary Cela, one of our very own college foodies here at Chapel Hill, is no exception. If we look into his life history, we can string along his memories encompassing the overall argument; food doesn’t satisfy unless you appreciate the processes involved in enjoying food. Aside from the biological function, sharing the processes of food indulgence has shaped Gary’s identity, value and personality traits.

When looking back on family dinners, you can’t remember the exact taste of the food on your tongue. Instead you remember the taste in context to what you may have been saying or doing at the time. We really only remember food tasting good if we remember exclaiming out loud “this food is delicious” because in that moment in time the circumstances make it so. Since we remember mostly what we value, it is clear that the mere enjoyment of food but the encompassing surroundings that are connected to it. This idea holds true for Gary Cela. He describes one of his fondest family memories as being surrounded by his large family in Albania. He was born and raised there until he was eight. Although Gary has lived longer in North Carolina and identifies more as an American, he misses Albania and family there. Gary visited two years ago and plans to reunite again this coming year. He is excited to return again, not just looking forward to the delicious food indigenous to the region, but as a time to share with family around the table. Tavë kosi never tasted as good as when Gary is catching up, listening to family stories or just sharing laughs at mealtime. Since Gary doesn’t get much time to spend with his family abroad, these meals shared with them are especially significant in they are a permanent fixture in his memory. These meals may seem trivial on a day to day basis, but they are highly valued pieces of cultural identity, beliefs, and traditions being passed on to Gary so that he may preserve these mannerisms and attributes to the next generation of Celas.

Besides eating surroundings, the process of cooking also presents itself as a major factor in the enjoyment of food. Gary cooks at home with his mom for holiday celebrations with family friends. This differs from the large family setting in that it is more direct and intimate process. He describes the foods that he and his mom prepare together as typically traditional; turkey for Thanksgiving, ham for Christmas. They always experiment while cooking, throwing recipe constraints to the wind and joking around the kitchen while chopping carrots or stuffing turkeys. This warm and fun procedure indicates and emphasizes the importance of personalizing dishes to Gary and his mom. A guest knows that the dish made is their interpretation of dinner and was made with lots of love. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how the food tastes, what matters is how it got on the table. This easy going and loving sentiment seen in the cooking process is prevalent in Gary’s nature. He seems to always have a smile and is very calm in dealing with what could be high stress situations.

We can also look at bonding as a process of enjoying food specifically in his home town in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This area is known as a tourist hotspot for its beauty and variety. The Outer Banks website boasts Kill Devil Hills’ has it all; with an array of from fast food and fine dining, eateries range from Italian to Thai. Gary attests to this claim and even points out one of the best being a Mexican Grill, Fogata. He goes here often with friends to hang out and grab a bite to eat without having to spend a fortune. They spend a lot of time talking on just about anything and everything outside of studies, developing a strong bond that food seems to ease into. It is evident that his friends from home really miss meeting up with him outside of school as equally as he misses them. Gary has strong friendships that will last and are sure to meet up again at Fogata for bean burrito hang outs. His bonding experiences here have created his own tradition with friends as a different approach to enjoying food.

As a first year student Gary is also presented to a vast freedom of choices to define himself. Just in looking at the kind of food choices he makes, we can tell a lot about Gary’s personality. He recalls the best food he ever ate was a banana pudding milkshake and cheesy fries from his Cookout experience with his friend Shane. This experience not only displays the freedom to experiment beyond conventional borders also tells us something about Gary’s willingness to take risks. Gary is a guy of many thoughts and is not intimidated by challenge as displayed through his favorite books and movies. Ayn Rand and Inception don’t reflect conventional thinking by any means and require a bright minded audience to achieve full appreciation. Also, this experience with food displays Gary’s bold nature and willingness to take risks. As he always says, “You gotta risk it to get the biscuit.” Not too far off from the courageous food guru himself, Anthony Bourdain who says, “I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure.”

Gary’s experiences of the different processes attributed to food enjoyment reflect a lot about him. Looking at his memory, traditions and experiences with food, all point back to the start that food plays a larger role than nourishment and in Gary’s case more about the encompassing value food brings and shapes in him.

