Food

The theme of food is prominent throughout the novel. Rose develops a sense for tasting people’s emotions. This is first revealed when her mother bakes her a lemon cake with chocolate frosting for her ninth birthday. She senses her mother’s emotions. She then rejects the cake in the same way she would reject that her mother would feel this way.

Rose is capable of handling the emotions in the food if they are positive, which doesn’t happen often, or if they’re sterile, such as her being able to eat the lollipop after leaving the emergency room. Since the lollipop was completely manufactured by a machine, there was no direct human contact that created emotions for Rose. Unpleasant emotions are difficult to digest.

She is fearful of cooking for herself because she is frightened of her own emotions. When she finally does cook...