Conclusion

Overall I have looked at seven quite different books however they do have similarities when it comes to the representation and meaning of food. The Railway Children, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Oliver Twist all use food as a way to represent the struggle and poverty the characters live in. Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter focus on the more magical effects of food, foods no one has heard of before and foods that make you grow and shrink. The representation of food in Heidi shows that just because food may appear simple it does not mean it’s any less delicious than what others would consider treats. This then brings me onto my next point, what foods are considered treats? Through my research I have found that anything can be a treat it is up to the character who defines whether or not it is a treat to them. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe use food as a way to foreshadow bad events, emphasising that food is not always as it seems. It may be delicious and wonderful to eat what you like  but it is not always the right thing to do. Edmond gets his brother and sister’s trapped because he’s too selfish to think about anything but Turkish Delight. As I have looked at books over a vast period of time you would think descriptions of food would differ over time. The only thing I really found that differed was the purpose of food in each book and what is signified. I’m not certain that had anything to do with the time period but rather the purpose differed due to the different story lines and ideas in each book. 

Works Cited

Lewis, C. S., and Pauline Baynes. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print.

Rowling, J. K., and Mary GrandPré. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: A.A. Levine, 1998. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. N.p.: Wordsworth Edns., 1993. Print.

Dahl, Roald, and Joseph Schindelman. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. New York: Knopf, 1964. Print.

Spyri, Johanna, and Ruth Sanderson. Heidi. New York: Ariel /Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Print.

Nesbit, E., and C. E. Brock. The Railway Children. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1941. Print.

Harry Potter is a brilliant children's book. It was the series that kept me entertained for hours and the films were just as good. I decided to focus on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone published in 1997 as I enjoyed both watching and reading the parts with Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs and all sorts! These out of the ordinary sweets used to fill me with excitement and I often wished I could buy the earwax flavour jelly bean that Dumbledore eats at the end of the book. (Don't ask me why.)

The lists of all the treats available shows Harry's disbelief of all the things there are available and how none of them he has heard of before. Harry's excitement makes him appear childlike as any child who saw all those weird and wonderful foods would probably want to do the same and buy everything!

Just before Christmas I visited Harry Potter World and it was great. I got to see all the sets and the great hall and the tables were covered with roast chicken, potatoes, peas, everything you would expect to eat with a roast dinner!

Look at all that food! (Of course it the food was real but it looked just as good.)












At the end of the tour I went to the gift shop and it was crazy! There were children everywhere picking up Chocolate Frogs, Jelly Beans, everything! 'Mum, can I have these please? Oh and maybe this too?' That was all I could hear, just like Harry the children wanted to try everything too. I'll be honest so did I, but when I looked at the prices, there was no way I was going to spend that! £8.99 for ONE CHOCOLATE FROG!?

So I decided to make my own simply by melting some chocolate, spooning the chocolate into molds and then putting in the fridge to set. Here's how they turned out.

So they didn't turn out too badly, however the parrot lost his tail, oops. They may not be as good as the official Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs but they are definitely cheaper and more worth your money!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) is one of my favorite childhood book's. Packed full off treats, sweets and an exciting adventure!  Poor Charlie Buckett lives in a house that is falling down and all the family can afford to eat is watery, cabbage soup. Not my idea of a treat! And it clearly isn't Charlie's either!

Charlie longs for chocolate, he's tired of cabbage. This is evidently clear by the use of ellipses and capitals of 'CHOCOLATE'. Charlie doesn't think of much else and chocolate is one of his favourite things. However his family can only afford to buy him one chocolate bar a year, on his birthday.

This is a  recipe for cabbage soup:

The soup looks pretty gross in my opinion! Dull and soggy.

However as the story moves on and Charlie wins the golden ticket and goes to the factory there is a lot more description of magical foods and delights in Willy Wonka's factory.

Charlie listing all the wonderful things he has seen displays his excitement and disbelief. He is experiencing things he never thought he could, even in his wildest dreams! There is huge contrast to his life before and his life now. 

I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in theatre with my boyfriend and it was BRILLIANT! The whole theatre was full of children, obviously they love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as much as I do. The theatre production captured the essence of the book perfectly and a lot of the scenes were even better than I imagined, like Augustus and the chocolate fountain and Violet turning into the blueberry, I wish you were allowed to take pictures!

Stepping into the fantastical land of Narnia (1950) there are various parts in the book where the element of food is displayed. Set in War time, treats such as jam, sweets and syrup would have started to be rationed, so for most children getting these things would have been considered a treat. The characters in the book are four siblings, the eldest peter, then Susan, Edmond and Lucy they are evacuated from the city to the countryside as War has broken out.

