Acts of Communion

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Nice To Eat With You: Acts Of Communion In chapter two of his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor Thomas Foster discusses the real essence of meals in a story, meals are more important than just a bunch of people coming together to eat some food. He also clearly states in bold: whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion(Foster 8). Foster goes on to explain that nearly every religion has some liturgical or social ritual involving the coming together of the faithful to share sustenance(Foster 8), literary versions of communion can interpret the word in quite a variety of ways. Communion promotes peace, if two individuals dislike each other at the moment, then come together, eat and drink together they will eventually apologize to each other. Anytime a meal or communion is taking place it is usually to make amends with your enemy, get on the good side of someone you admire or someone you are happy to meet or mostly to honor a family member, friend, colleague etc, be it he/she died or has done something honorable. One example of communion is in the film Soul Food based upon the Showtime television show, the whole film is based upon communion, and how it affected and mended the relationships of the members of one boy’s extended family. The film starts by showing the close relations, love and affection the members of the family share with each other leaving all trials and tribulations of being an extended African-American family and staying together through longstanding family traditions (such as family dinners); these begin to fade as problems take a big toll on the family. Every Sunday in the film, the family has dinner with many delectable treats and food pleasing to the eye. Mother Joe is a diabetic but wise and caring matriarch of her family and the glue that holds it together, she always makes the “soul food” for her extended family for
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