Eat me - Patience Agbabi

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

• a potential reference to Alice in Wonderland links to the fantasy of the man trying to grow his partner
• imperative, suggests the speaker is a submissive character
• extended metaphor - for mental and emotional abuse, between speaker and partner and relationship with food

Question 2

‘When I hit thirty, he bought me a cake,
three layers of icing, home-made’

Answer 2

contrast between ‘hit’ and ‘home - made’ highlights the destructive nature of domestic abuse

Question 3

‘The icing was white but the letters were pink’

Answer 3

‘White’ represents purity and femininity in contrast with a dangerous and controlling motivation behind the cake

Question 4

‘Then he asked me to get up and walk
round the bed so he could watch my broad
belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut.’

Answer 4

• teasing tone shows degrading and objectification of his partner for sexual gratification
  ‘walk’ ‘broad’ ‘juggernaut’ - all three rhyme through assonance of ‘awh’

Question 5

‘The bigger the better’

Answer 5

alliteration

Question 6

‘inside
with’

Answer 6

enjambment

Question 7

‘multiple chins, masses of cellulite.’

Answer 7

the semantic field of gigantic objects - hyperbole of objectification

Question 8

‘rush of fast food,’

Answer 8

• alliteration
• the pleasure the woman receives is a short-lived, unhealthy relationship, could relate to an unhealthy addiction

Question 9

‘swell like forbidden fruit.’

Answer 9

• simile
• biblical allusion which foreshadows death

Question 10

‘shipwreck’ ‘beached whale’ ‘craving a wave’ ‘tidal wave’

Answer 10

semantic field/ lexical set of the sea - something large, helpless and abandoned

Question 11

‘too fat’

Answer 11

Anaphora, repetition of phrase

Question 12

‘chubby, cuddly, big-built’

Answer 12

Euphemisms for fat, language used by society because of the negative connotations associated

Question 13

‘The day I hit thirty-nine’

Answer 13

• could link to age or a persons weight

Question 14

‘His flesh, my flesh flowed.’

Answer 14

syntactic parallelism - which evolves the sense of intimacy and reliance of sex

Question 15

‘Soon you’ll be forty… he whispered’

Answer 15

ambiguity of the sexual connections of whispering, but also the danger and secrecy of abuse

Question 16

‘I drowned his dying sentence out.’

Answer 16

• alliteration
• sea imagery, the speaker takes control

Question 17

‘There was nothing else left in the house to eat.’

Answer 17

• she can now provide for herself
• a sense of loss, reached what she could tolerate
• ambiguous and sinister line

Question 18

Overall messages

Answer 18

• the sexual nature of their relationship is a taboo subject which could reflect social discomfort
• the idea of a man overpowering a woman to continue with control over her, reversed at the end - suggesting a shift in the power dynamic
• body image mainly considered female, reflects societal attitudes. the death of the abuser highlights a shift in stereotypical views surrounding body image.

Question 19

Notes

Answer 19

• the speaker is part of an abusive relationship to satisfy his sexual appetite
• tone is dark, sinister - corresponds with the theme of abuse

Question 20

Structure

Answer 20

• consists of 10 tercets - highlights the strict regime the speaker is put through
• in the form of a dramatic monologue
• each stanza follows the form of half/assonant rhyme. indication of the unhealthy nature of the relationship
• written in free verse