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How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman

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Postmodernism is a term that lacks a definitive definition. According to Fabe, postmodernism has become meaningless, which is ironically appropriate because one of the core concerns of postmodernism is meaningless (173). Mast and Kawin note that “postmodernism analyzes a world without a definitive center,” and builds on references to popular culture (630). In class, we discussed that postmodernism comments on contemporary culture, often through quotation, appropriation, borrowing, homage, reusing, and recycling. After watching the two postmodern films, Annie Hall and How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, I think postmodernism fits into all of these definitions. I also think postmodern films offer a sort of truth that is often unrecognizable …show more content…

In this scene he tells a joke about a man who tells his psychiatrist that he thinks his brother is a chicken. When asked why he hasn’t done anything about this, the man replies, “I would, but I need the eggs” (Fabe 190). The eggs have comparable to the “illusionary eggs to the illusory hope people hold,” making life a little more bearable (Fabe 190). Alvy can spin his story any way he pleases to make his relationship seem better. He even wrote a play about him and Annie’s relationship that ended in them being together. But in the end, the reality is that they are simply not meant for each other. It is only in the illusions that make relationships happily ever after (Fabe …show more content…

To the tribe, the man looks just like a French man would, and also sounds like a French man would. According to Mast and Kawin, this is “an ironic comment on the way Europeans of that period believed all ‘savages’ looked and talked alike” (576). Although the man is in fact Portuguese, the tribe believes he is French, and is therefore considered an enemy and sentenced to death. According to the tribe’s laws, the man first had to live with the tribe for a year. Initially, the man tried to escape, but after a while he accepted his place. During this year, the man became more and more like the tribe. He started acting more like the tribesmen, cut his hair like the tribesmen, and dressed like the tribesman. During this year, he also married a woman from the tribe and fell in love. After a year of living with the tribe and establishing such a sense of community and companionship, the man finds it hard to believe he will actually be killed (Mast and Kawin 577). On the day he is to be killed, his wife informs him of how the ceremony will be performed, and what he should expect. At that time, he seems to be fairly comfortable with his fate. When the ceremony begins, it is actually his wife that leads. But unlike when the man and wife had practiced what would happen, the man is now upset with his fate and curses the

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