Food plays an important part in literature, and it is most evident in Amy Bender’s novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. The author depicts a story about a nine year old girl, Rose, who discovers she has the ability to taste people’s emotions. Because of her power that is present through food, Rose is able to learn from this experience and grow as a person. Throughout the book, the author uses Rose’s experiences with food to contribute to the characteristics of who she is as an individual and how she grows mentally because of it.
At the age of nine, Rose discovers that she has the ability to experience other people’s emotions through food. This all takes place on an ordinary afternoon when her mom bakes a lemon cake in their kitchen.…show more content… Food is the only reason why Rose and George have a friendship to begin with. Their friendship all started when George was the only person willing to help Rose with her problem. On the day of Rose’s birthday, which is coincidentally the same day George takes her out to the cookie shop, they solve Rose’s problem of being able to not only taste the ingredients of those foods, but also an emotion that goes along with it. Without that day, Rose and George would not have a friendship. However, their friendship escalated to another level because from that day on, Rose develops feelings for George. Their friendship is complicated because George is Rose’s brother’s, Joe, only close friend, and he is also a couple of years older than Rose. When George goes to Rose’s house with Joe, Rose tries her best to talk to him, but Joe does not let her in his room, where George is majority of the time. George continues to help Rose out by doing her a favor during school. The favor she asks of him is that he, a high school student, would visit her, a middle school teenager, during school. Rose asks this favor of him so she could make her friends and other classmates jealous. George is Rose’s first crush in the book, but in the end, it did not end well for Rose. When George goes off to college, they become distant, and when they do talk, Rose occasionally hears another woman in the background. With this crush of hers, Rose is able to learn what her true feelings are and know what she wants, which is a sign of her
