The Symbolic Use of Hunger in

The symbolic use of hunger in literature Throughout history, both men and women have struggled trying to achieve unattainable goals in the face of close-minded societies. Authors have often used this theme to develop stories of characters that face obstacles and are sometimes unable to overcome the stigma that is attached to them. This inability to rise above prejudice is many times illustrated with the metaphor of hunger. Not only do people suffer from physical hunger, but they also suffer from spiritual hunger: a need to be full of life. When this spiritual hunger is not satisfied, it can destroy a life, just as physical hunger can kill as well. Characters such as Edna Pontellier of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Hugh Wolfe of Rebecca Harding Davis’ Life in the Iron Mills, Jane Eyre of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, and the woman being force fed in Djuna Barnes’ How It Feels to Be Forcibly Fed all suffer from an insatiable hunger, which, in most cases, ultimately is not fulfilled. Poets such as Anna Wickham also describe the plight of humanity using hunger as a means to illustrate the feeling of deprivation. Although all of these characters come from different walks of life, they share a common struggle. Edna belongs to upper class Creole society, Hugh Wolfe is a poverty-stricken immigrant laborer, and Jane Eyre, an orphan. These characters lived during the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, in completely distinct worlds, yet all had their creativity stifled by society. Similarly, Djuna Barnes poem of the British woman who goes on a hunger strike in an attempt to get the vote and Anna Wickham’s poem The Affinity describing the angst of a deprived wife, both depict women who lived during the early twentieth century and, although different, were both suppressed in some way. Edna Pontellier was a woman who was forced to comply with the rules of Creole society, but, in being reluctant to do so, found herself in