The Fantastical Nature of Food

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , one boy with a golden ticket that would change his childhood. Roald Dahl's children's story takes the ones with a sweet-tooth on an adventure to remember as we follow Charlie, a boy who lives with four grandparents on a journey through the infamous Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. On the aspect of food in Dahl's  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  food becomes a method of representing poverty. We are exposed early on to the idea of poverty as "Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever get to taste a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved up their money for that special occasion, and when that great day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small chocolate bar to eat all by himself." This chocolate bar becomes a symbol endearment by Charlie's grandparents as "the whole family had saved up their money," this implies that Charlies' background is not that of a well-established ...

From simple roast dinners and Chocolate Frogs to the infamous Butterbeer and Bettie Bott's Every Flavoured Bean, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter entices both the imagination of children and adults when it comes to the theme of food. Food in Harry Potter is used as a focal point to blur the boundary between fantasy and reality as with the introduction of monsters and magic it is important to keep some realism within Rowling's children's fantasy to slowly allude to the idea of another more magical world. Harry Potter, for me at least has always left me with a warm feeling when it came to the topic of food. There's something about Every Flavoured Bean that makes your mind question whether they really can taste like every flavour imaginable and this feeling is accentuated through Rowling's funky names. They're memorable, catchy and fun and that's what food is all about, the taste, the texture and the comfort that food brings to a person is just... bliss. bu...

Let's take a look at a popular low-fantasy: " Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief"  by Rick Riordan.  So, between fighting the Minotaur and undergoing dangerous quests this popular series uses food as feature of comfort and stability. I mean who wouldn't want to eat the food of the gods at the expense of almost dying every other day, right...? Percy Jackson is a demigod, the slogan Riordan uses explains this he's... well, "Half-god, Half mortal, All Hero." This fantasy fiction follows the adventures of a demigod that finds himself being hurled into the world of the Greek gods, having to learn the necessary skills required to survive as a demigod in the modern world. In regards to the theme of food, it is established as a mean of affection early on between Percy and his mother, Sally Jackson, and as an act of rebellion to his abusive step father, Gabe Ugliano. The first mention of food is within the first chapter, where Sally "Brough...

I want you to cast your mind back to when you were a child with your favourite fantasy book. My most vivid memory was of me laying on my stomach on top of my bed. The windows were partially open with a small breeze rustling through the dark blue curtains - just enough to send chills down my back as I was kicking my legs in the air. That wasn't the only thing that was giving me chills though, I was reading an assortment of low-fantasy books at that time ranging from Harry Potter to my beloved Percy Jackson series and, every time without hesitation I always got the familiar sensation of goosebumps rippling across my arms as I immersed myself into the world of myths and magic. So what makes these low-fantasy books so enrapturing? For me it's the ability to merge together the magical realm and the realism of life and this is partly because of food. Food can be used as a means of blurring the lines of reality and fantasy which creates an immersive narrative for us to e...