Gluttony and Greed

The author saturates the short story with images of food and eating in order to enact his explorations regarding gluttony and greed. At the start of "Horse Soup," the third person narrator introduces Olya, Volodya, and Vitka in the same paragraph, sentence, and manner as they introduce the objects in the "packed restaurant car" (132). In this way, the author is formally conveying that these three characters are products of their environment. What they consume becomes who they are. In the passages that follow, the narrator goes on to describe each of the "different ways" in which each of these three characters eats (135). Volodya, for example, heaps "salt and pepper onto his egg," spears his food, and shoves it all into his mouth without cutting it (135). Vitka mashes, spears, dips, slops, and chews her meal with similar slovenliness. Although Olya appears to eat in a...