The text “Confessions of a Closet Catholic” refers to a young girl striving to find herself and struggling to figure out what exactly she believes in religiously. In order for Jussy to find what exactly she believes in she researches and experiments with different religious than Judaism. She reads about Hinduism and Buddhism as well has practices Catholicism. Her eagerness to be Catholic goes as far as her pouring out her sins to “Father Ted,” her stuffed teddy bear. Jussy does this while wearing her mother’s white napkin on her head to resemble a nun, and taking grape juice and matzo for communion.
My question toward the text was “Do you think the author used “chocolate” as a metaphor to represent Jussy’s search for her religious or self-identify viewpoint throughout the text?” Throughout the novel Sarah Darer Littman made reference to chocolate. I wondered while I was reading if this had any significance toward her religious beliefs or search for self-identity. A passage that I concentrated on was on the first page, page 3, when Jussy is saying she would rather give up being Jewish then chocolate like Mac is doing. Do you think her inability to give up chocolate refers to her borderline feelings about her faith or denote her being uneducated on Judaism and doesn’t really know what she believes? Another example is on page 122-123, when Jussy is explaining how she hasn’t eaten chocolate since Bubbe died and is willing to give it up for the rest of her life. Does this symbolize her growth as a person? Was Bubbe the person that helped her find her self-identity because she listened to her and loved her? Has Bubbe’s death made Jussy realize her true spiritual beliefs? And lastly, look on page 184 when she thinks about resorting back to eating brownies. Does her urge to want brownies symbolize that people always question their beliefs and there isn’t always one clear cut answer? Or does it stand for her not fully have found her self-identity completely and that she is accepting that?
3 comments:
I love your question because I had never thought about it! I wonder if chocolate could also represent something like self-denial or indulgence or sin? I'll have to look back at the texts.
I definitely saw food as an issue for Justine - that was actually mentioned in my full QTT paper. For me, chocolate represented her negative body image, unhealthy view of herself, and her focus on the wrong things she was doing (often when she ate it she commented about how she should be watching her figure). As her view of chocolate changed, from an indulgence/sin to, as Rabbi Freeman said, "a means of connecting with the divine spark within us," she changed. No longer was religion something set aside, to be done in the privacy of her closet. She could keep kosher at meals publicly, go to the center with her Dad, and talk about religion without fear.
I think it is interesting that you bring up author's use of chocolate. For me, the theme of food was something that was under-developed and best left out. For example, there is a point in the book when Jussy's mom tells the family the have to go eat, especially Helena. Helena's weight is brought up a few times but never expanded upon. I don't think it is safe to leave this sort of food issue open, as it is such a problem among young girls.
Jussy's intake of chocolate scared me at first, because it seemed as she was eating her problems and feelings - which is not healthy. However, as the novel progresses and she becomes more secure, her indulgances curb and she eats less chocolate. I thought it was interesting that the author would include this theme, however. I remember one point in the novel where Jussy said she was eating two to three chocolate bars a day to deal with her problems. Jussy's mom gives her grief about her chocolate intake, etc. I wonder, for readers who do have this sort of tendency, to eat their feelings, how would they react to this book?
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