Eat Me Flashcards
“He brought me a cake, / three layers of icing, home-made, / a candle for each stone in weight.”
Weight gain is celebrated by her partner, with the fact its “home-made” suggesting that there was care or effort placed into making it. Furthermore, the cakes candles could be seen as similar to how a birthday cakes candles mark a persons age, showing that she is getting closer to dying due to her weight gain.
“Did / What I was told. Didn’t even taste it.”
She doesn’t question or resist her partner or the cakes commands. The speaker also doesn’t seem to enjoy eating, as she is likely eating it quickly and may be in discomfort doing so, highlighting the extent that her feeder lifestyle has had on her and her relationship with food
“so he could watch my broad / belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut.”
“Forbidden fruit”
The speaker is objectified by her partner, who is aroused by her weight (which is emphasised with the b and w sounds). The fact that she is described as a juggernaut suggests that she is an unstoppable force, and perhaps poses the question of if the later events are being foreshadowed here and if they were inevitable due to the path she was going down, further emphasised later on with the description of her as a forbidden fruit, which has implications of irreversible consequences
“The bigger the better, he’d say, I like /”
“big girls, soft girls… with multiple chins, masses of cellulite”
“girls I can burrow inside”
This stanza has a focus on the speakers partner, who is presented as extremely self centred, and only focuses on his own desires without considering the consequences for his partners (highlighted by the enjambment of “I like”). He celebrates the speaker, almost like a goddess, which although may feel liberating due to the typical stigma around bigger women, it is clear that he is objectifying the speaker and sees her only for her weight/his sexual desires. He is incredibly predatory, explaining how he likes girls who he can “burrow inside”, which has parasitic implications
“I was his jacuzzi. But he was my cook,”
“my only pleasure the rush of fast food,”
“his pleasure, to watch me swell like forbidden fruit”
The speakers partner merely wants to have the speaker around because he sees her as pleasurable and luxurious, the fact she describes herself as a “jacuzzi” emphasises the extent to which she has been objectified and degraded. However, she needs him to survive, despite him slowly killing her.
Despite this, he shows little care for her, and doesn’t even seem to cook for her, instead buying fast food. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem like the speaker even ENJOYS the situation she has been placed into and gets no pleasure from him.
The speakers partner is static, and wont do anything to help her. The fact she “swells” may imply that she is close to a sort of breaking point or is reaching her bodies limits. Forbidden fruit suggests sin and disobedience
“His breadfruit. His desert island after shipwreck”
Her partner views her as something rare or hard to obtain, likely because it is difficult to find someone who will agree to this lifestyle. However, the speaker also appears to feel that she is isolated (a desert island), possibly by her situation and him, as well as her body which prevents her from being able to go anywhere and pushes her out of society
“too fat to leave, too fat to buy a pint of full-fat milk”
“too fat to be called chubby, cuddly, big-built.”
The speaker feels that her weight largely contributes to her being unable to leave, both physically due to her mobility issues as well as the damage it has done to her self image. Its possible that, if she did leave her relationship, the speaker would struggle to break out of old habits and instead only continue the cycle of gaining weight. In addition, she appears to believe that she is too far gone, and does not meet societal expectations for how plus sized women should appear (eg. having fat in the “correct” places), so she struggles to view herself as desirable to anyone else but her current partner.
“I allowed him to stroke / my globe of a cheek.”
“His flesh, my flesh, flowed.”
“He said, Open wide, poured olive oil down my throat”
There is a false sense of control and power for the speaker here. She says that she “allowed” him to touch her, which suggests that she still retains some bodily autonomy, but this is immediately discarded with the description of her cheek as a “globe” which has implications of empire and control. Furthermore, the fact that “His flesh, my flesh, flowed” suggests that her body belongs to him, in addition to the irony of the word “flowed” in this situation. This is solidified by the fact that she once again follows his commands, despite the fact he is telling her to drink olive oil which most people would refuse.
The use of olive oil also hints towards him running out of things to feed her, which may foreshadow the fact that she eats him due to there being nothing else for her.
What does the structure of “Eat Me” mean?
The poem is organised with a structure of rigid, short stanzas, which not only reflects the controlled environment the speaker is in, but also could suggest the idea that the speaker is talking in short bursts, perhaps being unable to talk for a long time without breathing due to her weight
