Symbolism in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrob and Where the Wild Things Are free essay sample

By definition, food is any material that an organism eats or drinks that allows it to preserve life and grow; culturally, it also serves as a classical conditioning positive and negative supporter. Discipline is something that can occur in various different forms. It may be most commonly gained through rewards, punishments, currency, positive negative reinforcements, and manipulation. The primary purpose of food in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Where the Wild Things Are is to discipline the characters in the stories. In the short story, Where the Wild Things Are, food is used to discipline Max directly for a constructive purpose; he is not being persuaded to listen to or fulfill anyone’s wishes in particular. Max’s discipline is more freedom based as he changes throughout the story not for anyone else but rather for himself. In this story, food is used as both a reward and punishment. In the beginning of the story, food is used as a punishment as his mother sends him to bed without food when he misbehaves. Food situates itself as positive support for guiding good behavior and as a negative re-enforcer when he misbehaves to decrease the likelihood of his undesirable behavior of being wild. This is shown in the story when the author writes, â€Å"The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him â€Å"WILD THING! † and Max said, â€Å"I’LL EAT YOU UP! † so he was sent to bed without eating anything. † (CITATION). As Max was misbehaving, his mother punished him by not giving him food. As food is something that is a craving and a necessary tool to maintain life, not getting food effects and punishes Max. Food is used to be a punishment through the mother’s action of sending Max to his room without supper as a result to acting wild. On the other hand, food also serves as a reward at the end of the book when Max decides to let go of his bad behavior and returns home; he finds a hot supper awaiting his return. Max makes the decision to leave and go back home despite the attempts of the â€Å"Wild Things† trying to convince him to stay; he does not listen and instead â€Å"waved good-bye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot. † (CITATION). This rewarding use of food disciplines Max into learning that if he does the right thing such as letting go of his bad behavior, he will be rewarded. This would teach any child that doing the right thing is always good and somehow rewarding at the end. Food can be used as a reward or punishment for any individual but in the end, both ways discipline the person to act a specific way. Furthermore, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the food is used to form discipline by the Queen to get the subject to adhere to her wishes. The discipline the food serves is through the use of â€Å"currency†. As we all know, money can have both a negative and positive effect on people. It can lead to gaining objects that makes an individual happy but at the same time can lead to greed for more of it which creates suffering as that burning greed is often gone unfulfilled. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe portrays this well because the witch uses her power to grant the boy, Edmund, she meets with his favourite food, Turkish Delight. This is clearly stated in the book when the Queen says, ‘What would you like best to eat? ’ ‘Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty,’ said Edmund. The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. (CITATION). The Queen in this case uses food as the currency to satisfy the temporary desire the boy has for Turkish Delight. Soon after he is given the food, the author has clearly illustrated how it also led to greed and desire for more of it as Edmund wanted more and more of it. On page (page number), as we look into the thoughts of Edmund it says, â€Å"At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. † (CITATION). This shows how the currency of food has now disciplined Edmund to have more of a desire and greed for the food which later on is also what causes Edmund to listen to everything the Queen says that he is able to complete the desire he has inside of himself. Moreover, food also showed discipline in the story through the use of manipulation. The Queen manipulated Edmund so that he trusts her and answers all the questions she asks him truthfully. The author conveys this message when he writes, While he was eating the Queen kept asking him questions She got him to tell her that he had one brother and two sisters, and that one of his sisters had already been in Narnia and had met a Faun there, and that no one except himself and his brother and his sisters knew anything about Narnia. (CITATION). Clearly, the Queen successfully manipulates him into telling her all the knowledge that she requires to know. She used the food to materialistically gain Edmund as she caught his immediate attention and time. The manipulation relates to discipline as the Queen persuaded Edmund to behave a certain way which was truthfully answering all the questions she needed to know. In conclusion, discipline is conveyed in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe through the use of two main materials; currency and manipulation. Lastly, in both, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Where the Wild Things Are, a common symbolism of food and also a way of discipline that is used is positive and negative reinforcements. When Edmund first saw the Queen in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he was frightened and scared by her due to her being a complete stranger to him; this acted as a negative re-enforcer for Edmund as it caused him to decrease the behavior of associating with the queen. But later on in the story, the Queen manipulates Edmund by treating him to a food he loves, Turkish Delight and using the food she is giving him as a positive reinforcement in order to get him to become more comfortable with him and answer all the questions she needs to ask him truthfully. After the Queen gives Edmund something to drink and to eat, it says in the book about how he had become comfortable with the Queen. Edmund states in his mind, â€Å"Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable. † (CITATION). This shows how the food the Queen gave Edmund acted as a clear positive reinforcement as it allowed him to become more comfortable with her. Also, not only did the food given to Edmund let him be comfortable with the Queen, but it also caused the fright he first had of her to come off. This is clearly shown in the story when the author writes, â€Å"‘Why can’t we go to your house now? ’ said Edmund. When he had first got on to the sledge he had been afraid that she might drive away with him to some unknown place from which he would not be able to get back; but he had forgotten about that fear now. † (CITATION). Clearly, Edmund’s behavior and feelings towards the Queen has dramatically changed as he now sees her as a completely different person who is very nice with just the reinforcement shown through the food in the story. Although he reinforcement just described is positive and beneficial to the Queen, it is actually not beneficial to Edmund himself as the Queen is an evil individual which is why the food is not only a positive reinforcement but a negative one as well since it leads to Edmund â€Å"supporting† evil indirectly since he follows and listens to the Queen. The positive and negative reinforcement of food here has disciplined Edmund to both be more comfortable and not be afraid of the queen, plus indirection support evil. Moving on, in Where the Wild Things Are, positive reinforcement is also shown by the food because it teaches Max to let go of his bad behavior and go onto a better and more beneficial pathway. This was mainly proved in the story at the end when he smelled the food which caused him to stop being the king of â€Å"Where the Wild Things Are† and instead, be more of a good behaving child by listening to his mom as well as staying in reality more which led him to come back into his room where he found his reward of food, as discussed earlier. This is proved in the story when it says, â€Å"Then all around from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat so he gave up king of where the wild things are and sailed back over a year into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot† (CITATION). Clearly, the positive reinforcement of the food disciplined Max to come back home and not misbehave as he did come back after smelling the food. It is clear that both stories have used positive and negative reinforcements that allowed the discipline to take place in both stories. The discipline that took place in both stories, was through the use of symbolism of the food which had many phases to it. Each culture has a somewhat different way of disciplining a child and some use food. Throughout this essay, it is clearly evident that in both stories, the symbolism of the food significantly contributed to the discipline and change that occurred throughout the story in the characters. Food and discipline obviously cannot only be described by the basic definition they are given, they must be looked into with further detail and with an open mind so that an individual is able to see the various phases both can take on.