Different Views of Food as a College Student

Sarah Costine, a student from Green Creek, North Carolina, studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Similar to all of us, food plays a major role in her life. Sarah has chosen to take the Vegetarian path in life when it comes to her diet. However, facing a problem that many vegetarians cope with, Sarah’s vegetarianism caused her to develop health problems, and as a result she resorts to eating some lean meats, such as chicken in order to maintain her health. Nevertheless, she does not let her diet affect her enjoying family get-togethers on special occasions that require special meals such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Being a vegetarian in college can be difficult because there aren’t that many choices in the campus dining halls. Sarah struggles daily to find different foods so that she wont get bored with eating the same things day in and day out. Every few days, she has to eat chicken in order to make sure that she is getting the protein that her body needs. Although she does not necessarily enjoy this, because it is out of necessity rather than desire, it still deviates from the monotony of her meals on normal days.

When Sarah is at home, it is significantly easier for her to comply with her vegetarian diet. Dinner at her house is usually on the run and everyone cooks their own meals, unless it is a special occasion, in which case they have a family sit down dinner. Sarah’s family life works in her favor because although her siblings may not all be vegetarians, it doesn’t affect her since she makes her own meals the majority of the time. This also allows her to change up what she eats everyday, unlike her dining experience in college .

Despite being vegetarian, Sarah is still able to enjoy holidays like Thanksgiving in which meat is the highlight of the meal. She loves getting together with her extended family and enjoying their company. Her grandparents both live really close to her, so she gets to see them often, but this gives her a chance to see he aunts, uncles, and cousins that live far away. In this case, food, although experienced differently by her and some her omnivorous relatives, still brings everyone together in celebration.

Sarah’s life and her experiences with food show us how even when people have different ideas and practices regarding nutrition, food plays an enormous part in all of our lives. It is universal in that we all experience it differently in a way that we can relate to one another for doing so. It is also relatable for college students who are vegetarians who struggle daily to find variety in a world where the priority is given to the majority of the people, more specifically those who include meats in their diet.

Walking with Twain

As one of the greatest American writers, “Twain may have had a bellyful of the ‘damned human race’ but he still might caution humankind to be on the lookout for the untoward event or encourage them to hang tight and muddle through (Quirk 237).” Considering the words of Tom Quirk, Twain was great because he was transitional.  Twain did not allow any era labels bind him as a writer. He wrote in such a way that did not allow others to consider his work Romantic nor a naturalistic, a critical or a sympathetic. Rather he established himself as a humorist and a moralist taking the world as he saw it. ‘My first lie, and how I got out of it’ and ‘At the Appetite Cure,’ two of Twain’s lesser loved short stories, serve as catalysts to the understanding of his works and the time period. Not only do they effectively communicate Mark Twain’s outlook, they also universally extend into our lives today through the mechanisms that allowed for escape from society’s conventional thinking.

With an onslaught on the previous era of Romanticism and the conditions of his era conditions, Twain developed an authoritative tone in his humor that can easily be detected in almost all of his works.  His humorous commentaries and analyses tend to focus on controversial issues and prove effective in his established perception of absurdity (Quirk 237). If we zoom out to the world around Mark Twain, his inspiration becomes clear. Since he lived and wrote in the tumultuous time of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s when America was struggling with the drastic social, political, and economic impacts caused by the end of the Civil War, Slavery and the effects of the Industrial Revolution (Academic American History). In his lifetime, he had fought in the Civil War, witnessed the attitudes stretching across the country and the world through travels, lost loved ones and even had dabbled in a short lived newspaper business (The Gale Group). He had experienced it all by the close of his career when he wrote ‘At the Appetite Cure’ and ‘My first Lie and How I got out of it’ in 1898 and 1899 (The Gale Group). Twain was a wise and experienced American and by now, knew it. He had gathered credibility as a writer and had developed his ‘social conscience’ to misanthropically criticize America’s politics, religion and society (Mark Twain Biography). “The truth of his novel is not circumstance; it is the direct result of Twain's dedication to honesty and his integrity as an author, as an observer of the American and other cultures, and as a human being. This is what made and still makes Twain great (Mark Twain Biography).” Twain was an open rebel of truth. He dared to poke fun at everyday occurrences with an authority knowing that they would reveal the scandal of human nature. This use of humor in displaying the absurd is found in both ‘At the Appetite Cure’ and ‘My first Lie and How I got out of it’.

