Great Expectations.

To begin the novel Dicken’s employs food as a function to narrate Dickens’ critique of untoward familial relationships. Under the Gargery’s roof, Pip receives enough food to sustain him, however, the food fails to be given with love. Food serves the clinical purpose of physical sustenance and neglects the emotional nourishment which most times go hand in hand. Dickens creates a contrast between Mrs. Joe’s pincushion breast and the way she aggressively provides Pip with food: ‘jammed the loaf hard and fast’, ‘using both sides of the knife with a slapping dexterity’.  This stark juxtaposition of a soft texture to the hostile preparation of food intensifies the indication of a lack of love and care put into the creation of the meal. In this way, the food serves as an object to satiate the physical feeling of hunger rather than nurturing the emotional, maternal warmth that comes with a carer feeding a child.

Dicken’s also employs the function of food and meals as a to present treatment according to social class. For this, Dickens navigates both the Christmas dinner and the dinner hosted by Pumblechook. Both characters are present during the Christmas dinner, however, Pip’s social and wealth status is less fortunate than when he attends the dinner with Pumblechook. The writer presents a massive shift in the way Pip is treated and spoken to during both meals. During the Christmas dinner, Pumblechook orders Pip around, repeatedly addressing him as ‘boy’, the adults seem to further demean him by comparing him to a piglet, as if he embodies the food being consumed; he is stripped of his humanity and is referred to as food. In this way, he is treated poorly due to his nothing social status. However, when Pip comes into money Pumblechook’s treatment of Pip mutates into that of higher social status than himself, shaking Pips hand is an act of symbolic intimacy, addressing him as a gentleman rather than a boy. The meal becomes the setting for an almost comic situation where Pumblechook’s utter change in behavior toward Pip is almost satirical. Both the Christmas dinner and Pumblechook’s meal are both described opulently, the latter providing things such as wine and chicken.  

Although both meals present luxurious food and both are represented as ceremonies of sociability, the motives for the two meals possess many parallels. The Christmas dinner is almost a fabricated event of hospitality, whereas Pumblechook’s dinner is motivated by greed and desire; a dinner thrown to commemorate Pip’s fortune before he leaves to London lacks any true acts of love and is characterized by Pumblechook’s ingratiating behavior.