An onion

"'You see, Alyosha,' Grushenka turned to him with a nervous laugh. 'I was boasting when I told Rakitin I had given away an onion, but it's not to boast I tell you about it. It's only a story, but it's a nice story. I used to heart it when I was a child from Matryona, my cook, who is still with me. It's like this. Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what god deed of hers he could remember to tell to God: "she done pulled up an onion in her garden," said he, "and gave it to a beggar woman." And God answered: "You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the like, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is." The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her; "Come," said he, "catch hold and I'll pull you out." And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was begin drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. "I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours." As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away. So that's the story, Alyosha; I know it by heart, for I am that wicked woman myself. I boasted to Rakitin that I had given away an onion, but to you I'll say: "I've done nothing but give away one onion all my life, that's the only good deed I've done." So don't parse me, Alyosha, don't think me good, I am bad, I am a wicked woman and you make me ashamed if you praise me.'" ~ Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

"'I can't say, I don't know. I don't know what he said to me, it went straight to my heart; he has wrung my heart.... He is the first, the only one who has pitied me, that's what it is. Why did you not come before, you angel?' She fell on her knees before him as though in a sudden frenzy. 'I've been waiting all my life for some one like you, I knew that some one like you would come and forgive me. I believe that, nasty as I am, some one would really love me, not only with a shameful love!'

'What have I don't to you?' answered Alyosha bending over her with a tender smile, and gently taking her by the hands; 'I only gave you and onion, nothing but a tiny little onion, that was all!'" ~ Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

These moments from The Brothers Karamazov are by far the most meaningful to me and my favorites as of late.

I love that the object used to pull the woman out of hell is an onion. A circular vegetable. Layers upon layers. A source of tears. Medicinal. I read somewhere that the onion was worshipped as a symbol for eternity.

Can you imagine if every person gave out one tiny little onion every day?

What could we change?

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On a side note, food has so much history and meaning. I sense a future entry about my favorite instances of food symbolism in literature, as well as my best-loved foods as symbols (pomegranates!).