“The Joy of Cooking” by Elaine Magarrell

“The Joy of Cooking,” a poem by Elaine Magarrell, metaphorically represents the speaker’s sister and brother through the use of a tongue and a heart. However, it is through these metaphors that the speaker characterizes her siblings. When one thinks of the tongue, their thoughts oftentimes are directed towards speech and what a person says. In the poem, the speaker describes herself as “scrubbing, skinning, and trimming” her sisters tongue. These actions relate to preparation of something, and in this case, a meal. Because of the use of the tongue to describe her sister, it shows that the girl might have an attitude or arrogance to her personality that the speaker is determined to get rid of. Therefore, the speaker would be scrubbing, skinning, and trimming away her sister’s insolence and attitude. The characterization of the speaker’s brother through the use of a heart also tells a great deal about his person. The heart is described as “firm and rather dry,” (Magarrell), which symbolizes that the speaker’s brother does not show much love and is lacking in care for others. Moreover, the fact that the speaker suggests stuffing the brother’s heart to make it interesting shows that the brother needs more in his heart, whether it is love or care for others. He is portrayed to be rather empty through the speaker’s description, and her cooking recipes suggest ways to make him more interesting.