Looking at these short stories in particular, we can see what makes Twain so transitional in his experiential appeal of reality to the reader, when Romantics would have never dared to speak so obviously (Carl). In ‘My first lie and how I got out of it, he jests “join the universal conspiracy and keep so still that he shall deceive his fellow-conspirators into imagining that he doesn't know that the law exists. It is what we all do--we that know.” Here he points to the ignorance or rather choice of ignorance as a perpetual loop to keep order. The notion is almost a paradox in that keeping this loop a secret benefits you but really, lying just hurts us all, placing us in a unpredictable fake world. In At the Appetite Cure he similarly states, “the average man is what his environment and his superstitions have made him; and their function is to make him an ass. He can't add up three or four new circumstances together and perceive what they mean; it is beyond him. He is not capable of observing for himself; he has to get everything at second-hand. If what are miscalled the lower animals were as silly as man is, they would all perish from the earth in a year.” Again, he develops a paradox in that the connectivity with other humans is what we may define to be part of our existence. However, we depend on society so much all else becomes irrational, impairing our survival. In reading Twain, you laugh because the paradoxes are so cynically true and therefore, affirm his statement to be true (Carl). He sets issues to be so painfully wrong, that it takes on the assumption of authority enough to be able to crack a joke rather than be contemplative in detail, like previous writers.

The two short stories also use realist logic to take the concept of human impulse-like features such as appetite and lying and prove them both to be nothing more than conditioning. As John Dewey explains in Quirk’s Book “The opportunities the infant has to give these ‘native qualities expression invariably requires interacting with a ‘mature social medium (Quirk 193-194).’” Here he is talking about the human development of instinct and natural instinct. There is no need for a baby to cry, but from being exposed to world they have learned that crying amounts to attention, food, and change, it becomes necessary. This ‘impulse’ goes for the amount of meals per day and motives/methods for lying can equally be manipulated and thus reflect the society born into. ‘At the Appetite Cure’ establishes this notion in saying, “My system disguised--covert starvation. Grape-cure, bath-cure, mud- cure--it is all the same. The grape and the bath and the mud make a show and do a trifle of the work--the real work is done by the surreptitious starvation.” Here, multiple meals in one day are not necessary, but in the societal convention of family, capitalism and ‘health’ the thought of losing appetite becomes a crisis. Therefore, methods of repair are developed easily, but in deceit of the victim. Similarly the notion is clearly seen in ‘My first Lie and how I got out of it,’ points to the same societal twist “There is a prejudice against the spoken lie, but none against any other, and by examination and mathematical computation I find that the proportion of the spoken lie to the other varieties is as 1 to 22,894. Therefore the spoken lie is of no consequence, and it is not worthwhile to go around fussing about it and trying to make believe that it is an important matter.” Again, he is proclaiming spoken lie immoral is unnecessary in the midst of the more convincing and powerful unspoken lie. However, in getting along with society, gaping loopholes have been created to prove otherwise. In each of these short stories, Twain swiftly tackles simple human impulses with logic (Quirk 194). He flips them so that the reader questions what is, in fact, reality. This is why reasoning Mark Twain’s concepts seem to be primitive, but once applied to everyday life, they become indefinitely more complex due to the societal barriers put in place, whether realized or not. He was truly skilled in the art of observing, transitioning beyond scientific fact and pure imagination.

