Sara Suleri Analysis

Quotes from Meatless Days by Sara Suleri:

“Yet I was shocked. It was my mother, after all, who had told me that sweetbreads are sweetbreads, and if she were wrong on that score, then how many other simple equations had I now to doubt?” (p.731)

“What I had really wanted to reply, first to Tillat and then to my Pakistani friends, was: yes, of course, who do you think I am, what else could they possibly be? Anyone with discrimination could immediately discern the connection between kapura and their namesake […]” (p.735)

    Sara has a complicated relationship with food. The first sentence of the story confused me a bit then I understood as I kept reading. She felt devised by her mother that she had been lied to about what she was eating. Sara had trust in her mother out of all people in the world would be the last person to lie to her. I could sort of relating to this because growing up my mom would do the same thing for my favorite soup. She told me New England Chowder soup had chicken in it and I thought it was for the longest it was, but it was actually clam. I cannot imagine if it was food from my native culture that would have been harder to process and understand. Sara felt really discouraged when she no longer felt connected to her culture. This food had been a part of her culture and heritage and yet she did not know the correct meat that was actually in it. I believe that different cultures use meals in a way to bond with each other. When she said that she could not eat alone I think it was because of how she was raised and her culture. For my family, Sundays were the day where we had formal dinners of homemade foods. 

Word Count: 305

Comments

  1. Women and Gender StudiesMarch 29, 2021 at 6:43 AM

    I definitely agree with what you have to say on how complicated her relationship with food was. She had ben lied to about one of hr favorite foods and learned it was something no one would want to eat. I feel like a lot of parents that to there children as you mentioned in your blog it definitely happened to me. Hr culture definitely effected her relationships with food as well she grew up in one and then changed when she moved to America. Im sure she had to find her own way and how sh like to do things concerning food.

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  2. Katie TaylorMarch 29, 2021 at 6:47 AM

    Great job relating your own personal experience to what Suleri was experiencing in the text. I also had a similar experience when I learned that calamari was squid. Learning that the food you like is not what you think it is can completely change your opinion of it. Also, parents sometimes neglect to inform their children about what they are eating because they know that their children will not eat it once they know what it really is. Sometimes its for the good of the child to keep it a secret and that is probably why Suleri's mother did not tell her what sweetbreads really were.

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