Food appears in connection with many of the book’s key themes. The three appointments that Chick accompanies his mother to are paralleled by three nourishing meals, and the meals themselves call up powerful memories of his past. The food itself is a part of his healing process on both a physical and emotional level. As he eats, he realizes that he has not had a nourishing meal in days, and he remembers a time when these meals were a given, though he took them for granted.

Food binds Chick to his mother in other instances as well; nowhere is this more evident than in Chapter 7, when his father successfully pressures him to agree with him that his mother’s baked ziti is inedible. The sense of guilt that Chick feels immediately afterward shows how deeply his mother’s love is connected to her role as a provider. Later, when Chick learns of his father’s second wife, this episode takes on a deeper meaning. His father’s rejection of his mother’s food shadows a deeper and more complete rejection of her as a wife, in favor of his other wife.