Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Edible Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gendered Expectations vs. Personal Identity
Consumerism and Consumption
Bodies, Pregnancy, and Food
Language, Meaning, and Alienation
Routine, Repetition, and Resistance
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Marian cleans the apartment, once more narrating in the first person. First, she clears out all of the things Ainsley has left behind. Then she tackles the dishes and the fridge, scrubbing all the rotten food away. Duncan calls, wanting to know what happened last night. When Marian explains that she has left Peter, Duncan clarifies. Duncan wasn’t actually asking about Marian’s situation; he is more interested in Fish, as he fears that his roommate situation has been disturbed.
In returning to the first person, the novel signals that Marian is no longer alienated from her body and herself; instead, just as she claims agency over her home by cleaning it, she also claims agency over her own story by using “I” pronouns again. Once more, however, the novel is realistic about the limits of Marian’s epiphany, as can be seen in the fact that Duncan remains as self-absorbed as ever.
Themes
Marian invites Duncan over, annoyed by his self-involvement—“now that I was thinking of myself in the first person singular again I found my own situation much more interesting than his.” Duncan arrives while Marian is still hard at work on the windows, and she waits to finish her task before making them coffee. While the coffee percolates, Marian explains that Fischer and Ainsley have gotten married; they are on their way to Niagara now for a honeymoon.
Marian’s ability to think of herself not only in first person but in the “singular” tense is hard-won; after all, as Ainsley’s recent engagement signals, it can feel almost impossible to go through life single, without a partner to make one “plural.” But while Ainsley and Fish (now always referred to with his first and last name) find security in following these gendered norms, Marian finds her own break with routine more exciting and “interesting.”
Themes
Half-heartedly, Duncan wonders what will become of him now that he comes from “a broken home.” Oddly, Duncan’s musings make Marian think of Len Slank. According to Clara, the news of Ainsley’s marriage has only thrown Len further into disrepair; now, he spends all of his time with Clara’s children, playing with their toys and squabbling with them. Listening to Clara recount all of this, Marian thinks her friend sounds more competent than she had in a long time.
Duncan’s continued commitment to using domestic language to describe his odd roommate situation suggests that, in his own way, he is as willing to buck tradition as Marian is. And Marian now sees other allies, too, hoping that in Clara’s rejection of Len’s mopey, bad behavior, she might begin to question the larger societal structures that enable Len.
Themes
The sound of the defrosting refrigerator startles Duncan, who asks Marian if she is eating again. Marian boasts that she had steak for lunch. Duncan comments that Marian looks good, and he wonders aloud if Peter was trying to destroy her or if she was trying to destroy Peter. “What does it matter,” Duncan finally says, “you’re a consumer.”
This moment suggests that Marian’s sense of victory is paradoxical: in order to protest the consumerist, normative society she wanted to challenge, she also has to become a member of it.
Themes
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Marian offers Duncan some of the woman-shaped cake. He accepts, hungrily eating the cake-woman’s face and hair. Though Duncan does not show any visible pleasure as he eats, it makes Marian happy to see him devour her work. When Duncan has cleaned his plate, he sets his fork down and licks his lips. “Thank you,” he tells Marian. “It was delicious.”
There is certainly something troubling about the way Duncan devours this woman, suggesting that the patriarchy and consumption that Marian fears is still alive and well in the world. But rather than eating this sugary treat out of routine or panic, Duncan eats the cake—and Marian made the cake—to find pleasure and connection, using this consumption not to distance themselves from human life but to feel closer to it. In other words, the novel’s closing moments seem to suggest, “production-consumption” can be a terrifying cycle—but under the right circumstances, it can also be a “delicious” one.
Themes
