the meal, a poem

Melissa Doherty Professor Gregory EN-102 noon class November 2000 The Ties that Bind Fear, anxiety, and shame, these are just a few of the emotions instilled upon the innocent children and mother in Suzanne E. Berger’s poem titled “The Meal.” These emotions have been brought forth from an abusive and domineering father with an insatiable need for perfection. My personal interpretations of the underlying messages found throughout the poem have led me to draw the above conclusions. There are only two lines in the poem that directly refer to the mother. Despite this lack of reference, the lines create a very powerful image to me, that she is a victim of abuse. The two lines, “they are waiting for the mother to straighten her lipstick”(11:749), and “her mouth uneven as a torn hibiscus”(23:750), suggest to me that she had just been slapped across the face resulting in her lipstick being smudged or maybe a bloody lip. I then picture her daintily wiping away any evidence of the ...