I have been doing a little reading for my master's proposal which I thought I would definitely have finished before the end of July. The focus of my paper is going to be on the different purposes of food imagery in ethnic and immigrant literature. I started thinking that I wanted to do something with food in my thesis after reading a book about Scandinavian immigrants called The Divided Heart by Dorothy Skardal. Her thesis was we could learn more about the daily lives of Scandinavian immigrants from reading their fiction than from just reading a history book. I've looked at immigrant literature differently since then. Of course, The Joy Luck Club is famous for all of its food imagery, but I've found that almost every ethnic novel I've read in the last couple of years has a portion devoted to food. Food is important in far-reaching ways. So...I've also been noticing knitting in books more lately too. I've always liked Good Night Moon because I love that the old mother rabbit is so quietly knitting, but I hadn't really thought about knitting in many other books. Last night I was reading Lassie Come Home to Kai. Sure enough, there is a cozy scene with an old man and woman (How stereotypical!) The old woman is busy knitting as it storms outside. We learn that their son was killed in the "war," and it's clear that knitting has provided her with some peace during her years of grieving. Then, later I was trying to finish up Great Expectations with the kids while we were in the car on a little trip to Eureka, and there Pip mentioned that Estella was knitting. I never remembered that. How could Estella be such a mess and still be a knitter?? Sadly, this entry mainly proves that I have done very little productive today in the way of writing my master's thesis. Oh well, it is still our vacation after all. I have a year and a half still.....
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