Reflections on Foster

David C. Foster Wallace was a very interesting man. He had a very different view on society and how literature is interpreted in today's world. I think that his view on acts of communion were very interesting. He believes that eating a meal together symbolizes people coming together and trust within that unit. People will only eat together if they trust each other. "Here’s the thing to remember about communions of all kinds: in the real world, breaking bread
together is an act of sharing and peace, since if you’re breaking bread you’re not breaking heads" (Foster 2). I can relate this idea back to metamorphosis where Gregor's sister always insisted on feeding Gregor, it was a symbol of trust and confidence though because she gave Gregor the left over food it was a sign of the little importance Gregor held in the family. "Two people are at dinner and a third comes up, quite unwished for, and one or more of the first two refuse to eat. They place their napkins on their plates, or say something about losing their appetite, or simply get up and walk away. Immediately we know what they think about the interloper" (Foster 8). Eatting together is a sacred thing therefore we should treat it as that, this is why eatting has such a large impact on literature.

The next thing that Foster talks about is acts of vampirism. "It just goes to show
that not all eating that happens in literature is friendly. Not only that, it doesn’t even always look like eating. Beyond here there be monsters" (Foster 12). In the metamorphosis Gregor didn't always eat with care, sometimes he wasn't even looked at when he ate and other times he was given the rotten leftovers symbolizing his position in his family. "So vampirism isn’t about vampires? Oh, it is. It is. But it’s also about things other than literal vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, just for starters. We’ll return to this list a bit later on" (Foster 15). Refusal to accept the annatomy of others was another popular idea in the metamorphosis. Gregor was looked at as nemesis and not given the time of day because of his size and him being a bug. This showed Gregor's families selfishness and respectfulness in general.