Soul Food

Typically, when you hear the words hungry or starving, you think of food: a granola bar in your backpack or the lunch you forgot to eat. That persistent nagging in your stomach that won't go away until you devour your PB&J and satisfy your hunger. However, as Elizabeth Strout writes Olive Kitteridge set in her native home, Maine, she looks deeper into different meanings of the word hunger. Though only directly addressed in the chapter rightfully titled "Starving", Strout shows a kind of hunger in almost every one of her complex characters. This hunger, however, does not make Olive Kitteridge reaching for a doughnut. The aching feeling of starvation that these characters face lies in their heart and soul. Strout uses the longing that these characters face in order to address the timeless and universal truth that people crave what they cannot have. For instance, when Henry Kitteridge first encounters Denise, he also meets her "strong, young husband" (11). The glorifying diction of "strong" and "young" creates an envious tone from Henry as he longs for his youth and young love. His envy asserts that people do not appreciate their youth and let it fly by. In his heart he craves the time when he and Olive had a passionate love, a hunger that Denise and her husband filled for him, however not completely. He shares this hunger with a man named Harmon who finds satisfaction in having an affair with his close friend Daisy. Exclaiming "such abundance…next to him", Strout indirectly characterizes Harmon as depressed as he looks on to what he most wants (77). This connection of Henry and Harmon in their similar desires further supports Straut's universal truth. The fact that both Henry and Harmon feed they hunger by either imagining or engaging in an affair indirectly characterizes both of them as desperate. However, Strout does not dismiss the idea of fueling their hunger. She almost makes it seem acceptable when Olive suggests "sure I am [hungry]. We all are" (96). Here Olive suggests that everyone feels hunger, yet Strout implies that the hunger does not always lie in a mid morning snack. She indirectly characterizes Olive as insightful as she seems the only one who has figured this out. Using a young, anorexic girl, Nina, Strout shows that not indulging in hunger can lead to demise and one's ultimate end in order to urge people to feed themselves. She notices as the modern world continues to grow, more people fall into the daily hum-drum of life, finding themselves not pursuing their passions and trying to please those they really do not care about, metaphorically starving themselves. Strout includes the universal truth of people wanting what they can not have to urge people to go after what they want and not settle for less. Through the first third of Olive Kitteridge, Strout encourages people to eat. Not only literally eating a bowl of cereal before school, but finding what truly makes one happy and indulging in it ravenously.