One day when all the siblings are playing hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest hides in a wardrobe and finds herself in a magical world called Narnia. She meets a man who's half human and half fawn, Mr Tumnus. She goes back to his house for tea. This is where the first mention of food appears.

Toast and cake sounds like a nice tea, I'm not so sure about sardines though. I personally don't really have an opinion on them, but I'm certain to a child they would not appear too appetizing! Mr Tumnus lists all the foods and things in an attempt to persuade Lucy to go to his house. It is a cruel thing to do, especially as young children can be easily persuaded to do something or go somewhere if appealing food is involved.

Look they have the eyes on them and everything! YUCK.

Later on in the book, food appears again and is used in the same way, to persuade/bribe a child to do something. Edmond enters Narnia despite all the siblings believing Lucy made it up and he falls into the trap of the White Witch. She seems pleasant enough to the ignorant, selfish Edmond and once she conjures up some Turkish Delight with her magic, Edmond practically falls into her lap.

The Queen uses the Turkish Delight as a way to trick Edmond into doing what she wants. Here food is represented as foreshadowing bad events to come. The description of the Turkish Delight highlights the beauty and deliciousness of the food. 'Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre' The way it is describe is to make the reader believe how magical and unlike anything else  the Turkish Delight is, emphasising the hold the Queen has on Edmond just through giving him his favourite food.

Recipe for Turkish Delight:

 

The Railway Children

The Railway Children was a book and film that I loved as a child. It was an authentic classic and like Heidi really touched me emotionally. (Yes, I'm very soppy when it comes to certain films.) It is written by the very famous author E.Nesbit and published in 1906. The story is about three children's father, (Roberta, Peter and Phyllis) who is wrongly accused and sent to jail. Their mother just tells them, their father has been sent away on business. During their father's absence the children's mother tries to make ends meet but their fortune begins to run out and they move to a smaller house near a railway. Their mother falls ill and there is no money to pay the doctor so the children befriend a man who gets on the same train everyday. In the end this man helps to prove the children's father's innocence and the father returns home. This is the scene that gets me every single time!

There are many features of food in The Railway Children both are presented in both positive and negative lights. When the children's father is taken away and money begins to run out the children have to adjust to more basic food and have to ration the food they usually have plenty of. 

Scrag-end is the cut found at the neck of the animal and is a cheaper value of meat. It is used in foods such as casseroles and stews. Broth is also a meal that poor people would often eat and would mainly consist of water, bones and vegetables. Basically any scraps of food that were left over.  The tone of the children's mother is brisk and premptory as she admits she cannot afford the food.

Broth

I found this recipe for broth and reading though it, it reminded me of the food Oliver had to eat in Oliver Twist. Both broth and gruel consist of low cost foods. Oliver Twist eats gruel because it's the only food the orphanage can mass produced without it costing a fortune. Gruel signifies the poverty in Oliver Twist and likewise the broth in The Railway children show the huge change and contrast from their known wealthy  life to now a struggling family. 

I have to say I would definitely prefer broth over gruel any day!

The children's relationship with food at the beginning of the novel is good. They have tasty food to eat and plenty of it. As the novel unravels there is more of an emphasis on the children having to ration their intake and eat plainer foods. However on Bobbie's (Roberta's) birthday Peter makes a real effort to surprise her and a more positive relationship between characters and food is displayed.

Heidi

Heidi is a children's novel written by Swiss author, Johanna Spyri and was published in 1880. I hadn't read Heidi before deciding to use it on my blog but I have to say it was an easy, enjoyable read. Heidi is a very lovable character as she is so sweet, thoughtful and charming so I automatically warmed to her. Saying it was an easy read in terms of the physical book would be a bit hypocritical as it was possibly the oldest book I have taken out of the library, and I was terrified at each turn of the page one might fall out.

 Up in the Swiss Alps I followed little Heidi's life as she grew up in the mountains, getting used to the air, the food and the ways people live. The book is full of positive connotations, Heidi loves the views, the simple, fresh food and all the people that surround her. 

The food Heidi eats in the mountain couldn't really be called treats or sweets but nevertheless she enjoys what she is given as though it was treats.

The language used to describe the bread and cheese makes quite a simplistic meal seem as though the most extravagant, delicious meal in the world. (In Heidi's opinion anyway.) The simile of the cheese 'as soft as butter' creates imagery of buttery, melted cheese, positively personifying the texture and taste of the food. Heidi's contentment and love of the food is evident not only through the literary devices used to portray the food, but also through the description of herself. "...the child looked the picture of content as she sat eating..." This obviously shows Heidi's delight and enjoyment of the food.