Twain may not have always explicitly arrived at a conclusion in his works; however, he clearly gave the reader a versatile seed of contemplation. We can think of his experiential authority and paradox humor as tools to reason out Slavery is wrong and Capitalism is a detrimental lie, but he doesn’t specifically state his stance (Mark Twain Biography). He just simply states the root of the ‘problem’ with human morality. Because Twain derives from the root, his pieces can specifically be applied to issues of today. For example, we can apply these short stories to issues we face today whether really specific our broad. Why do we continue to enhance the deterioration of the environment when we know it has a direct effect on our food security? Why does Shell continue to wastefully burn Natural Gas when it is killing off villages and could positively be used to power them? These seem to be quite simple issues that have simple solutions, but we fail to follow through because the nature of being human stands in the way. Lying, deceit and greed all have a clear negative moral connotation but society has found its loopholes into making them seem more acceptable. At this point in time, our generation is on the brink of transition just as Twain’s was. We have the choice to remain accepting the societal perception of ‘business as usual’ or the choice to transition into an era of change, assaulting the failing state of our world today both individually and as a global society. ‘At the Appetite Cure’, we can see that crisis allows for manipulation and business allows for deceit. We can see in ‘My first lie and how I got out of it’ that societal perception allows unspoken lies to be accepted. Human Nature is to cover up our faults in manipulating reality (The Gale Group). We must break these imposed impulses of society today in confronting issues related to climate change just as Twain encouraged over two decades ago on the issue of slavery. There is no doubt that Twain was transitional. He confronted the root of human’s paradox reality with a humorously critical eye, enabling his works to withstand the test of time.

Bibliography

Academic American History. "The Gilded Age, 1865-1900." 22 July 2011. Web. 07 Oct. 2011.<http://www.academicamerican.com/recongildedage/index.html>.

Carl, Eric. "The War of 1893; Or, Realism and Idealism in the Late Nineteenth Century." Academic Search Premier. Web.

"Mark Twain Biography." Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More. Demand Media. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. <http://www.essortment.com/mark-twain-biography-20396.html>.

Quirk, Tom. Mark Twain and Human Nature. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2007. Print.

The Gale Group, Contemporary Author’s Online. "Mark Twain Biography." UNet Users' Home Pages. Brandeis. Web. 09 Oct. 2011. <http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/twainbio.html>.

O. Henry vs. Guy de Maupassant

At the dawn of the 20th century, many people were fascinated by the literary art of composing short stories. Both in America and in Europe, people demanded short stories that enthralled and entertained them. Two of the most prominent writers, both of whom also had similar formulas for writing their tales, were Guy de Maupassant of France and O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) of America. Many people argue that Porter modeled his stories with their surprise twist endings after Maupassant, who made it famous, while others say that his writing style was different and paralleled that of Maupassant, but did not copy it.

“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and “The Necklace” by Maupassant illustrate the two authors’ similar short story telling styles. In “Gift of the Magi” the two protagonist want to make each other happy by getting each other presents that will complement their most prized possessions. But because of their love for each other, they each give up their most prized possessions in order to be able to afford the gift for the other. Thus, ironically, neither can use their gift. Similarly, in the necklace, the protagonist loses an expensive necklace that was lent to her and has to replace it. Her husband and her spend the proceeding years of their lives working hard to pay of the price of the necklace, only to find out in the end that the one she had been given in the beginning was a mere replica and was essentially worth nothing.

As exemplified in their short stories both authors used the surprise-inversion technique, which Maupassant coined and Porter later followed, or utilized depending one’s stance in the argument. (Fusco) This method consists of a short introduction to the situation, allowing the reader to connect to the character, but not so much so that he feels cheated by the twist ending, followed by an event which requires a solution. However, the final outcome does not bring fourth what the characters or the reader expected. This method embodies irony, mainly situational, in order to show the twist

Writing in the same time period- the late 19th century to the early 20th century- both of their works focused on the topic of the lives of lower working class people who had to struggle just to get by. As seen in the before-mentioned stories, the conflict that lead to the ending was rooted in the characters need for or lack of money. This adds a sort of satirical element to their style because they are criticizing the poor distribution of wealth among the classes in society. Even though Maupassant wrote in France and Porter in America, the societal issues were similar.

The reason that many critics believe that porter modeled his style after Maupassant, instead of accepting that they had naturally similar styles, is because he started writing after him. Porter’s career as a short story writer didn’t really blossom until the later years of his life. This gave him a chance to see what style of literature society enjoyed at the time and he wrote based on what was popular instead of writing to the best of his potential. He is sometimes accused of wasting his talents.

