Food As A Social Adhesive In Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone

Through the book,Standage tries to emphasize the importance that food played in the role of history. He takes us through different parts of the world and shows us the different values that food plays in different locations. Reading this book has helped me gather the questions that I’v been wanting to know.

In the United States today, a large part of the average person’s life is food. Each individual consumes nearly one ton of food each year, but never knows what they are truly putting into their body. Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, was one of the earliest works that provided people an insight to the production of their food. The novel was originally written to show the mistreatment of the workers, typically immigrants, but instead resulted in the passing of the Pure Food Act of 1906. The movie, Food Inc. provides today’s people the same insight that The Jungle gave the people in 1906.

Throughout this novel, Laurie Halse Anderson incorporated seven vital foods that Melinda ate: Ho-Hos, Mashed potatoes, powdered doughnuts, Pop Tarts, the disgusting turkey soup, pizza, and the applesauce. Somes of these meals she ate alone, but other times she ate these meals with Heather and the other people in the cafeteria or even her parents. In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster claimed that food is used in novels to unite opposing sides in the chapter “Nice to eat with you: Acts of Communion.” This was shown in the book, Speak, as Melinda learned to become acquaintances and somewhat “friends” with Heather even though they have nothing in common. This type of situation was also emphasized when Melinda’s family ate

Culturally, people are fighting against statistics such as, “40 percent of Americans watch television during meals— viewing food as fuel rather than sustenance, discarding family recipes and foodways, and denying that eating has social and political dimensions.” (Pollan, FMR, ¶34), and are trying to make dining an experience rather than a primal necessity. Throughout this chapter, local farmer’s markets are continually used as an example of an open inviting atmosphere where the public can meet those that have harvested the ingredients essential for that night’s dinner. Instead of checking out of a grocery store with a monotone beep in the background with each new item added to their cart, conversations are buzzing in the background of a farmer’s market, “people have ten times as many conversations at the farmers’ market than they do in the supermarket” (Pollan, FMR, ¶24). Farmer’s markets also go hand in hand with the other standpoints behind the food movement that encourage people to eat fresher local foods and promote sustainable farming

Food is part of our existence. It a source; as a human being, we need to survive. Over time food had evolved showing the influence of culture, time and taste. Fran Lebowitz said “Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” . Ellen Smirl author of Social Justice Deficits in the Local Food Movement in Canadian Dimension challenges the food industry by asking the consumer to think about where the food is coming from.

Though an immensely important aspect of food is a nourishing supplement; it is not the sole significance of food in human’s lives. Food is symbolic. Food connects people. It is a collective activity everyone must experience; thus meaning it allows people to relate more easily between each other. There is no universal type of food in each society due to the fact that the world is multicultural.

Choi then quotes the Director of food studies at New York University, providing relevancy and authenticity to her work. The statement also establishes a link between what we eat and how it connects to particular memories and places in our minds. Moving on, the article is divided into six different subheadings. Each subheading explains the origin of indigenous food in different countries and what that denotes particular culture. Broadly speaking, food is necessary for survival, signifies status denotes pleasure, brings communities together and is essential for humanity.

Today, unrequited love is a theme found in many works of art and has gained a lot of popularity, one of the factors of its growing popularity being the well-known “friendzone” term, first used in the “Friends” TV show. Unrequited love has deeper meanings than its popularized synonym, but the works of art made due to this media frenzy are to be taken into account, since there are some that really go beyond a media frenzy. One of the more recent works of literature that contain this theme is the Harry Potter series. Severus Snape has strong feelings for Lily Evans, his neighbour who becomes his childhood best friend.

The sociological imagination on food In this assignment I am going to talk about the sociological imagination on food and the aspects it brings with it. Before starting that large process I firstly will explain what the social imagination is and what the key points of the imagination are in able to fully understand the topic; food and its history, biography, and the relation it has in society. This is my first assignment for the module understanding contemporary society so please bear with me as I will do my best to explain it in a logic manner so everybody can understand it.

As established to share food with someone symbolizes an inclusion to a group (Humphrey et al. 1988), resulting in the sharing of food as important to social bonding. Culinary social bonding is prevalent within the wizarding world of Harry Potter (Broemel, 71). As food plays a central theme, the books emphasize intricate feasts and desserts. The food is generally composed of standard British food. But yet, incredible food items also are available to the characters.

Harry is a master of virtue according to everything from scripture to business ethics. The focus of harry becomes many symposia such as Nimbus and Prophecy and an expected session topic at scholarly gatherings such as The International Conference on the fantastic in the Arts and Meetings of the pop culture Association. While newspaper and magazine critics tented to focus on the social aspects of the Potter phenomenon scholars looked as well as literary person’s ancestors and social background, structures and theme. Rowling’s books are both praised and criticized as fairy tale, which deals with someone’s formative years and schooldays series with their author justly laude for her gift at creating charming details that sweeps readers through a range of literary

Culture and memories are expressed through food. Everyone can identify themselves with a concrete culture and in every group there are numerous food dishes that satisfies one, or brings back peerless memories and feelings only they can relate to. Food itself has meaning attached to it, from the way it is prepared down to the ingredients used. Factors that influence food can be anything from practices and beliefs to the economy and distribution. Culinary traditions are important in helping express cultural identity.

A cultural system is as robust as it is open to the outside and engages in exchange, cross-reference, and hybridization. It is the fear of others that confines people within their habits, preventing their knowledge of diversity, and causing them to reject what is not customary. Diet is one of the elements of social life most sensitive to changes in the surrounding context. Migration has always produced innovations and transformations in indigenous food traditions. Suffice it to consider the spread of tomatoes, potatoes, tea, and coffee in the dietary habits of Europeans to understand the transformations that have occurred through trade and the movement of people and things.

The Harry Potter series have been an interesting series for me ever since I have enrolled in Professor Fox’s class. I personally have not read any of the Harry Potter series during my childhood, but once I have enrolled in Professor Fox’s class I have recently just finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Throughout my readings of these two books I have had many observations on certain aspects of the story that I would not have noticed when I was younger. These three aspects that I can’t imagine as a child noticing is how the Dursleys abused Harry, the stance on gender, and prejudgement based on appearance.

He soon settles into Hogwarts and makes two close friends, Ron and Hermione. The novel depicts his journey through his first year at school, along with the magical trials and battles that go with it. I will be discussing the marketing phenomena of “conspicuous consumption” within Harry Potter. Although Harry Potter is set in a fantasy world, there are many situations within the novel which relate to and are relevant in today’s society.