4.How could food possibly be portrayed in a negative way?

The second novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets introduces us to Dobby the house elf. The beginning of the novel shows Harry’s first encounter with Dobby as he drastically attempts to stop Harry from attending the new term of school. It becomes evident that Dobby has attempted to get Harry into trouble by being loud thus forcing his uncle to come into his room and yell at him. BUT! It is only when food is involved does Harry feel the wrath of his uncle. Havoc is caused by Dobby dropping cake on Mr Durselys boss who is attending their house for a meal. Unfortunately, Dobby frames Harry in an attempt to get him grounded. In this particular scene, it becomes evident that food is used as a means of destruction.  Unlike Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone where food is used to show a change in events, food is portrayed to act as a weapon of destruction. An example of this is the description of the cake `The pudding fell to the floor with an heart stopping crash. Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered` (20) which shows how much of a disaster a small piece of cake has made. The reaction towards the cake spreading everywhere can be seen by the words ‘heart stopping’ which foreshadows the turn of the events which are inevitably about to occur. Furthermore, the description of the cake is exaggerated to again foreshadow his uncle’s rage. It is said that the cake has splattered on the windows as well as the walls meaning that firstly, this will take a very long time to clean, but also the fact that food can be seen as a means of destruction. Furthermore, the cake has not only destroyed their house but inevitably caused a  further divide between Harry and his family. As now Harry is the one who is being blamed for the cake, the hatred his family has for him has significantly increased. This is highlighted through Uncle Vernon’s tone. I would say that the portrayal of food in this novel is more negative. The reason being? Maybe due to the idea that the beginning of the novel has started off with a negative tone. Harry is trapped in Privet Drive, locked in his room and hasn’t received any mail from his friends. With the incident of the cake, this would show Harry’s life in the Dursleys house is one in which there are negative outcomes. 

Secondly how could we possible forget about the famous DeathDay party! In this chapter of our gripping tale Harry is now in Hogwarts and its currently the season of Halloween (a coincidence I know typical J.K Rowling). The DeathDay Party was for Nearly Headless Nick the Gryffindor ghost to celebrate the day he died. Nearly Headless Nick has invited Harry and his friend to this “joyous” event so they can all celebrate it together. However, as we can all imagine Harry would have preferred to have dined in the Great Hall with the rest of his school and enjoy the luxurious feast. Again, like the beginning scene, there are subtle negative undertones which foreshadow Harry’s reaction to the food at the Death Day party. The change in setting is one way in which the negative undertones can be seen. Harry and his friends are said to be passing the Great hall which is said to be `glittering invitingly with gold plates and candles’ (100). The plates and candles are being personified to tempt Harry and his friends into attending the feast meaning they would miss out on the Death Day Party. Through the use of colour we are able to understand Harry’s desire to remain at the feast. Critic Susanna states ‘it is the colour that makes us feel the warmth and comfort of Hogwarts’ (1) Great Hall’ implying that food can be seen a means for comfort (something I will be exploring later on). With this in in mind it becomes evident that Harry would prefer to remain at the feast as he finds it more comforting and inviting. However, instead of attending the feast, Harry ascends into the dungeons which have ‘jet black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces` (101) Now we are starting to see a change in setting, from the inviting warm nature of the feast to the dark and dismal dungeons. From this description, it becomes evident that the food at this party would not meet the expectations of Harry and his friends. Their initial reaction is excitement however it then turns to horror, a similar reaction as to the beginning of the novel. Unlike the food shown in the Dursleys house to be covered everywhere, the food at the party has decayed. `Large, rotten fish… great maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mould` (102). From this description, it becomes evident that the meal as the party is not very appealing and quite vile, something Harry was not expecting to eat at the party. The food in this scene reflects the setting in which they are held. Furthermore, like most of the motifs in the novel, the language used to describe the food is exaggerated to make it more unpleasant for the reader to read.

Furthermore, I would argue that food in this particular part does not only show the destruction of the underworld but also represents a divide between the living and the dead. The food at the Great Hall was inviting compared to the food at the party which is all shown to be decaying. This would suggest that there is not only a divide between the muggle and magical world, but also a further divide in the magical world between the living and the dead. It is important to note that J.K Rowling is using food to highlight the two worlds and uses food to show the separation of the two. It is also worth noticing how at the beginning of the novel a cake is used to show the destruction however in this example decaying food is used. This would imply that there is a gradual decay in food across the novel to highlight the negative undertones which are slowly unravelled as the novel progresses.  

Bibliography

1.     Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Great Britain: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998.    
2.     Susanna. Food and Drink in the Potter Universe, 2001. https://www.hp-lexicon.org/2001/12/02/food-and-drink-in-the-potter-universe/