Narratives help you practice skills that can be used in all forms of writing. Oftentimes, you can weave small narratives into academic essays to help illustrate a point, and most forms of informal writing contain some aspects of narrative writing. We are going to work with the following prompt:
It’s amazing how much our eating habits say about us: our culture, ethics, economic situation, health concerns, way-of-life, etc. So, in this essay I want you to analyze the sort of “food culture” you grew up with and talk about how it has shaped you. In a way, you might say that this assignment turns the old cliché about “eating your words” inside out!
Where to begin? Think about the sorts of meals your family ate as you grew up. (My mother and father, although both are good cooks, ate out all the time because they didn’t want to spend time cooking and cleaning.) What does this say about your family’s heritage (My heritage is “mutt.” We’re not sure where we came from or how long we’ve been here. We sure eat fast food like true Americans though!)? That in itself can sometimes lead to fascinating stories or insights about your family and how their traditional foods have molded you and your eating habits. What else? You can analyze the way your family dealt with food: was the dinner table a “Clean plate Club”? Did you have to finish your spinach before you could have dessert – or leave the table? Did your family eat breakfast together? Did your mom bribe you into good behavior with sweets? Did your dad take you out to McDonalds for a treat? (Is this beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss book or what?) Did your family have big barbecues, or get-togethers with the extended family for Sunday dinner, or picnics? Were you a latchkey kid who regularly ate (alone) something mom or dad left for you? Was food a reward? Was someone in your family always dieting so that food became regarded as “the enemy”?
Finally, what effect has this had on you? My parents ate out all the time, and now I rarely spend more than 10 minutes in food preparation. I eat a lot of soup and sandwich! What sort of eating habits, beliefs about food, diet, health, etc. do you have that you can trace back to your family’s food traditions?
The structure for this assignment is completely up to you. You may consider reading Chapter 44 (Narrating) in the Norton if you’d like to see several organization strategies that you could use, or you could even make up your own strategy (as long as it makes sense to the reader).
I’m mostly going to be looking to see that you’ve included concrete, specific detail in your work. The rule of thumb for great writing in this regard is that you want to show us the important things that are happening, you don’t want to just tell us. Don’t just say, “I felt sad,” say something like, “I slumped down to the curb, and the first tear began its journey down my cheek.” Get the idea? *For this assignment, you may use first person and an informal tone, although please avoid slang and cliché’s. We will discuss this further in class.