Food Symbol Analysis

In Transcendent Kingdom, food represents the desire and potential for connection and intimacy between people. Gifty instinctively connects food with intimacy, while rejecting food is something that gives a person power. To prepare for her depressed mother’s arrival, Gifty orders a Ghanian cookbook and deep fryer and practices cooking Ghanian recipes. Initially, she makes elaborate dishes trying to tempt her mother out of her emotional isolation. But Gifty’s mother repeatedly rejects Gifty’s offers and thereby refuses to connect with her daughter. This happens several times throughout the novel, first when Gifty’s mother becomes depressed the first time and doesn’t eat the peanut butter sandwiches young Gifty made. During her second depression, she ignores the koko Gifty lovingly prepares. Similarly, Gifty’s rejection of the breakfasts her boyfriend Raymond prepared demonstrates her fundamental inability to accept intimacy. The only person who she allowed to provide her with food was her brother, Nana, who used to help her find the goodies their mother hid in the house to keep the family’s food budget low.

The association between food and intimacy is an important part of Gifty’s developing friendships with Han and Katherine late in her grad school career. She buys Han a cupcake to celebrate his academic success, thereby reaching out to him and trying to make a connection. Later, wishing to keep Katherine out of her apartment, Gifty instead joins her for lunches around campus. Between these lunches, Katherine demonstrates her affection and care for Gifty with food, the dozens of cookies, breads, cakes, and pies she delivers to Gifty’s office. This ultimately forms the basis for Gifty and Katherine’s budding friendship.