What Ever Happened to My Lunch Box
Though the lunch box is intended to be a practical tool for school children; it
also holds on to a great deal of symbolism. The lunch box is a sign of what we were most during the start of who we now have become. It can be a symbol for youth, home, companionship, and the strive towards independence. Many other objects are by themselves far more important than the physical lunch box , but there is no other item that encapsulates so many different meanings and ideas into one as the lunch box does.
Of course people remember their lunch boxes from their youth. Often the “coolest†ones that come to memory were made of tin, and were advertising an element of children’s pop culture. Whether it be from Gi Joe’s or Barbie’s or Care Bears to Power Rangers; the imagery of the square lunch box and matching thermos inside is a symbol of home, of security and every thing that was memorable about elementary school and the playground. It can also demonstrate similar semiotic relationships with Caldas-Coulthard’s and Leeuwen’s “Teddy Bear Stories†(2003) and Moore’s “Street Signs: Semiotics, Romeo and Juliet, and Yound Adult Literatureâ€. It is now a symbol to adults about there childhood experience, expressive of youth, home, and a lack of responsibilities.
The codex of signs that use was developed while I was in grade school. I distinctly remember attending school during my first grade year. Though it was not unusual for me to eat the cafeteria food I would often bring my red, rectangular lunch box just deep enough to fit the matching thermos that came with it to school every day. When I would open it for the first time every day I would find the immaculately prepared meal made by my mother earlier that morning before I had even awoke. There are indeed the bad memories about elementary school, the grouchy teachers; the overprotective, underpaid playground staff; the condescending office secretaries; and of course the unfriendly children .In Moore’s “Street Signs: Semiotics, Romeo and Juliet, and Yound Adult Literature†it reads “In adolescence students read the world that is represented to them, but they also socially construct a world in which they want to live, one that creates the identity they desire in the difficult landscape between childhood and adulthood.†This section gives an example as to the way in which alliances and relationships are made during youth. Where its not the competitive market that it is as an adult; where your role and status can be socially negotiated by ones ability to be self sufficient. It seems more that children develop there social status from the decisions of the collective group, of what others think of them.
During the ages of five to eight, most children experience there first several years of formal education. These first several years are a difficult time for many children. The idea of being a five year old having to wake up early and go to a place that’s not your home, that’s full of other children that you don’t know sounds frightening. In Caldas-Coulthard’s and Leeuwen’s essay “Teddy Bear Stories†(2003) the symbolism of teddy bear in correlation to young children is explained. In the essay, they discuss how the teddy bear is now a symbol of companionship and protection. Lunch boxes have similar intertextual ties as teddy bears do. In this same way the lunch box is a symbol of security and companion ship. It’s the one piece of home and safety that can be brought with you.
Many of us, now that we are older, wish in a way that we could regress back to an simpler less stressful time; In the “John Mayer†song “83â€, The entire song is exclaiming that he is trying to return to his childhood. John Mayer digresses on his childhood and relates it to his lunch box; the lyric goes; “whatever happened to my lunch boxâ€. The song uses the lunch box to illustrate something from our childhood that we end up not taking with us as we begin to mature. The lyrics also imply that our childhood is worth holding on to. The song goes on to state “when came the day that it got thrown a way; don’t you think I should have had some say in that decision.†Indicating that during our youth, we are kept without the ability to make independent choices; Such as keeping our own lunch box. Independence is one thing that children seem to want to run toward the hardest. Quickly realizing though that their wish is not as desirable as it seems. is now a symbol to adults about there childhood experience, expressive of youth, home, and a lack of responsibilities; that independence is hard, that life beyond childhood is difficult. Leaving one to sentimentally desire the simplicity of there youth.
Another character attempting to find the value of family and warmth is in the Orson Wells film “Citizen Kane†(1941). A motif of the story is the meaning of Charles Foster Kane’s last words “Rosebudâ€. It is finally explained that Rosebud is his childhood sled. The very same one he was playing with on the day that his parents signed him away to the banker, Mr. Thatcher, to receive the education and life that his parents could not provide. Though Kane is incredibly successful later in his life as an adult, the audience is also able to see a disturbed and troubled man, the story reveals Kane to be lonely. Kane’s unhappiness stems in part from his broken childhood. Kane realizes only to late that the thing he really wants, the only thing that would truly matter in life is the warmth of his family when he was a child These remaining memories of his home life are connected with the material element that shared the moment with him. The lunch box is connected to our memories because it is the material object that accompanied us during those years of childhood, it was our companion.
During my youth I never gave a second thought to the importance of my lunch box, or to my childhood experience in general. The lunch box seems to mean something different to me now that I’m older then what it did during my school days. Like most children, I desired to be older, to be independent to be a grown up. Now that I am entering early adulthood I often find myself nostalgically remembering my past. Now that world which I so willingly would have wished away is gone and I’m left with responsibilities and worries; with work, with so much independence that I’m lonely. Now the thought of my early youth is so compelling. I, in a way realize how much I want parts of my childhood back but also how I should appreciate the time that I am in now.
Many other objects are by themselves far more important than the physical lunch box , but, there is no other single item that encapsulates so many different meanings and ideas into one as the lunch box does. We can see that the lunch box can be a symbol for youth, home, companionship, family and the strive towards independence. Though interestingly one might be able to take another view on the lunch box. When ever I have had it I was leaving home. I was going out. I was going somewhere, somewhere that I had little experience, I was afraid. The lunch box is just a piece of home; a piece of youth where inside lies something special, Something that will keep you going, keep you alright; reminding you of a place where every thing felt safe in comparison. I hope that no matter where I go, no matter what unknown place I travel to, that I will keep my Lunch box by my side.