Are you hungry?
Now take a look at these pictures.
Are you hungry now?
Why not? The answer lies in society's
assumption that hunger applies exclusively to food. Before reading Jeannette
Wall's memoir, The Glass Castle, the
word "hungry" to me was merely a synonym for "I haven't eaten
anything in about 10 minutes and my mouth is getting dangerously lonely."
While this statement obviously still holds true, reading about Jeannette Walls
and her family has given me considerable insight into what hunger really is.
On a surface level, Jeannette walls is
on the verge of starvation. She is “tall and pale and skinny” (Walls 28) and “finds
[her]self rooting in the garbage at school for food” (Walls 125). In this way,
I may find that Walls and I have nothing in common. I mean, there is nothing in my refrigerator or pantry that cannot
satiate my constant cravings. However, just like Jeannette, and just like
you, I am always hungry. Growing up in a bizarre household that never settles
down and never conforms with society, Jeannette hungers for stability, for
success, for social acceptance, for independence, and for control, just to
name a few. After an exhaustive self-reflection, I've come to
realize these elements are no different than what I hunger for myself. Every day, I am hungry for security
and self-esteem. I am hungry for a 4.0 GPA and acceptance to a top college. I am hungry for a
smartphone to fit in with my friends. I am hungry for the the freedom that comes with a drivers license and for a figurative steering wheel to conduct my own disordered life. And of course, I am hungry for strawberry shortcake
flavored Goldfish grahams.
If that’s not enough for you, think
about a story/movie that we all know - The Hunger Games. Why is it called the Hunger Games? Yes, the citizens of
District 12 are all poor and starving and yes, winning the Games brings wealth
and an end to that starvation. However, on deeper inspection, the Hunger Games ultimately depicts a hunger for strength, for courage, and for survival - it is a
fear of death and a scarcity of prowess, not an empty pantry back home, that
drives the tributes to kill one another in the arena. (Unless you’re Katniss and
Peeta; they’re mostly just hungry for each other. No one cares about Gale.)
I all comes down to this. Hunger can
be a passionate desire for an object, be it three-cheese lasagna or the iPhone
6+, but more often it is a lack or absence of an abstract aspect of life. It doesn’t
matter if you've just returned from an all-you-can-eat buffet or have all the
money in the world. What are you hungry
for?
I really enjoyed reading this and it brought a deeper meaning of hunger for me. Although I disagree with your point about Gale. I care.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you incorporated The Hunger Games into your post because I had never thought about it that way, but you're so right! Actually, I had never really thought about the deeper meaning of hunger(until this week), and you did a great job at explaining it:)
ReplyDeleteI liked that you talked about how we're just like Jeannette in being hungry for more things. Jeannette's experience is so different from mine that it felt like we had absolutely nothing in common, but we actually all are like Jeannette in wanting nice things for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I love your blog title!
Wow. That was so beautiful. I liked how you compared Jeanette Walls to yourself to show that the same word, hunger, means different things for every person.
ReplyDeleteBut..um.. I'm still hungry from the pizza picture. Plus you mentioned the strawberry shortcake goldfish which made me hungrier. Thanks Angela.
Awesome deep-thinking about hunger - it made me reevaluate the way I think about human needs and desires. Unfortunately, it also makes me want to eat right now.
ReplyDelete