Binh's Relationship In When Alice B. Toklas
Additionally, salt is also a key part of relationships within the book. The relationship, which is both romantic and sexual are all centered around salt in different ways. Food initiates a relationship between Bình and Bleriot, the chef at the general-governor's restaurant, while they are working in a kitchen together. Even though their relationship is one that is full of discrimination from Bleriot towards Binh because of Binh’s ethnicity and class position, salt still serves to link the two together. On the end of his relationship, Binh tell his brother “I did not waste the life you gave me…I traded it away for Bleriot’s lips” (Truong, 52). Through this saying, Binh tells his brother that serves as reason behind his relationship. It is
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Toklas deigns to step into the kitchen she creates food that make her lover desire her more, not devalue her as subservient. Troung explains the role of salt in enhancing their relationship explained as, “When miss Toklas first visited the rue de Fleurus, she felt Gertrude Stein's “appreciation” on her like a ribbon of steel. She felt her flesh rubbing against it, she felt sweat dripping down her back, sliding down her back, sliding down the side of her thighs. She crossed her legs, and Gertrude Stein looked at her as if she knew, Salt enhances the sweetness. Delicious thought GertrudeStein” (184). Troung is insisting the meaning of salt which came from sweat but in this case, the sweat is not of labor but of love. Truong describes Gertrude Stein thinking, “it is unfathomably erotic that the food she is about to eat has been washed, pared, kneaded, touched, by the hands of her lover” (Truong, 27). Here, food strengthens the relationship between Toklas and Gertrude Stein. It is rarely prepared by one of them, but adds to a long term romantic and sexual relationship that they are afforded. The different identities across relationships mean that the individuals and the relationships they are a part of view salt as a substance that enhances their love for each
Toklas deigns to step into the kitchen she creates food that make her lover desire her more, not devalue her as subservient. Troung explains the role of salt in enhancing their relationship explained as, “When miss Toklas first visited the rue de Fleurus, she felt Gertrude Stein's “appreciation” on her like a ribbon of steel. She felt her flesh rubbing against it, she felt sweat dripping down her back, sliding down her back, sliding down the side of her thighs. She crossed her legs, and Gertrude Stein looked at her as if she knew, Salt enhances the sweetness. Delicious thought GertrudeStein” (184). Troung is insisting the meaning of salt which came from sweat but in this case, the sweat is not of labor but of love. Truong describes Gertrude Stein thinking, “it is unfathomably erotic that the food she is about to eat has been washed, pared, kneaded, touched, by the hands of her lover” (Truong, 27). Here, food strengthens the relationship between Toklas and Gertrude Stein. It is rarely prepared by one of them, but adds to a long term romantic and sexual relationship that they are afforded. The different identities across relationships mean that the individuals and the relationships they are a part of view salt as a substance that enhances their love for each