KatieAikins

Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor Intro through p. 22 -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)

Foster’s Foodstuffs Applied to Hill’s “Heart in the Ground”

In a society where meals on the go are commonplace, it is necessary to observe and respect the sacredness of shared meals. In How to Read Literature Like A Professor, Thomas C. Foster likens mealtime to communion, but not necessarily of the Christian nature: “Nearly every religion has some liturgical or social ritual involving the coming together of the faithful to share substance” (8). Hill’s “Heart in the Ground” provides the needed evidence to support Foster’s claim. A mealtime episode does take place in the play; however, it seems as though Karen preoccupies herself with the harvest of corn. The moon raises “that corn right out of the ground” (10). This is the same corn in the same dirt that Karen knows if “you put a seed in good, rich dirt, you can grow anything” (3). Coincidentally, Karen wants to bury her seed, Catherine, in the cornfield so the can be pulled by the moon “right out of the ground” (10). Catherine will get a chance to flourish among the corn – the chance she missed at human life. Catherine will be harvested annually, in the form of corn: it is a cycle of rebirth. Behold the power of corn.