As I mentioned earlier although bread and cheese would not be considered a treat for many children it is for some, especially Peter. Peter lives on the mountain not too far from Heidi and he befriends her. He is a lot less fortunate than Heidi and as much as Heidi enjoys the meal of bread and cheese she is not as grateful as Peter is when she offers him some.

Peter is clearly ecstatic at the prospect of the bread. The verb 'seized' shows his desperation and desire for the bread. Bread is clearly a very extravagant and rare meal for Peter showing how usually eats poorly. Peter's response to the bread is similar to those of the orphans in Oliver Twist. Having bread on the occasion in the work house was considered to be a tremendous treat! Imagine that! Now don't get me wrong, I love a cheese toasty but when it comes to chocolate cake, spaghetti bolognese or a roast dinner I know what wins!

I watched the film version of Heidi and I cried many times throughout. It was a very emotional but enthralling adaptation of the book. Heidi's grandfather is a lot harsher and mean than he appears is in the book and her love for the food he provides is not particularly evident until towards the end of the film. Certain events are altered in the film but overall I think it captured the characters personas really well and the settings were beautiful. At around 6 minutes into this clip is where Heidi's love and longing for her Grandfathers food is apparent.

Evidently, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland displays a very different perception of food to Oliver Twist and Heidi, Oliver Twist and Heidi have very real life conceptions of food and display the basic foods such as bread, cheese and not to mention gruel. The food represented in Alice in Wonderland is less realistic, cake that makes you shrink and grow dramatically. In Alice in Wonderland food is presented as an element of fantasy and enhances the vivid imagination of both character and author. 

However the character's relationship with food in Alice and Wonderland and Heidi is similar. Both Heidi and Alice speak and describe the foods they eat positively. Oliver in Oliver Twist does not find the food appealing and his relationship with it is very evidently not a fruitful one!

The next book I will be exploring is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll in 1865. There is quite a difference in the description of food in this book compared to Oliver Twist as the food in Alice in Wonderland is supposed to be magical and unordinary, well that's how I imagined it anyway. The whole book is based around weird and wonderful things and the first weird but I guess wonderful event with food happens when Alice finds herself at the bottom of a hole in the ground.

When I was growing up I was taught never to eat things that looked suspicious or if I didn't know what it was. Alice is evidently cautious about drinking the unknown substance but as it is not marked 'POISON' she deems it safe to try, this shows her naivety and lack of regard to negative consequence.

She also finds the liquid to taste quite nice and like most children anything that tastes nice they are sure to consume as much as they can of it. The syndetic listing of the flavours is very similar to the song the orphans sing in Oliver Twist, the foods they long for. The juxtaposing foods almost make it difficult to imagine what the liquid would look like. Would it look like custard or gravy?

As a child I would probably too have eaten the cake, who wouldn't? From this description I imagined it to be small and pretty looking, possibly a bright colour which would be sure to attract a little me. Unlike the gruel in Oliver Twist, the drink Alice drinks is full of flavour and the cake is delicious looking. 


I found a clip of the film and from that I decided to try and make my own version of the cake. Wish me luck! I always imagined the cake to look like a fondant fancy as they are cute, small and if I saw one I would definitely want to eat it.

So this is my attempt (let me heavily emphasize that word) at making my version of fondant fancies. My boyfriend's mum  assisted me with the baking, so luckily I didn't burn anything! This was the Mary Berry recipe I followed:

Right! Here we go!

First things first I got all the ingredients together, grabbed a large mixing bowl and very carefully measured and whisked the mix together.

So far so good! The mixture didn't go lumpy like it usually does for me and in the end we got a smooth consistency that was ready to be spooned out and put in the oven, brilliant!

This is the cake glazed with apricot jam and then with a thin layer of marzipan placed on top. Yes, I did have help with the marzipan, there's no way I would have got it looking as neat as that!

I then sliced the sponge into 25 hopefully even looking squares and then squeezed out blobs of butter cream on top.

(Still so far so good!)

However, after I took these photos things you could say took a turn for the worst. I sadly don't have any photos of my disaster as things were getting very hot and stressed in the kitchen and photos were the last thing on my mind.

So we attempted to make the icing to cover the cakes, but as much as we tried, the consistency was never right and just ran off the cake, then to make matters worse a cake 'fell' on the floor. So as you can imagine, I was sticky, stressed and it was verging on midnight at this point so I just wanted to get to bed and be done with it!

I persevered and the next morning I woke up to these:

So some were slightly wobbly but I was really happy with this one. So all the stress and hard work paid off to get one practically perfect one... Here you have it my own imagined Alice in Wonderland 'Eat Me' cake.