The American Spoon

For a writing assignment, I had to find a quintessentially American artifact and write about it from an objective, outsider's point of view. I chose the spoon.

The metal spoon is considered a common item in the average American household. Its dipped, round-edged beginning is the part that touches the inside of the mouth, and the long handle is held lightly in the hand. Spoons, as witnessed of the American mealtime experience, are collectors of sorts; they splash into a bowl of morning cereal, or perhaps a plate of mashed potatoes at dinner, and scoop the food into the mouth with a swooping gesture of the hand. There are some Americans, however, that fail to understand the ritual eating technique of the spoon and lack control over moving the spoon into the mouth. Children, for instance, often lack control of the spoon and misplace the food supposedly headed for the mouth. It takes a certain amount of skill, then, to safely navigate the head of the spoon to the entrance of the mouth.

The term "spoon" is used lightly in America. Although the most common usage of the spoon is as a kitchen utensil, that which sits between the forks (pronged, picker-uppers) and the knives (stabbing devices used for slicing and threatening), the American spoon is, in a word, versatile. For instance, at a certain fast food restaurant that serves fried chicken with every dish, the spoon is no longer a spoon; rather, it is a spoon masquerading as a fork, or a fork pretending to be a spoon. Either way, the "spork" is the lovechild of the spoon and the fork. It is not a pretty sight.

Spoons in America, not so much nowadays, but often when grandmothers share the stories of their youth, were often used as devices of punishment. To whip a child's behind with a wooden (as opposed to the ever-popular metal) spoon meant that the child needed correcting. It might be interesting to see if those grandmothers are half-afraid to use wooden spoons in the kitchen nowadays, seeing as how it was once a favored intstrument of torture.

Although the term spoon is a noun, a describer of All-American utensil(ry), the term can also turn into a verb, as needed.To "spoon" is to cuddle. After the average American eats her dinner with a spoon, there is nothing more relaxing than spooning with a loved one, or a loved-one-for-the-night. Spooning often leads to forking, but that's another subject.

The spoon illustrates that Americans would rather dig into their mealtime pleasures with a metal instrument than with their fingers, as some countries prefer. The spoon is a changeable object that sometimes masquerades as other kitchen utensils, and because Americans are Americans, they do not mind the mingling of these items. They accept it and eat. The spoon is also a relic of sorts, a device to be feared and mottled and used on the behind, not simply in the kitchen. Although many Americans would rather leave the the spoon a noun, for those who decide to take the next leap and change it into a verb, it is malleable and willing to be dealt with accordingly.