The Irony of Too Much

Virgilio Piñera's Meat is one of my favorite short stories of all time. I just finished reading it for Latin American literature class, and was reminded that I wrote a reaction paper on it for an English class during my second semester in college. 

So I looked for it. It's quite amusing. And the fact that I happened to remember and to reread it today is even more amusing.

...

                       Humans can survive without consuming meat. Vegetarians are the walking proofs of this. They abstain from eating animals and function just like any normal human being. In a crowd of 3 people you do not know, you wouldn’t be able to single out which of them is vegetarian unless you actually watch them eat or  unless they tell you. Except for their choice of diet, vegetarians are just like every omnivorous human being who ever lived. The people in “Meat,” however, act as if they’d die without meat. As if meat is the only source of nutrition in the world. As if meat is their only happiness, their salvation. As if they were addicted.  Thus, they ended up consuming themselves (which was seemingly awesome in literature, by the way).

                        Humans, by nature, are self-centered. Being self-centered is not a crime, since self preservation is a person’s duty to one’s self, as Immanuel Kant’s logic establishes.  Looking after one’s own interest is even necessary to survive in this world of natural selection. Looking after the interest of others comes in only second. The characters in “Meat” act accordingly. They eat their own meat, not the meat of their fellow townsfolk. Mr. Ansaldo decides to eat his own meat thinking of his own cravings, not the cravings of other townsfolk. Only when someone knocks on his door does he share his brilliant idea of eating his left buttocks. Mr. Ansaldo demonstrates how to fillet one’s own flesh, but he does not serve them his own meat. It’s serve yourself your own. You are responsible for your survival. Other people may help you, but in the end it’s really all for one’s self.  Thus, they decide that eating oneself is good and follow the trend.  Because their precious nutrition is unavailable, they turn resourceful. In even more drastic situations than meat shortage, like getting trapped under a collapsed building (which already happened I just don’t remember where I read it from), they’d drink their own urine and eat the flesh of their dead companions to not starve to death. As grotesque as it may sound, humans would do whatever it takes to preserve themselves.

                        Addiction is the state of psychological dependency on something— on anything, not merely on drugs. When you’re psychologically dependent on something, you feel as if you cannot live without your object of addiction; but the truth is, you can. Objects of addiction range from video games to certain food, from gambling to drinking and smoking, from sex to love, or even people (which is very disturbing and very true). In the story, it is meat. Since the townspeople feel like they can’t live without meat, they sacrifice everything to obtain it. However, they are in denial. They do not want to admit that their desire is already harming them. Addicts think they can stop anytime they wanted but that is not the case. Like the over-400lbs obese who consumed his entire reserve in just fifteen days—since he couldn’t resist snacking— when his supply could have exceeded a year. Addicts are tremendously uncomfortable whenever they withdraw from their addictions, sometimes with physiological symptoms. This, I think, is just how the townsfolk in “Meat” felt during the meat shortage. They could have stuck to a vegetable diet and lived. But they don’t. The left buttock is, apparently, a more preferable cuisine. And here’s where the irony comes in.

By continuing consumption of their object of addiction, addicts think they’re doing themselves a favor, when the truth is they’re not. Their perception of reality is altered by their extreme want for their addictions. Thinking they’re preserving themselves, they self destruct. The townspeople thought they’d function well if they had their share of meat. Worrying that they’d die without meat, they ate themselves. 

submitted Jan 23, five years ago.