Food as Motif

In the short stories “A Magnificent Spread,” “A Summer Night’s Kiss,” “Life Ceremony,” and “Eating the City,” the author uses repeated descriptions and images of food in order to explore the connection and exchange between different groups of people. In “A Magnificent Spread,” the first person narrator’s sister Kumi’s plans “to cook some dishes” from her magical homeland of Dundilas for her future in-laws acts as the main source of narrative tension (23). Both the narrator and her husband are worried that if Kumi cooks these dishes, “her whole life could be affected” and her future with Keiichi could be ruined (23). They soon discover that Keiichi has intentionally designed the lunch to prove that “What people eat is part of their own culture” and thus the “culmination of their own unique personal life experiences” (37). The group’s disjointed spread of various foods...