Page 235 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Tozzo: (spitting out his ale) How did you get that from a picture of some lady eating a loaf
Aurelio: of bread?

Tozzo: Symbols, my friend. Iconography in art. First of all, that’s not just a loaf of bread.
Aurelio: It’s the Bread of Life. The old woman is staring at the bread, wondering where her
Tozzo: life has gone. She has one arm over her stomach to signify she is still hungry for
Aurelio: more life, but behind her, the table is sparse. This woman has very little food left to
Tozzo: eat. This night in fact might be her last meal. See the loaf of bread on the table?
Aurelio: It’s unbaked, and possibly may never be baked, as this woman is at the end of her
Tozzo: life. The uncooked bread represents all the unfulfilled dreams and desires, the
Aurelio: things she never got a chance to do when she was younger. Note, too, there are no
Tozzo: dishes on the table, no silverware, no glasses. This implies that the urn on the table
Aurelio: is not a pitcher of wine, but an urn for her ashes, patiently awaiting the woman’s
Tozzo: death and cremation. Behind her, in the distance, very far away, almost indistinct,
Aurelio: is a mountaintop, cool and inviting, representing the land to which she is about to
journey, calm and majestic. Notice that the world is sloping in towards her, from
her right and from her left; the world is tipping, collapsing in on her. The table
under her elbow and the once-mighty wall of stones behind her are no longer at
steady angles. Soon they will tumble, consuming her.

I still think it’s just an old woman at a lonely supper table.

She is about to be consumed by fire.

(more spitting of ale) What!?

Look at her feet.

I’m looking. She’s barefooted. But there are no flames there.

Next to her left food. What’s that?

(jumping) It’s a salamander! I didn’t see that before. What’s a salamander doing
there?

Remember that the salamander represents rebirth.

(silence; puzzled look)

The myth -- ? That at the end of its life, the salamander bursts into flame, leaving
in its place an egg, which will hatch into a new salamander?

I thought that was the phoenix.

(exasperated) Where were you when we read the first story in Santi’s book?

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