Virginia Woolf's Two Cafeterias

“Two Cafeterias”, by Virginia Woolf, was written to discuss the meager way women were treated in society. In this passage the description of the food is Woolf’s way of creating a metaphor that mirrors the discrepancies with how men and women were treated. Woolf signifies men thought they were entitled to the extravagant treatment and the women have always been cast down and treated inferior to men as if they weren’t even the same species. Fundamentally different premises underlie each meal.
The men’s meal is that of opulence. The potatoes are like coins, the sprouts “foliated as rosebuds.”
Woolf describes the women’s meal in plain language, in blunt, repetitive bursts: “Here was my soup…Dinner was ready. Here was the soup. It was plain gravy