Eating Sugar: analyse af turisme og kulturmøde

Eating Sugar is a short story written by Catherine Merriman.

It is a common fear to be helpless, to be in a foreign country and not being able to communicate which is a terrible feeling. Throughout my analysis and interpretation of Eating Sugar I’ll try to indicate the main differences between natives and tourists. In order to do that I’ve also worked with A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid and the picture Tourist 2 , by Duana Hanson.

Eating Sugar takes place in Thailand during the Song Khran (the New Year in Thailand), it is summertime: “This awful drenching heat” L. 9-10. “Thailand in April…” L. 20. We are presented to the married couple Eileen and Alex from Britain, and their 21 year old daughter; Suzanne. Suzanne works as an English teacher, and her only holiday is during the Song Khran, so her parents are visiting her in her holiday. Suzanne has taken her parents out into the forest to show them some waterfalls. After seeing one of the waterfalls they lost. As they are lost Alex and Eileen feels very helpless and Suzanne is calmer: “It was the helplessness children must feel. There had been a role reversal here. Suzanne, their brave twenty-one-year old daughter transformed this side of the world a competent, patient, encouraging parent.” L. 39-42. When they are most afraid and helpless they suddenly hear male voices behind them, four Thai men are approaching. The four Thai men start to talk with them, and give them their local beer, Chang. Alex’ first impression is that they are about to hurt him and his family, that is a very common way to think when tourists travels to foreign countries, because they are afraid of the unknown, so instead of giving the Thai men benefit of the doubts, he are nervous. Suzanne is very comfortable with the situation because she lives in Thailand and knows the Thai people and speaks a bit Thai. Eileen is feeling very helpless, but Alex is the one who feels most helpless, because he is the man and father in the family so he thinks he should be the one to look after his family, but here in the forest in Thailand, he feels unsecure, afraid and helpless. Later on he becomes the one in charge again, because he hears that his wife is no longer afraid: “Alex heard the words, and looked up. She should have sounded anxious… He was responsible for them”. L. 106-110.