Breaking Barriers

“Throughout our Nation’s history, extraordinary women have broken barriers to achieve their dreams and blazed trails so their daughters would not face similar obstacles.” This quote from Barrack Obama is powerful and communicates to the people what women must go through to show the world what they are capable of. Society has underestimated the abilities of women and how they are supposed to contribute to society. Constantly, society has told women that they have been created to raise children and be in the household, but once society became more advanced and World War One came around women were needed to help in factories and other jobs. This is when the nation started to notice that women have the ability to contribute to society in different ways. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, an extraordinary culinary author, grew up during this time. She broke barriers and showed men and women all over the world what she and other women were able to achieve.

M.F.K Fisher was a successful culinary writer and wrote twenty-seven books but her books were more than just recipes, she stressed the importance of making a meal intimate. Fisher wants society to know that her works are not just writing about food but also all the emotions we feel before, during, and after eating.

“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it … and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied … and it is all one.”

Her goal was to make the process of eating beautiful and something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because it teaches more about ourselves. “M.F.K. Fisher, at last, reassures us that by improving our knowledge in pursuit of eating well, we will improve our own identities through the memories of experiences that bring out the tastes in our foods.”  Fisher was known as being a food writer that was different than others because she caught the attention of people since she didn’t write like most women. For example, one of her writings is about preparing an oyster. Fisher does not simply give a recipe about how to best prepare the oyster. She talks about the life of the oyster first. “A little oyster is born … and he swims thus freely for about two weeks, wherever the tides and his peculiar whims may lead him.” Then talks about the many ways it can be cooked and what types of drinks and sides are best paired with the meal. Her works exemplify her passion for showing that preparing and eating food is not just a necessity for living but an art and should be cherished.

Her goal was to make the process of eating beautiful and something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because it teaches more about ourselves. “M.F.K. Fisher, at last, reassures us that by improving our knowledge in pursuit of eating well, we will improve our own identities through the memories of experiences that bring out the tastes in our foods.”  Fisher was known as being a food writer that was different than others because she caught the attention of people since she didn’t write like most women. For example, one of her writings is about preparing an oyster. Fisher does not simply give a recipe about how to best prepare the oyster. She talks about the life of the oyster first. “A little oyster is born … and he swims thus freely for about two weeks, wherever the tides and his peculiar whims may lead him.” Then talks about the many ways it can be cooked and what types of drinks and sides are best paired with the meal. Her works exemplify her passion for showing that preparing and eating food is not just a necessity for living but an art and should be cherished.

Her goal was to make the process of eating beautiful and something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because it teaches more about ourselves. “M.F.K. Fisher, at last, reassures us that by improving our knowledge in pursuit of eating well, we will improve our own identities through the memories of experiences that bring out the tastes in our foods.”  Fisher was known as being a food writer that was different than others because she caught the attention of people since she didn’t write like most women. For example, one of her writings is about preparing an oyster. Fisher does not simply give a recipe about how to best prepare the oyster. She talks about the life of the oyster first. “A little oyster is born … and he swims thus freely for about two weeks, wherever the tides and his peculiar whims may lead him.” Then talks about the many ways it can be cooked and what types of drinks and sides are best paired with the meal. Her works exemplify her passion for showing that preparing and eating food is not just a necessity for living but an art and should be cherished.

Fisher said that the greatest achievement in her life was being able to walk into a restaurant and immerse herself in the food and not care about the men and women staring at her. The confidence Fisher wrote and lived with as a woman exemplifies that she was confident and knew what she was capable of achieving. Through her efforts to communicate the importance of food and how to appreciate it, she made an American Dream for herself. She showed the world that women were capable of being creative. She not only stepped outside of the norm for women, but also the way she wrote was outside of the box for culinary authors. Fisher broke barriers in many ways, showing that women were capable of more and that writing is an art and can be done in whatever way you want.

The American Dream definition is “the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.”But that is not the most accurate definition because for women there are many barriers in the way of “rising to the top.” Fisher broke those barriers and set new standards. She showed the world that women can be successful, creative, and independent. She didn’t want to fit into a stereotype of women but instead create a new definition of what women can do. A more accurate definition of the American Dream would be a common term that is used to represent a life that American’s can make for themselves even when obstacles block the path for success. And that is exactly what M.F.K Fisher did.