challenge . Members of a little flock of pious believers who had become “ querulous and quarrelsome ” in their old age , they arrive at the feast determined not to be taken in by sinful pleasures . Yet , as one course follows upon another , their barriers begin to dissolve . Softened by the experience , they begin to recall moments from the past when they had been less resentful of each other . When the dinner ends and the guests emerge into a world of new fallen snow , they have been restored to a semblance of the vital , loving fellowship they once had been .
However , for Dinesen , “ Babette ’ s Feast ” is primarily a tale about an artist who makes a great sacrifice for her art . Babette was once a cook in a famous restaurant patronized by the elite of Parisian society . When the story opens , she had been living in the Norwegian village as a refugee from revolutionary France for many years . When an unexpected financial windfall comes her way ,
Babette chooses to spend it all on one last great dinner , one last opportunity to practice her art . The villagers ’ transformation is meant to show how a great artist ’ s self-expression has power to shape the world .
These days I like to read this story against its grain , interpreting Babette ’ s feast less as a celebration of artistic self-expression and more as a portrait of the power of hospitality . When mistrust , anger , and shouting are on the rise , we should respond with the generous and deliberate practice of hospitality . Even though hospitality ’ s open hand seems weak when surrounded by hostile fists , the open hand grows strong when we all extend it .
Lloyd Den Boer is a retired educator who lives with his wife in Edmonton . Appreciating the hospitality that good friends and neighbours extend to them , they do their best each day to make the hospitable circle larger .
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