Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of disordered eating, gender discrimination, and death.

“Rika tried not to eat late at night. If she was entertaining clients and they ordered food, she only touched the vegetables and soup. In the convenience store outside the office that she went to twice a day, she went for healthy foods like yogurt, salad and harusame noodles. She didn’t have the time to go to the gym, but she tried to walk everywhere she could. Her slim physique ensured that, despite not being a remarkable beauty, she would still be complimented and that the fast fashion items she chose haphazardly suited her figure just fine.”

Rika Machida’s obsessive dietary regime conveys how the Societal Pressures of Body Image have affected her. She is careful about what and when she eats because she’s been taught that being thin is a way to prove her self-worth. The calculated tone of this passage underscores this facet of Rika’s internal experience and conveys how psychologically and physically damaging cultural beauty standards can be for women.

“What the public found most alarming, even more than Kajii’s lack of beauty, was the fact that she was not thin. Women appeared to find this aspect of the case profoundly disturbing, while in men it elicited an extraordinary display of hatred and vitriol.”

Rika’s reflections on Manako Kajii’s situation reveal the misogynistic bent of her case. The passage establishes Rika’s interest in understanding and interviewing Kajii. She’s skeptical of Kajii’s conviction because the media has interrogated her appearance instead of her character. The passage contributes to the novel’s explorations of societal beauty standards and instigates Rika’s first visits to the Detention House.

“The first thing Rika felt was a strange breeze emanating from the back of her throat. The cold butter first met the roof of her mouth with a chilly sensation, contrasting with the steaming rice in both texture and temperature. The cool butter clashed against her teeth, and she felt its soft texture right down into their roots. […] It was a taste that could only be described as golden. A shining golden wave, with an astounding depth of flavor and a faint yet full and rounded aroma, wrapped itself around the rice and washed Rika’s body far away.”

The narrator uses vivid sensory detail and figurative language to describe Rika’s experience eating quality butter on home-cooked rice for the first time. She likens the experience to “a strange breeze” and a “shining golden wave,” and uses diction like “emanating,” “clashed,” “steaming,” “aroma,” and “wrapped.” These linguistic stylings depict Rika’s transformative experience and convey eating and