Eat Me - Patience Agabi Flashcards
(17 cards)
What connotations does the title ‘Eat Me’ hold?
Alice in wonderland: childlike, contrasts abuse, tone, fantasical
Assertive, commanding, order: abuse, control, disempowered, oppression, submission
Greed, unhealthy habits
Power imbalance
What is the poetic voice of ‘Eat Me’?
Homodiegetic, voicing own experiences.
What is the tone of ‘Eat Me’?
Passive, submissive, accepting of treatment
What themes does ‘Eat Me’ explore?
Abuse, control, revenge
What form does ‘Eat Me’ take?
Dramatic monologue of 10 stanzas of three lines (tercets)
‘When I hit thirty, he brought me a cake,
three layers of icing, home-made,
a candle for each stone in weight.’
‘Thirty’ represents weight, thirty stone: appears to be about a birthday, revealed not to be
‘Home-made’ may indicate being made for him, her partner
‘Candle’ may represent light, hope, contradicts her position
What may the endstopping of stanzas represent?
Finality, trapped in her circumstances, unable to escape
What does the use of caesura show?
Used when she is talking about own actions, more free, breaks may show pausing for breath
‘The icing was white but the letters were pink,
they said, EAT ME. And I ate, did
what I was told. Didn’t even taste it.’
‘Pink’ demonstrates feminimity, beauty: appears to have thought behind the gifr
‘Eat Me’ is italicised, typography: title, commanding, imperative
‘What I was told’ shows submission and doing what is told: male gaze, numb
Uses shorter sentences when doing what he says, end stopped, lack of freedom
‘Then he asked me to get up and walk
round the bed so he could watch my broad
belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut.’
Uses blazon, expectations subverted, unconventional
‘Juggernaut’ is an overwhelming force
Displayed as an object for pleasure, male gaze: shaped for the man, not herself, no autonomy
No commas when talking about his commands, less consideration, submission
‘The bigger the better, he’d say, I like
big girls, soft girls, girls I can burrow inside
with multiple chins, masses of cellulite.’
Text uses typography for his speech, italicised, indicate his own desires, speaking out through her
Repetition of girls, plosive, harsh
Male gaze, woman depictied as sexual object for pleasure of male viewer, masc. hetero. perspective
‘I was his Jacuzzi. But he was my cook,
my only pleasure the rush of fast food,
his pleasure, to watch me swell like forbidden fruit.’
‘My cook’ indicates a co-dependent relationship, her pleasure appears to be making him happy, yet does she have a choice? Reliant on him to cook for her, attached, no identity without him, can’t leave. Conditioned
‘Fast food’ is a temporary joy, escape
‘Forbidden fruit’ has religious imagery, Biblical illusions: trapped by devil, temptation, corrupted by desires
‘His breadfruit. His desert island after shipwreck.
Or a beached whale on a king-size bed
craving a wave. I was a tidal wave of flesh’
Use of ‘his’, possessive pronoun, objectified, belongs to him.
Acts as his escape from the real world
‘Beached whale’ represents how she is trapped, unable to escape
‘Tidal wave’ may represent her beginning to realise her power
‘too fat to leave, too fat to buy a pint of full-fat milk,
too fat to use fat as an emotional shield,
too fat to be called chubby, cuddly, big-built.’
Repetition of ‘too fat’ highights a turning point in her attitude, building up courage: sympathy for her situation, aware of her own situation
‘Too fat to leave’ indicates how she is trapped, a cycle of being stuck
‘The day I hit thirty-nine, I allowed him to stroke
my globe of a cheek. His flesh, my flesh flowed.
He said, Open wide, poured olive oil down my throat.’
‘Thirty nine’ shows a passage of time, more weight put on
‘Allowed’ indicates a greater level of control over her own situation
‘His flesh, my flesh’ shows they are both one, owns herself, not just him owning her, what hers is his
The pouring of oil shows a lack of concern for her, wants to have full control as he wants her
‘Soon you’ll be forty… he whispered, and how
could I not roll over on top. I rolled and he drowned
in my flesh. I drowned his dying sentence out.’
Realising own power, what she is capable of doing
His speech is italicised, he always wants more.
‘Drowned’ links back to ocean/island imagery in earlier stanzas
His desires have come back to bite him, ruined him once he loses control
‘I left him there for six hours that felt like a week.
His mouth slightly open, his eyes bulging with greed.
There was nothing else left in the house to eat.’
Endstopped lines, finality of his death
‘Bulging with greed’ shows how he is still unsatified, never satified
Lacks a conclusion, reliant on him, but now he is gone: escaped yet has nowhere to go
May be eating him? Or now she has no cook to feed her?
