Whistling Past the Graveyard

Content Warning: This section mentions racist violence.

Eula loves baking, and Crandall uses baking as a multilayered symbol, representing love, safety, and family. Eula tells Starla, “[S]he loved them babies too much. She said that was the reason she changed to baking, too; too much baby love” (233). Eula gives her pies and goods the devotion she would have given to babies. Eula makes a variety of pies—from green tomato pies to pumpkin pies—and the process consumes her. Instead of dedicating herself to a baby, she projects her love onto the pies. The pies give Eula another outlet for her love. Additionally, baking symbolizes the increasingly loving relationship between Eula and Starla. They bond while baking, and Starla’s “favorite time of day” is when she and Eula can talk in the kitchen with “the timer ticking” in the background (233).

Baking also symbolizes safety because it’s a way for Eula to work without leaving the house. Cyrena brings up the idea of baking after the Jenkins boys try to assault Eula. She explains to Eula that if she works in Cyrena’s kitchen, she “won’t be exposed at all” (225). Thus, baking also represents a secure activity one does in the privacy of a home, safe from outside conflicts.