Contextual Material: An interview with Ruth L. Ozeki
http://ruthozeki.com/meats/conversation.html (Spolier alert! The ending in discussed at the end of the interview)
She was asked: “What inspired you to write a novel about the meat industry?”
Her reply: “Actually, it never occurred to me to write a novel about the meat industry. I started out writing a novel about a woman who makes television, specifically Japanese TV documentaries about American life. I'd worked in this small niche of the media industry for eight or nine years, and during that time it always struck me that the funniest, most interesting, most tragic and most culturally profound interactions always happened either behind the camera or when the camera was turned off. I hate wasting good narrative and am an archivist at heart, so I decided to record some of the anecdotes….The meat was metaphorical, a gag, if you will. As Jane and her crew embarked on a road trip to make a cooking show featuring rural American housewives (I'd done a similar kind of show myself and found it rich in narrative episode), meat took on a variety of metaphorical resonances: I was thinking of women as cows; wives as chattel (a word related to cattle); and the body as meat, fleshy, sexual, the irreducible element of human identity.”
1. Based on the information learned in the author’s interview, and these quotes:
“And with that he gave Akiko one last violent shake, with such force that she slipped from his hands, spun once, fell over the back of a kitchen chair, which caught her squarely in the abdomen, then collapsed against a china cabinet...blinded by sudden blood, she groped her way into the bathroom.” (100).
“He kicked the door shut with his heel, and before I knew what was happening, he had landed on top of me. I couldn’t fight him off. He was enormously heavy and put all his weight into his shoulder to pin me to the floor. He ripped my shirt open in front and grabbed my breast and started squeezing it and moaning, while he got his knee wedged between my legs and my skirt around my waist,” (109).
Do you think that “John” is treating the women in his life like the meat or cattle that he focuses his work on?What about the other men in the novel?
2. It has been made quite clear throughout the novel so far that BEEF-EX has an image of an American woman that is acceptable to be on there show. We can see the lengths that the company goes through to get acceptable women in these quotes,
“The challenge was to find out what they looked like. But there were ways. You could phone up the local Nu U Unisex Salon...and appeal to the owner as a colleague...you're a beauty professional, and what I really want to ask you for is your professional assessment on her appearance…” (57).
“The BEEF-EX people are very strict. They don’t want their meat to have a synergistic association with deformities. Like race. Or poverty. Or clubfeet.” (57).
John was very upset when Jane tried to choose authentic families or when the man was cooking on the show. Why do you think it is so important for japanese women to watch beautiful american women cooking the meat?
3. “I’m not your girlfriend, Sloan. And I don’t get pregnant.” (91)
‘“Do you have any kids?” Grace asked. I shook my head. ‘I tried. I was married once,
but it just didn’t work out…”(75). Both of these quotes were conversations Jane had.
Based on these quotes we know that Jane couldn’t conceive and had a bad marriage. Akiko is very similar in that she hasn’t been able to have a baby with her abusive husband. However, Akiko is very malnourished and timid while Jane is strong and healthy. Why do you think the author chose these specific physical similarities and differences between the two characters?
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