Honors Thesis Archive
| Author | Amanda Wampler |
|---|---|
| Title | A Strange Language of Sympathy: Ideologies of Food and Hunger in Plath and Kerouac |
| Department | English |
| Advisor | Bob Davis |
| Year | 2018 |
| Honors | Departmental Honors |
| Full Text | View Thesis (196 KB) |
| Abstract | In On the Road and The Bell Jar, the hungry spirit of American adolescence is heard singing loud and clear in the work of both writers. The characters, Sal and Esther, struggle in 1950's America: a cut-throat, consumption-driven culture that erases human connection. In these works, food becomes a language that gives a voice to social norms and constructs. Food imagery, descriptions of appetite, and expressions of physical hunger all work together to create moments where compassion and mutual understanding shine through. Food acts as an agent of symbolism in both works: emotional hunger and spiritual starvation, loneliness and rejection, connection and intimacy, and a medium of escape and recovery. Plath and Kerouac display the power of food as a link to an abundance of meanings. |
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