Where Porter’s style differs from Maupassant’s is that he strays from the use of sexual instincts in his writing. Maupassant’s writing contains sexual images and innuendos, with which Porter shared little inclination. (Fusco) His stories also portrayed his naturalist philosophy. They showed that no matter how much the characters tried, their efforts had little effect on the outcome. What happened in the end was just by chance and the characters could not change natures will.

Ultimately, analysis suggests that Porter and Maupassant shared a common writing style. Although Porter and his supporters made a case that the author did not derive his style and techniques from the Frenchman, Maupassant, it is highly likely that his inspiration came from society’s fondness of this genre of short stories.

"The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry - from the Short Story Library at American Literature."Short Stories & Classic Literature from around the World. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. .

"The Necklace - a Short Story by Guy De Maupassant." Short Stories & Classic Literature from around the World. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. .

Korb, Rena. "An Overview of 'The Gift of the Magi'" Literature Resource Center. Gale Cengage Learning, 2002. Web. 24 Sept. 2011.

Fusco, Richard. "Maupassant and the American Mainstream: Maupassant and O. Henry."Literature Resource Center. Gale Cengage Learning. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.

Literary critics consider Sherwood Anderson a “pioneer of modernism”. His unique writing style has been the subject of much debate and controversy, because people tend to have very opposing viewpoints on it. Anderson’s supporters thought of his writing style as groundbreaking while his critics considered it unprofessional and elementary. One thing that both his critics and his supporters agree on is that Anderson’s short story, “The Egg”, is a fantastic piece of literature and exemplifies everything that is good about Anderson’s writing style. Anderson’s autobiography, “Sherwood Anderson’s Memoirs”, is also one of a few of his writings that is widely respected. The two pieces of literature, although one is fiction and the other an autobiography, are remarkably similar in style; they both represent the most attractive thing about Anderson’s writing- his ability to simply tell a story that any human can understand and relate to. Sherwood Anderson was a unique writer with impressive storytelling ability. His critics called him “immature” and said that although his first works were decent, he never really grew as an author. They said that his work never improved and that Anderson refused to take advice or positive criticism on his writing. Anderson wrote in his memoir that he chose to not take advice from critics because he did not believe in writing for the critics, he believed in writing for the average person. He wrote that he considered himself to be a very “typical American”, and his writing certainly reflected that belief. In many of his fictional stories like “The Egg” or one of his most famous, “The Hands”, Anderson creates a simple character and throughout the story he reveals their weakness and their selfishness, basic human traits that we all possess. His stories have very few characters, and they rarely have much dialogue. Still, he always manages to show their true personality and make it easy to understand them, to hate them, or to pity them, on a very basic human level. In his personal memoir Sherwood Anderson wrote that he believed “There is a kind of persistent youth in some men and I am one of that sort.” Anderson knew that his writing had not matured, but he simply saw it as his personality, not as a flaw. Anderson’s critics viewed his “youthful” writing as immaturity and a major personal weakness. Many critics disapproved Anderson’s memoirs because his memoirs were actually not completely based in fact. He chose to not include very many things like dates and names, instead his autobiography focused on feeling and ideas that he had at various points throughout his life and how they affected him personally. Supporters argue that although his writing is not the best technical autobiography, it is still a great piece of literature because Anderson tells the story of his life in a way that is relatable to readers, and reveals who he is on a personal level. “The Egg” is written like a memoir and although it is fiction, it gives the reader the impression that it could perfectly well be a true story. Anderson’s characters are very human, with human desires and selfish thoughts that make them much more intriguing than if they were more perfect. There are people who would go so far as to say that Anderson’s writing was a turning point in American literature, and that he paved the way for a new generation of writers like John Steinbeck that wrote about the thoughts, the feelings, and the ideas of actual people. This new way of writing made fiction more about the story being told, and not so much about facts or prose. Anderson may have been an immature writer, but he brought a childlike life into his writing that was a breath of fresh air to readers who were used to much heavier literature

Food as a Means of Contrasting Cultures

         Mark Twain wrote that an American man forced to consume European cuisine would “gradually waste away and eventually die”.  Twain’s writings often reference food and cooking, and they speak with a reverence that at times seems to emulate religious terminology.  However, more than a gastronomic author causes these recurring descriptions; Twain utilizes food to compare cultures.  Twain critiques the foods and practices of Europe and the United States in “At the Appetite Cure” and the penultimate chapter of A Tramp Abroad, in a political manner to assess the cultures, creating works that champion America while criticizing European nations.  

