Food

Food serves as a central symbol in Washington’s Family Meal. For many of the characters in the novel, baking and cooking act as avenues through which to express love, care, and tenderness. Cam and Kai’s relationship, for example, grows more serious and connective when Cam begins to cook for Kai. In the final lines of the novel, Kai’s ghost asks if Cam has eaten, thus demonstrating Kai’s unwavering love for Cam. Importantly, food also emerges as a locus of stress and anxiety for Cam. After Kai’s death, Cam shows many signs of disordered eating. In these moments, his fraught relationship with food mirrors his inability to full process Kai’s death.

Flowers

Throughout the novel, flowers (and flora more generally) symbolize both beauty and love. In the sections of Family Meal that center on Kai, Washington includes many photographs of blossoming...