What a Meal

In Elaine Magarrell's The Joy of Cooking, the author seems to be a very disturbed individual.  The story is a simple manual on how to properly prepare the author's sister's tongue and her brother's heart for consumption.  Her tone throughout the entire piece is surprisingly calm and indifferent.  She acts as if she is simply preparing a meal like any other, instead of on involving her siblings' body parts.  These weird images could be symbols for the personalities of the siblings however.  The brother's heart could represent a caring and kind personality, which is used by the author.  On the same token, the sister's tongue could mean her social activities and gossip, which the author could also manipulate.  It is suggested that the sister has possibly gotten hurt before, in the line "Best with horseradish and economical- it probably will grow back," (Magarrell).  This could mean the sister is willing to come back and get used again.  Following this symbolism, another aspect of the author's personality is revealed.  The author seems to be a cold and mechanical person who is willing to use her siblings for her own personal gain.  In a very disgusting way, she has revealed herself to be a bad person.