            Twain uses words that describe the hearty taste of American food while praising its simplicity; this is precisely the same way that Twain views America.  Twain often praises American foods, such as when he speaks in A Tramp Abroad of a “mighty porterhouse steak and inch and a half thick, hot and sputtering from the griddle... enriched with butter of the most unimpeachable freshness and genuineness” as an American food whose goodness cannot be accurately described with words.  According to the Oxford Companion, the message that Twain was sending to the American people was that they should be proud of their tasty and abundant, yet simple food.  Twain creates characters in multiple stories that praise this homely food, ranging from characters in Huckleberry Finn to Roughing It to the narrator in A Tramp Abroad (Camfield).  These characters not only praise the food, they praise the culture that produces the food through their subtle commentary of the society. It is through the praise of characters and the personal writings of Twain himself that we are able to see just how much Twain respected and prized the straight-forwardness of the American diet and culture.

            Twain uses European food as a vehicle for accosting the continent’s culture and society.   While the narrator in A Tramp Abroad speaks mainly of food, Twain clearly intimates his views of more than the food.  Twain never overtly criticizes Europeans; rather he masks his criticism by describing the horrors of European food.  In A Tramp Abroad, the narrator is subjected to coffee that “resembles the real thing as hypocrisy resembles holiness”, bread that is “cold; cold and tough, and unsympathetic... always the same tiresome thing”, which is followed by “tasteless” butter that is “a sham” and made with “goodness knows what”.  While these menu items would make a terrible meal, the vocabulary Twain uses does not allow readers to focus only on the food.  Readers are confronted with words describing food such as “hypocrisy”, “unsympathetic”, and “sham”.  These words are not words that are commonly used in the evaluation and characterization of food, they are words that are normally used to describe, unfavorably so, people or cultures.  This attention to the detail of the vocabulary of the food descriptions further emphasizes that Twain did not hold European cuisine or culture in high esteem.

            It is not only the food of Europe that elicits such a negative response from Twain, their practices, designed to improve health, are also condemned.  The short story “At the Appetite Cure” was inspired by the real experiences of the Twain’s family: the Clemons.  As members of the family began to experience health problems such as seizures, depression, and general aches the Clemons family spent a great deal of time in Europe at the world-renowned baths and spas seeking cures.  Twain became disillusioned when no cures came, and no improvement was seen, and wrote the short story as a parody of the resorts (Camfield).  Twain realized that the resorts were not conducive for regaining good health, when he observed that many of the premises upon which the resorts based their cures were ones that a patient could perform without any medical supervision, such as skipping meals, or were based on inconsequential methods, such as bathing in a particular water (Camfield, Ober).  Twain saw these failings as his family’s health began to decline and he came to the conclusion that his earlier faith in the baths had been misplaced.  While Twain created a character in the story who is cured by one of these miracle spas, the tone of the story indicates a condescension toward Dr. Haimburger, the head doctor of the spa, as if to say that the services rendered by the doctor are superfluous.  This further criticism of European nations implies that Twain did not believe that they could be self-sufficient, rather they must rely on the services of other to survive.

The title of the short story is a double-entendre, which adds to the concept that Twain did not think highly of Europe: for tramp can be both a verb and a noun.  While the narrator is physically tramping through Europe, the title can also be taken as a further insult to Europeans.  The narrator often tries to adopt the views of the Europeans and in doing so, according to the Oxford Companion, becomes a tramp that is no longer loyal to his country and its values.  While that criticism is one that is leveled at a fictional American traveler, it is easily extended to all Americans who aspire to adopt some of the views and customs of Europe.  Labeling a man who tries to adopt European values as a tramp expresses the depth of contempt Twain felt for the Europeans; as if wanting to be more like them was an unforgivable sin.

