Symbol

Food serves as the primary symbol in Tender at the Bone. Cooking since she was young, Reichl describes her life relative to food, as do her family and friends. Food serves as a comfort to her, as it can remind her of special times or stave off embarrassment. When nervous around her crush Tommy, she immediately begins to cook to keep her mind focused and to prevent worrying. It is this therapeutic quality that food has that makes it a symbol of comfort. It also serves as a tool that various characters use to comfort themselves. Alice makes apple dumplings “when an occasion called for a response but she wasn’t sure what it should be”(25). Using food to stall for time is simply another example of how food is often a symbol for coping with the difficulties of life. Alice also cooks food from Aunt Birdie’s wedding menu so she can enjoy the memories of her youth. In Reichl’s mind, food is not just sustenance, it is part of a person, whether it be tied to their emotions or their daily life. Aunt Birdie is affected positively by Alice’s cooking that reminds her of a simpler time, and Alice can not imagine her life without cooking. Food becomes intertwined into the fabric of a person’s personality. In the novel food can not be tied down to one particular situation where it serves a symbol because it serves as multiple different kinds of symbols.

Theme

At a very young age Reichl discovered, “that food could be a way of making sense of the world”(6). That surprisingly straightforward statement at the outset of the novel accurately describes how Reichl has used food in her life. She has paid attention to the way people eat, what they eat, and where they eat. With this ability, Reichl allows the reader to analyze the character presented. Reichl’s belief that food says a lot about people not only was important in Reichl’s life in the novel but it also suggests to the reader that he or she can use this expression to evaluate people’s personalities or motives. For example, Reichl writes, “...my father only cared about the company, and Mom would eat anything so long as the location was exotic”(6).  These nondescript, short statements say a lot about her parents. Her father was not a fussy individual; he usually had few opinions on family affairs. So it is natural that he would not care about where he eats as long as it was with people he enjoyed being around. He did however, love his family, and often mentioned that he did not want to leave Ruth by herself. He enjoyed being and eating with his family, and considered them good company. Reichl’s mother needed to eat in exotic places. As I have written earlier, Reichl’s mother is addicted to excitement. She loves anything out of the ordinary because it helps distract her and bring her joy. She will take any chance she gets to leave the house, for staying inside is a bore to her. It is logical that a woman like this would only want to dine in exotic restaurants that were unlike her daily life. When reading while keeping Reichl’s belief in mind it is easy to learn much more from a simple passage than one would think possible. Reichl’s style, in unison with her theme, allow the reader to infer the personality of the characters in Tender at the Bone.

Rhetorical Strategies

•  “He married two of them...”(30). Metaphor, humor
• Parallelism, extended metaphor, anecdote
• “ Because a few weeks after we came back from Europe my mother sent me to Mars”(52)
• “Devils Food” (72). (Chapter Name) double meaning, , meataphor

Parallelism is one of the many tools Reichl uses to convey the tone of Tender at the Bone. One of the best examples is of the questions that Reichl asked as a child that received no answers. When regarding Hortense, her daughter, Aunt Birdie refuses to answer Reichl’s question as to her whereabouts or life. Reichl writes, “...but each time I said the word “Hortense” she pretended not to hear me. Everybody did”(21). This insistance on keeping Reichl in the dark in order to protect her innocence as well as the fact that it is a touchy subject for Aunt Birdie is again exemplified by Mrs Peavey, Alice, and  Beatrice. Mrs. Peavey leaves for long periods of time and tends to be very secretive. When Reichl asks, “Where were you?”(47). she continues cooking as if nothing had happened. She uses food as a way to mask her emotions and be uncommunicative. Beatrice, even though she is Reichl’s age, continues the trend of silence. When Beatrice displays her cooking knowledge, Reichl is inquisitive and asks, “How did you know that?”(70). Like all the others, Beatrice continues with her cooking and ignores Reichl’s queries. The purpose of doing this is to further the theme of Tender at the Bone. Food is critical to the story of Ruth Reichl. It has shaped her personality, family, friends, career, and personal relationships. Reichl uses parallelism to show to the reader the extent that food played in her life; it had the same effect on people she knew. And because it had this effect on them, it likewise affected her.

Character

Reichl’s mother arguably influenced her more than any character, for she introduced her to cooking and made her appreciate good food. Food being the central theme of the novel, her mothers failure to cook palatable food forced Ruth to learn cooking herself and forever changed her life. It even affected her relationship with people, such as Alice, whom she likes more and has more respect for because she can cook. For such a large impact to be made on her daughter she must have been quite the mother. Reichl’s mother is manic-depressive, thrill-seeking, eccentric, energetic, and oblivious. Her mother’s mood could often be found in the refrigerator as Reichl writes, “...the more odd and interesting things there were in the refrigerator, the happier my mother was likely to be”(8). This strange association with food and mood is a theme that carries on throughout the book. Her mother veiled her desperate desire for excitement, but however occasionally her craving would be apparent. She shows this when she hunts for the strangest, most foreign food and as well as her many getaways designed to escape the monotony of being a mother. Her dinner parties, vacations, cruises, flirting, and enthusiasm when there is a bomb blast in Haiti are all evidence of her need to break the status quo. Reichl writes about her parents trip to Europe saying, “As usual it was my mother’s idea”(24). This provides an example of her mother’s determination to entertain herself and escape being bored. Whether or not this can be attributed to her manic-depressive condition is uncertain. 

Personal Review

I found Tender at the Bone to be an interesting memoir that was ultimately shaped by its central theme. The ever-presence of food in the story not only reflected Reichl’s passion for cooking but also allowed the book to avoid becoming too depressing. Reichl, and the people in her life, experience unfortunate and melancholy issues ranging from mental conditions to failed dreams, but food always seems to intervene throughout the pages, distracting the reader and lightening the mood. Alice apparently influenced Reichl by having her adopt the practice of cooking when things are tense, and subsequently writing about cooking when situations are tense also. Another strong point of this book is that the people in Reichl’s life seem as though they are manufactured characters from a novel. Although at first this may sound like a bad thing, in my opinion it is the opposite. An author goes to extraordinary lengths to develop a character throughout a novel, shaping him or her with experiences, personality, etc. However, the people Reichl meets are already so perfectly suited to be in this book. They all tie into the theme and contribute in some way. No character lacks an underlying story or unique personality. Reichl takes advantage of this by discussing these people in detail as well as allow the reader to determine how they shaped Reichl into the person she is today. While it is true that there is something to be said about every character, I feel as thought there were rich stories that were unfortunately left out of the memoir. Reichl’s brother is briefly mentioned as is her biological grandmother.