The Yield: A Novel

Food symbolizes community and hospitality throughout The Yield. Elsie cooked constantly in her and Poppy’s home, even teaching cooking classes as part of their informal community outreach programs. Her walls were lined with cookbooks, and cooking and eating was a key activity for her and August together. Elsie represents a strong force for positive family and community ties, and her connection to food makes this particularly clear. Poppy is also connected to food, often using his dictionary entries to discuss traditional food gathering practices and preparations. His focus on community knowledge is shown through these instructions, and the importance of traditional food sources and his knowledge of them is emphasized.

Struggles with food are also expressive in the novel of hardship in the wider community. The Prosperous Mission regularly struggled with finding a stable food source, indicative of racial inequalities and also of the colonial and post-colonial dislocation from the land and the damaging removal of cultural knowledge. It is only when Greenleaf agreed to let the Indigenous population of the mission gather food using traditional methods that they had enough to live on. The literal sustenance of food here parallels the spiritual sustenance of culture, community, and freedom.

The complex relationship between food and emotional well-being is also explored through the character of August, who struggles with food.