Twain also criticizes the European method for providing food to visitors in A Tramp Abroad.  He laments that people traveling through Europe must stay in hotels, a “sorrowful business”.  He compares this method of providing for travelers’ needs with the American way, which consists of travelers dining with private families.  The narrator states that if the Europeans did this, Europe would have a “charm that it now lacks”.  Twain uses the fact that travelers are forced to eat in impersonal hotels instead of in a familial atmosphere to further criticize the European culture, insinuating that the Europeans are not hospitable or welcoming. 

In both the short story “At the Appetite Cure” and the chapter of A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain’s opinions on the differences between American and Europeans cultures become clear.  It becomes obvious, through Twain’s analysis of food and practices, that he favors the simplicity and wholesomeness of American society to the overly sophisticated, yet unwelcoming aspects of the culture of Europe.

Ober, K Patrick.  Mark Twain and Medicine: “Any Mummery Will Cure”.  Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Print

Camfield, Gregg.  The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.  Print.

The Mark Twain House.  PBS- Mark Twain Classroom.  1907.  PBS.  Web.  12 October, 2011.


Twain, Mark.  A Tramp Abroad.  New York: Harper and Brothers, 1921.  Print


Twain, Mark.  "At the Appetite Cure."  Cosmopolitan.  Issue 25.  New York.  1898.

The Downplay of Innocence

Referring to H.H. Munro’s (Saki) short story, “The Open Window”, George James Spears wrote,  “This, for a change, is pure, unadulterated humor, with no trace whatever of acerbity or bitter almonds” (Spears).

“Alexander Porterfield, whose essay in 1925 tried to analyze Munro's art
and place in literary history, called his humor the ‘non-moral humor of a child’” (Cheikin121). 

Despite critics’ claims that Saki’s work is childish and solely for the purpose of pleasure, his stories contain strong moral viewpoints. In the stories “The Open Window” and “Reginald’s Christmas Revel,” deceitful characters that lie and play practical jokes are portrayed positively, celebrating their cunning, while the gullible victims are characterized negatively. Though lying and playing practical jokes may be considered juvenile, Saki’s characterization, sarcasm, and the actions of his characters downplay innocence, advocating the moral lesson of cleverness triumphing over naivety.

 In “The Open Window”, Saki creates foils in his principle characters, portraying gullible Frampton negatively, and the deceiving niece positively, lauding the clever character and denouncing the naive one. In the story, Saki highlights the niece’s astuteness through her ability to fabricate lengthy and detailed stories on the spot. In having her schemes result successfully, Saki rewards her deceitful yet clever behavior. In contrast, falling for the niece’s joke and believing her story about ghosts makes Frampton come across as extremely gullible for trusting a fifteen-year-old stranger. In addition, Saki emphasizes the niece’s wit further with the final line of the story, “Romance at a short notice was her specialty.” This acknowledgement of her abilities to deceive fosters a positive characterization of the niece for the audience because it lauds her cleverness. On the contrary, Frampton is never portrayed positively. In fact, the first description we receive as an audience of Frampton is negative; with his own sister describing him as mopey and introverted: “I know how it will be . . . you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping.” Moreover, Saki employs sarcasm to mock Frampton, “Frampton, who labored under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’s ailments infirmities . . .” Phrases such as “widespread delusion” and “labored” carry a sarcastic tone that mock Frampton’s tendency to mope and bother others. In highlighting the niece’s cleverness and rewarding her schemes, Saki celebrates her quickness, whereas Frampton’s negative portrayal as gullible, mopey, and bothersome denounces his character. Thus, exhibiting that naïve behavior is seen as a fault while cleverness is seen as a virtue.

