In Maryland, the social center is the cookhouse. Tom Weylin
rarely enters it and according to Dana “sometimes old people and children
lounged there, or house servants or even field hands stealing a few moments of
leisure” (94).
I think Dana’s place in the 1800s can be traced pretty well
by her comfort in the cookhouse.
When she first enters the cookhouse (in “The Fall”), Dana is uncomfortably out of place:
Supper was corn meal mush. The cook saw that I
was looking at it instead of eating it, and she misread my expression.
"That’s
not enough?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s plenty!” I held my bowl protectively, fearful that she might give me more
of the stuff. “Thank you.” (73)
Dana doesn’t yet know that the cook is Sarah. She doesn’t
feel comfortable saying that she doesn’t want the food. She is terse and
polite. Dana doesn’t know how to cook in the 19th century and spends most of the rest of “The Fall”
learning from Sarah.
By “The Fight,” Dana is much more comfortable in the
cookhouse. When Carrie goes into labor, Sarah leaves Dana in charge of making
supper. Dana is the one who directs a newcomer, Alice, telling her to peel
potatoes. Dana can cook the whole meal: “There was the soup that Sarah had left
simmering; fish to fry; ham that had been rock-hard before Sarah soaked it,
then boiled it; chicken to fry and corn bread and gravy to make; Alice’s
forgotten potatoes to finish; bread to bake in the little brick oven alongside
the fireplace; vegetables, including salad; a sugary peach dessert – Weylin raised
peaches; a cake that Sarah had already made, thank God; and both coffee and tea”
(159). Dana is also now enmeshed in the community. While she is cooking, she first
bears the brunt of Alice’s anger as she tries to remember what happened to her (“Dana,
tell me what I don’t remember. Tell me!” (157)) and then does her best to
comfort her when she does (“She collapsed against me, crying […] I sat with her
for a while” (159)).
The same scene in “The Fight” also shows how Dana is still
out of place though. She forgets to tell anyone to set the table and Tess does
it for her:
“Is the
table set?”
“Been set!
Even though you didn’t say nothin’.”
Oops. “I’m
sorry, Tess. Here help me out.” (159)
The “Oops” is a firm reminder that Dana is from the 20th century. A very short sentence is characteristic of a lot of 20th century writing. Oops is also a 20th century word. The earliest use in the OED is from 1921. So even though Dana has learned how to play a role in the 19th century, her natural reaction to a new situation comes from the 20th century.
The “Oops” is a firm reminder that Dana is from the 20th century. A very short sentence is characteristic of a lot of 20th century writing. Oops is also a 20th century word. The earliest use in the OED is from 1921. So even though Dana has learned how to play a role in the 19th century, her natural reaction to a new situation comes from the 20th century.
Dana in the cookhouse is a good representation of how her degree of comfort in the 1800s changes as the novel progresses. Though I wonder if the 'Oops' was intentionally put in there by the writer to remind us that Dana is from the 20th century, or if it was the writer slipping up and putting a modern word in there. It's probably more likely that she intentionally placed it there.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting aspect of the cookhouse scenes that I never thought about before! Dana's level of comfort in the cookhouse really shows her progression from completely out of place to kinda accepted. She never abandons her 20th century background, but in some scenes it is more hidden than others.
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