Chapter 2 -Literature

After reading the second chapter "Nice to Eat with You Acts of Communion" I decided to compare it to the literature option, "The Dead" by James Joyce. After reading the chapter I found that there were a few main points to its over all idea, Whenever you get together and share food, its considered communion, they can be but aren't always religious, it is typically an act that represents sharing and peace, and lastly a failed or corrupted meal could end with dire social consequences. Foster spoke of the common misconceptions regarding communion and that it is much more common than what it is made out to be, some consider it a religious gathering, where the breaking of the bread takes place. Although this is the common belief, Foster went on to explain that any gathering where food is shared is considered communion. The reading "The Dead" by James Joyce particularly pulled on a few main aspects of communion one of which was that it was a religious communion celebrating Christ's Divinity to the Magi, and because of this many friends and family members were brought together to share communion and somewhat of a "social hour", another communal aspect of "The Dead" was a failed or corrupted meal could end with dire social consequences. Drawing back to two main incident in the story, one being early on when Gabriel attempted to make a comment to Lily while she took his coat and the comment was quickly shot down and the other being when Miss. Ivors embarrassed Gabriel by labeling him a certain way. Both theses thing cause tensions between the characters, just as a rude comment at the dinner table would create tension among your family members. Foster spoke of the importance of communion from all aspects and "The Dead" provided an image of a communal setting and its ups and downs socially. These two pieces fit very well together and provided numerous parallels to draw between the two.