The Edible Woman

Marian returns home to find Ainsley in distress about her plans to seduce Len Slank. They have spent the preceding weeks going on casual dates, but Ainsley worries that she is taking too long to seduce him. Len treats “her as though she was a little girl” (127) and doesn’t seem inclined to speed up their relationship to a more physical stage. Ainsley asks Marian to stay out of the apartment that evening so Ainsley can bring Len back to the apartment to have sex. Marian agrees, deciding she will see a movie and return around midnight. To her, Ainsley is “in reality a scheming superfemale carrying out a foul plot against him” (130), yet she still does not act upon her guilty conscience and warn Len about Ainsley’s plot.

Marian sees a Western film. Partway through the movie she notices that Duncan is sitting merely two seats away from her and eating loudly. When she looks again, Duncan is gone, but a voice in her ear tells her that the food in question is pumpkin seeds. She looks behind her, but no one is there. Marian returns home and attempts to calm their landlady down, who is upset from thinking that Ainsley has had a man up in the apartment. She enters the apartment and finds a warning tie on her own doorknob; Ainsley and Len slept in her bed.

The next day, Marian receives a call from Duncan at her office. He asks her to bring him clothes to iron, as ironing is his preferred method of stress release, and he has been anxious about turning in his latest essay assignment. Marian agrees then calls Peter to cancel their dinner plans.

After leaving work early, Marian visits Clara in the hospital. Though Clara is happy and proud to have given birth again, Marian feels distant from her friend because “[m]ore and more, Clara’s life seemed cut off from her, set apart, something she could only gaze at through a window” (139). She becomes distracted by the color of the hospital walls as Clara talks; they are the same color as the walls in her office. After hearing of her engagement, Clara insists that Marian introduce them to Peter while warning her against expecting to know Peter thoroughly until several years after they’ve been married.

Marian returns to the apartment to collect any clothes to be ironed, finding Ainsley smug about having successfully seduced Len the previous night. Marian collects a few items of clothing and goes to Duncan’s apartment. They go into his bedroom and Marian watches him iron her clothes, though he complains that she hasn’t brought enough for him to work on. As he irons, Duncan tells her that he smashed the bathroom mirror a few days earlier because he “got tired of being afraid I’d walk in there some morning and wouldn’t be able to see my own reflection” (150). Duncan is disappointed that Marian believes this story; he smashed the mirror out of the need to hit something but pretends the action has a deeper meaning.

Duncan asks for her name, which surprises Marian, as she had simply “taken it for granted that he knew it all along” (153). She tells Duncan she is engaged to which he responds that it isn’t his business. He warns her against assuming that their own relationship is meaningful to him because she’s “just another substitute for the laundromat’” (156). Instead of feeling hurt, Marian is relieved by Duncan’s answer. Duncan’s roommates return, and the pair hurriedly pretends to be playing chess to avoid suspicion.

Marian and Peter eat dinner at a restaurant. Because Marian has been unable to make decisions lately, she had allowed Peter to order them both filet mignons. They talk about the education system, disagreeing about where to place the responsibility for children who act out. Peter believes that it is the child’s fault while Marian is more sympathetic toward them. The waiter brings their food. As Marian begins to eat, she notices Peter is staring at her, a habit he has recently started that makes her uncomfortable because “[s]he couldn’t tell what he was searching for when he looked at her like that” (161). She feels exposed and worried that Peter will discover her inner self. In turn, she watches him cutting his steak and a series of violent images cross her mind. She images the diagram of a cow used to explain the different cuts of meat.

Marian becomes disgusted with her own steak and finds herself unable to eat it. Peter comments that the food has done him good. To distract him from her revelation about the violence of eating meat, Marian pretends that her stomach is too small and dainty to hold such a large meal. Peter does not suspect that anything is wrong with her.

A few weeks pass in which Marian is unable to eat meat. She grows nauseous and physically uncomfortable around various types of meat and has begun supplementing her diet with peanut butter and cheese to raise her protein intake. She has grown afraid that “this refusal of her mouth to eat, was malignant” (166) and might spread to other food groups. Len Slank calls to speak with Marian about Ainsley. Marian invites him over as Ainsley is currently out at the prenatal clinic, having confirmed her pregnancy since sleeping with Len.

Marian resents Len asking for help as she doesn’t want to become involved in their situation. When he arrives, Len is in severe distress from learning that Ainsley is pregnant, and he refuses to marry her. Marian finally tells him that Ainsley planned the pregnancy, citing the fact that Ainsley is “convinced that no woman has fulfilled her femininity unless she’s had a baby” (170). Len’s distress turns to anger, both at Ainsley and at Marian for failing to tell him. Ainsley returns home. Len accuses her of using him, and the pair argue. Len recounts an early childhood experience when he cracked an egg open and found a chick inside.

The next morning, Marian makes her usual breakfast of a poached egg but, remembering Len’s story, finds that she is unable to eat the egg as it could once have been a living being.