From America to My Kitchen.

I think it is easy to argue that the apple is only known for its negative symbolism. But, they are also positive things associated with the apple, which I mentioned in my last post. I believe the apple is a contradictory symbol that changes meaning according to gender. In Carol M. Counihan’s Food and Gender: Power and Identity, she also identifies this contradictory nature of food and gender: Despite the disparity between the positive/negative representations of the apple, I still think that it cannot truly escape its underlying...

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From Eden to America.

When placed in the hands of a man, the apple becomes a legendary symbol that stands for wisdom and innovation. For example, when the physicist Sir Isaac Newton witnessed an apple falling from a tree, he came up with the theory of gravity. Another example of this is Steve Jobs, who named his company 'Apple Inc' and funnily enough, even has a logo sign which features a bitten apple. But, for today we are going to look closely at Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed’s desire to plant apple trees, instead of eating...

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Nothing More Delicious.

In my first blog post I asked myself this question: Why is the relationship between apples and women problematic within art, literature and poetry? We are going to attempt to answer this question, using what we have learnt from my previous posts. The beginning image of the apple and its association with the Garden of Eden becomes "the guiding myth of Western culture"(Tamar and Moran, 1). This image carries such strong negative connotations, that it manages to resonate itself through the Snow White story, with...

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Go on. Go on, have a bite.

While the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale Little Snow-White is legendary, it’s somewhat a controversial tale that we would now think was not originally intended for children. Disney’s popularized version of the story released in 1937, is the story we are all familiar with.  For those of you have not watched that version, here is the link to a brief synopsis of it. As I read through the original Grimm Brothers’ story, I realized there was a lot more things that the apple could symbolize. Food (in...

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Apple-tising!

The construct of women as “sexual deviants” certainly begins with the apple.  Eve’s uncontrollable appetite seems to become a metaphor for female desire, which throughout history has been a censured and controversial subject matter. In Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, Anna Krugovoy Silver suggests that: “Victorians used to define the ideal woman [as] – spiritual, non-sexual, self-disciplined” (3). Before Eve eats the fruit, she is the embodiment of all these qualities. Yet, after she eats the fruit, she loses all...

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Apples vs Figs.

 You are probably wondering why there is an image of fig in this second post, but rest assured, this fig plays an important part of understanding our precious apples. We all believe that the ‘forbidden fruit’ is an apple only because art and literature has successfully helped fill in the blanks Genesis left out.  The unnamed fruit from the tree of knowledge could have been anything: a strawberry, a cherry, a peach or even a fig, which many critics have argued is the true forbidden fruit of Eden. In Food at the time...

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Unravelling the tale behind the Apple.

Before we begin looking at the negative and positive connotations associated with apples in detail, I wanted to give you guys a brief bite into history of the apple. The origin of the domesticated apple ‘Malus doemstica’ actually originated from Kazakhstan, near the Tien Shan mountains, where the forests to this day are still bountiful with wild apple trees. So how did these apples get from there to here? Well, they were brought along the Silk Road by travellers. But, humans were not the only ones helping the apple become a widespread phenomenon....

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