Marriage a la Mode

The motif of food is pervasive in the story and represents greed. This begins with the pineapple and the melon William buys for his children, Paddy and Johnny, hoping to provide them with something more substantial than the candy he normally brings them. Opting for fruit over candy signals William’s desire for a healthier connection with his family, but the fruit is co-opted by Isabel and her friends, showing that his desire will remain unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Bobby Kane takes an armful of candy from the sweets shop without paying for them—Isabel must finance his greed, a metaphor for the way her friends take advantage of her and William’s hospitality. Isabel, too, cannot be emotionally sated, and this is represented through hunger: “We are all starving,” she says (5). Hunger affects each character differently: William is hungry for a tender love and close intimacy with his wife; Isabel is starving for another life; her friends are greedy, devouring all the food they can find. Moira Morrison has a hat that looks like a strawberry, in keeping with her vacuous, theatrical character. Thus, the recurring motif of food supports a sense of physical, emotional, and moral hunger in the face of vacuity, vanity, unfulfillment, and parasitism.