Similarly, mischievous and sarcastic Reginald of “Reginald’s Christmas Revel” is portrayed positively for tricking others, while the targets of his jokes, the other members of the household and Miss Langshan-Smith, are portrayed adversely.  Reginald opens the story with a sarcastic line, “They say, (said Reginald) that there’s nothing sadder than victory except defeat. If you’ve ever stayed with dull people during what is alleged to be the festive season, you can probably revise that saying.” Reginald’s sarcastic tone in saying, “there’s nothing sadder” than staying with dull people in an “alleged” holiday season showcases his humor and wit and adds to his likability as a character. The so called “dull people” that Reginald refers to continue to be portrayed as dull and gullible throughout the story, falling for a number of Reginald’s practical jokes. For instance, Reginald convinces the household that he will participate in their book game, making them wait on him for forty minutes while he “reads up” on the plot. In reality however, Reginald is just fooling around to waste time. He concludes, “Of course these games are very educational, but, personally, I prefer bridge.” Again, Saki emphasizes Reginald’s wit with a humorous and sarcastic remark that adds to his likability. Simultaneously, the household comes across as very gullible for waiting up for forty minutes. In addition, perhaps Reginald’s most thoughtful prank is the one against Miss Langshan-Smith, described as a “formidable” and “uncomfortable” woman. Reginald successfully makes the rest of the household believe she has tried to shoot herself by falsifying a goodbye letter signed by her and then making a gunshot noise. Just as in the preceding story, Saki rewards mischief by allowing the plot to carry out successfully, while making the other members of the household appear foolish for their extreme gullibility in searching her for bullets for a quarter of an hour. To conclude, Reginald’s sarcastic and humorous remarks serve in his favor making him more likable to the audience, whereas the targets of his jokes come across negatively due to their gullibility.  Saki rewards Reginald’s practical jokes, praising his cleverness but punishes the household, reprimanding their naivety. Accordingly, Saki reinforces his moral lesson of cleverness prevailing over naivety.

Saki’s use of intricate and sophisticated rhetoric to develop and express moral viewpoints is atypical of children’s literature. Typically, children’s literature relies solely on the direct and simplistic method of demonstrating different outcomes and consequences for characters. While Saki does this as well by rewarding clever characters and punishing naïve characters, he also relies on the use of sophisticated forms of rhetoric such as characterization, sarcasm, and practical jokes to arrive at these consequences and deliver his moral lesson. The simplistic nature of children’s literature, rarely inclusive of advanced rhetoric, does not require much analysis from the younger reader and is therefore suitable for simply teaching a lesson. Saki’s work however, carries a message while also entertaining the reader with wit, humor, and sarcasm. His stories offer the reader the opportunity to witness the moral lessons unfolding by analyzing his characters, laughing at his sarcasm, and following his practical jokes. Miriam Cheikin states, “Saki's practical jokes are an act of creation that we witness unfolding, that we create with him almost simultaneously, or just a step behind” (Cheikin 127).  In featuring practical jokes as a method to relay moral lessons, Saki demonstrates the differing reactions of the characters and their consequences while also actively engaging the reader.

Although Saki centers his stories on seemingly childish characters, these characters prove all the wiser as they outsmart the others. While clever characters are lauded for their behavior, characters that are gullible are mocked via humor and sarcasm. Saki shows the audience the repercussions of naivety in order to relay his moral viewpoint that in this world those who are gullible or naive will be at the mercy of those who know better. As a reader, one can apply this moral perspective in a number of ways. First, one could interpret it as not trusting strangers or acquaintances. Second, one could apply it more seriously and avoid naivety as a means to avoid victimization in general, criminal or emotional. Whichever the mode of interpretation, Saki’s negative characterization and victimization of gullible characters is without a doubt wholly intentional to relay his message. Thus, while Saki’s stories may at first glance appear as “pure, unadulterated humor,” he uses humor not just for the amusement and pleasure of the reader, but also as an aid in relaying his moral views.

Works Cited

Cheikin, Miriam Quen. "Saki: Practical Jokes as a Clue to Comedy." English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 21.2 (1978): 121-133. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Munro, H.H. "The Open Window." AmericanLiterature.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct.
     2011. <http://www.americanliterature.com/Munro(SAKI)/SS/
     TheOpenWindow.html>.

Munro, H.H. "Reginald's Christmas Revel." AmericanLiterature.com. N.p., n.d.
     Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.americanliterature.com/Munro(SAKI)/SS/
     ReginaldsChristmasRevel.html>. 

Spears, George James. "The Short Stories." The Satire of Saki: A Study of the Satiric Art of Hector H. Munro. New York: Exposition Press, 1963. 27-77. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 115. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.

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