Abstract: For this in-class essay, I chose the prompt on motherhood because Eight Bites felt the most exciting for me to unpack. I organized my ideas through a rough outline beforehand, though I ended up restructuring part of the essay while writing. In revision, I clarified my thesis, pushed my comparison to Mothers earlier in the essay, and refined the ghost imagery to better connect it to inherited trauma. If I had more time, I would work on smoother transitions between ideas and spend more time with Mothers.
In-Class Literary Analysis – Prompt #1 (Motherhood)
In the collection of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties, author Carmen Machado explores the struggles and pressures women face in society through a horror lens. A prevalent theme throughout the collection is the complexity of motherhood as experienced by both mothers and the daughters they have—and once were. In Eight Bites, Machado writes about a woman undergoing bariatric surgery, a decision that worsens her already strained relationship with her daughter. Through this tension, Machado explores how inherited shame and body image issues are passed down through generations, showing how mothers, intentionally or not, shape their daughters’ self-worth, relationships, and identities.
The story Eight Bites opens with the protagonist reflecting on her mother when discussing how all of her sisters all ended up getting bariatric surgery. She describes how “normal” her mother’s body was compared to that of her sisters’ who she believed needed the surgery. Early on she instilled in them that “eight bites are all you need to get the sense of what you are eating”. While this might have been something casual said by her mother, this very phrase became something that followed the protagonist all the way through adulthood and her surgery. The protagonist reflects on a time where she attempted to stick to this rule, but continued eating and eating; a sign of a binge eating disorder or poor relationship with food and body image. Despite there being no direct sign of her weight affecting her health, she undergoes surgery with support from her sisters. A pivotal moment is when she says “I could not make eight bites work for my body and so I would make my body work for eight bites” showcasing how much her mother affected her own perception of herself through adulthood ultimately leading her and her sisters to undergo a physical transformation. She says she wishes her mother was alive to see the women her daughters have become, which comes off as yearning for her mother’s approval which they may not have received then as kids. Not only was she impacted by her mother’s harmful ways, her sisters were as well, even after she had already passed.
The protagonist also makes other references to her mother throughout, even comparing her own sister to her. While she doesn’t speak poorly of her mother, she holds resentment towards this sister. She says she looks like her mother, but also describes when she asked the protagonist if she told her daughter about the procedure. When told that she hasn’t, this sister shares how her own daughter knew and even bought her flowers. The protagonist states “I didn’t want her to be there—I wanted to tell her to leave”. Her sister seems to embody an ideal set by her mother, but also reflects a mother-daughter relationship she wishes she had which reflects the impact left behind from her mother. It seems that what they were taught ended up leaving her with the need to compete with the women around her, even if they were her sisters.
Now as a mother herself, the protagonist introduces her role as a mother from a lens of resentment. While she obviously loves her daughter, she reflects on the moment her body went through an irreversible change after giving birth and not failing to mention “She was now a grown woman and so far away from me in every sense, but the evidence still clung to my body”. This directly contrasts what her sister’s experience is with her daughter. The protagonist’s relationship to her daughter is a complicated one full of silence and distance. She doesn’t tell her daughter about the procedure and over the course of two separate phone calls, they end up arguing. Her daughter, Cal, shows concern and disapproval of her mother’s decision while the protagonist is upset that Cal can’t support her for once. Throughout the story, the protagonist shares how she is unable to figure out what her daughter’s needs are and wonders why they can’t have a good relationship. It isn’t until in one phone call, Cal directly asks is she hates her body to which the protagonist tells her to stop and assures her that she is loved. What the protagonist has said to Cal regarding body image is unknown, but with the detail added of them having similar bodies it can be inferred that Cal picked up on her mother’s negative feelings about her own body. Whether or not the protagonist intended for her daughter to redirect that hatred towards herself, that was the outcome and instead of unpacking those feelings with her daughter, she decides to hang up the phone. Like in the story Mothers, where maternal love is questioned by fear of causing harm, Eight Bites reflects how love and damage can coexist within mother-daughter relationships.
Machado’s other short story, Mothers, reflects similar sentiments when that protagonist shares her thoughts on the baby she had with a woman. An important quote is “I love you, baby, and I am not going to hurt you,” but the first thing is a lie and the second thing might be a lie, but I’m just not sure”. which mirrors the dynamic between the protagonist in Eight Bites and Cal. She doesn’t hate her daughter, but resents how misunderstood she feels. Cal didn’t inherit her beliefs, and instead internalized the shame her mother tried to contain. In rejecting her own body that was caused by Cal’s birth and one that Cal’s body ended up becoming similar to, Cal is feeling rejected. The protagonist in the end is frustrated by her role as a mother where her daughter didn’t pick up certain beliefs about respecting what she does with her body but instead personally took offense by it.
While Mothers centers on a newborn and Eight Bites on an adult daughter, both stories expose the deep anxiety mothers face about harming their children whether intentionally or not, and how love doesn’t always protect them from repeating damaging patterns. In Mothers, the maternal character is excited to have a child and mold them into whatever they want. Eight Bites on the other hand reflects moments in the future when that baby is no longer a child, but an adult that reflects the consequences of whatever the mother has unconsciously taught them. Cal holds resentment towards her mother for not loving herself, because perhaps when Cal needed reassurance in regards to body image, her mother was unable to provide that. She doesn’t outwardly state that Cal’s body is “bad”, but instead says her body is still fresh and she can do things to avoid what she now has to do to fix her body. Though with the appearance of this ghost, there’s a chance that other beliefs or ideas will continue to be passed down and the effects of that are out of their hands.
As their relationship continues to be strained, her guilt about the surgery afterwards reflects a disconnect between her mind and body as she becomes slimmer, yet still feels uncertain about her decision and its effect on her daughter. Her sister tells her it’s normal to be haunted post-surgery, but the ghost symbolizes more than regret. It represents the emotional weight of what she’s passed down to Cal, and what Cal might pass on in return. Towards the end of the story, she is seventy nine years old and mentions Cal visiting her with her own daughter for their annual visit. This reflects a relationship that was never fully mended and the protagonist prepares for a visit from this ghost again. She says the ghost will touch her cheek like she once did for her daughter but shares her guilt by saying it “will outlive me by a hundred million years; more, even. She will outlive my daughter, and my daughter’s daughter”.
In Eight Bites, Machado ultimately warns how easily mothers can pass down shame disguised as love and how hard it is to undo once the cycle is in motion. Machado’s short stories reflect on the hurt and processing involved in being a mother and daughter, and their awareness of each other. They highlight the importance of that connection in which the women of a family can relate to one another, but how harmful it can be when it’s not acknowledged how mothers impact their daughters. While most mothers have an undeniable love for their daughters, these stories reflect the frustration between being overwhelmed about the responsibility they have to teach their daughters what is right versus the shame that comes with owning up to negative beliefs they’ve carried with them and the aftermath of it being passed down to their daughters. Eight Bites highlights the idea of refusing to ignore a harmful cycle occurring until it’s too late.
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