Entry 2

In Babette’s Feast, we can see the protestant ethics as represented by the puritanical people in the village. All the older people have spent their live denying themselves pleasure as a way to give full devotion to their religion. They do so by just eating plain foods, only ever having ale and bread soup, coffee, tea, and water because they deny themselves things such as alcohol. They also avoid things such as marriage or sexual desires, which can be seen has none of the members married or had children. For fun all they do is get together and sing the same songs and read the same passages. When Babette first arrives, she brings simple pleasures to the people through her cooking long before the feast. This is seen as people get used to her delicious soups before she takes a week of and they are disappointed by having to return to the bread and ale soups. Her cooking had brought flavor to their lives and was something to look forward to. 

During and after Babette’s feast, the power of the food is evident. For the puritanical people, it showed them a new way to express their spirituality, they didn’t have to deny themselves pleasure but could find it and get closer to God. The food also did some healing within the group which made them closer and most likely reminded them of the reason that they still meet. Before the feast we saw that a lot of the members would argue with each other over past wrongs, losing sight of why they all still met. The sisters had tried to remind everyone, but nothing worked better than Babette’s cooking. A man and a woman who had implied that they were romantic at some point forgave each other and let go of the fear that they were going to go to hell for what they had done. Two men who had been cheating each other and tricking one another admit to doing so and let their grievances go. They had forgiven each other for old grievances, and got together to sing outside, showing how their relationships were mended as a result of Babette’s cooking.