Are We What We Eat? Food and Identity in Late Twentieth-Century ...

As Alejo Santinio and Ralph Chang, the respective protagonists of the novels Our House in the Last World by Oscar Hijuelos and Typical American by Gish Jen, stuff themselves with food, they attempt to dichotomize the past and present components of their cultural identities, but for different reasons. Because the Cuban immigrant Alejo refuses to confront the difficult reality of his life in the United States, he attempts to maintain a visceral connection to his life in the “last world” by filling himself with food. Conversely, because the Chinese immigrant Ralph hopes to sever all ties to his cultural past, he devours “American” food, believing that the more he eats, the more he appears to be a “typical American.” Although both men satisfy their physical hungers as they gorge themselves on food, both remain emotionally hungry, feeling overwhelmed by the realities of the present. In this way, both authors suggest that to gain a sense of fulfillment or completion, an individual should work to construct a cultural identity that merges the past and the present in a holistic way or, in Sollors’ terms, an identity based on descent and on the ability to consent.

Illustrating this point further are Hijuelos’s and Jen’s depictions of their respective protagonists’ wives, also first-generation Americans who struggle to gain a sense of home or belonging in the United States. As Alejo’s wife, Mercedes, upholds patriarchal definitions of femininity by remaining in her kitchen and preparing her family’s meals, she is so consumed by the memories of her Cuban past that she becomes detached from the reality of her life in the present.¹ Unlike Mercedes, however, Ralph’s wife, Helen, appropriates her culinary role to her advantage, gaining a degree of autonomy and domestic power while she performs this traditionally feminine task. Furthermore, and again unlike Mercedes, Helen works to construct a gender identity that functions as an “open coalition” (Butler 16) and thus allows her to gain a sense of belonging in American culture. Although Helen prepares her family’s meals and in some respects behaves like a traditional wife and mother, she undermines a 1950s gender ideology by working outside the home and immersing herself in society. Thus, whereas Hijuelos depicts immigrant men and women who for the most part remain stuck in the past,²