Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis are both literary works in which food is a major part of the setting. The role of food in literature is an intriguing topic of study because its presence in society is almost always reflected in some part of the novel to achieve verisimilitude because no society exists without food. Observation of a culture's treatment of food and mealtimes provides important insight into the nature of the culture. Eating is both a somewhat animalistic part of humanity and a center for social gathering. In the novels One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Metamorphosis,, food plays important, if different, roles. These roles can be seen when food is center in a society, during mealtimes, and in the way food can both give and take life.
In reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it is obvious that food plays a vital role in prison life. Because of its scarcity, food is the greatest motivator for the prisoners. It is given as a reward to the hard-working, well-liked prisoners, and withheld as punishment for the lazy prisoners. The men are constantly looking forward to their next meal. The novel's protagonist, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, does favors for other prisoners in exchange for rations. The limited supply of food causes a hierarchy to develop among the men, leading some to receive much less than is necessary for life and others to receive more. Shukhov, who is driven to survive, naturally treats his victuals as a valuable commodity, closely guarding the smallest morsel of bread and savoring every spoonful of gruel. The major presence of food in this work of literature serves to depict the cruel plight of the prisoner of the Soviet labor camp system.
In The Metamorphosis, as in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, food is an important part of human existence. However, the word "human" is a key factor in this statement.