The Symbolic Use of Hunger in Literature :: essays research papers

The symbolic use of hunger in literatureThroughout history, some(prenominal) men and women shake struggled trying to achieve unattainable goals in the count of close-minded societies. Authors have often used this theme to develop stories of characters that daring obstacles and are sometimes unable to overcome the stigma that is attached to them. This inability to rise above prejudice is many times illustrated with the metaphor of hunger. non only do people beat from physical hunger, but they overly suffer from spiritual hunger a need to be proficient of life. When this spiritual hunger is not satisfied, it can destroy a life, bonny as physical hunger can kill as well. Characters such as Edna Pontellier of Kate Chopins The Awakening, Hugh Wolfe of Rebecca Harding Davis Life in the Iron Mills, Jane Eyre of Charlotte Brontes novel, and the woman being depict fed in Djuna Barnes How It Feels to Be Forcibly Fed all suffer from an insatiable hunger, which, in most cases, ulti mately is not fulfilled. Poets such as Anna Wickham also describe the p unwarranted of humanity using hunger as a means to illustrate the feeling of deprivation. Although all of these characters come from intelligible walks of life, they share a common struggle. Edna belongs to upper class Creole society, Hugh Wolfe is a poverty-stricken immigrant laborer, and Jane Eyre, an orphan. These characters lived during the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, in completely distinct dry lands, yet all had their creativity stifled by society. Similarly, Djuna Barnes poem of the British woman who goes on a hunger strike in an blast to get the vote and Anna Wickhams poem The Affinity describing the angst of a deprived wife, some(prenominal) depict women who lived during the early twentieth century and, although different, were both suppressed in some way.Edna Pontellier was a woman who was forced to comply with the rules of Creole society, but, in being reluctant to do so, found he rself in a world where she felt trapped. She saw how women were supposed to behave but did not have that behavior instilled in herself. She felt confined by her husbands expectations, and did not wishing to live out the typical role of wife and mother. When Robert came into her life, she began to feel that she was being awakened. She was beginning to experience life in a new light and the hunger for change began to emerge.