Significance of Food

Food in the novel symbolizes the opposite of what one would expect; food is meant to bring people together but actually does the opposite. Food signifies disagreement. Englander rhetorically plays with food as a symbol. For example, he writes, “They were going to send the Egyptians running from jets of fire, toast the enemy up like bread” (56). In another example, the General as narrative voice compares a tank’s upper appearance to “a melon rind” (58). The novel’s characters imagine food in war scenes. This combination is seemingly counterintuitive.