The Cookie Lady: Theme of Exploitation and Manipulation of Innocence
Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Cookie Lady” also explores the theme of “Exploitation and Manipulation of Innocence.”
The old Mrs. Drew exploits Bubber’s innocence and craving for cookies for her own sinister intentions.
Bubber is a young teenage overweight boy, who has the irresistible craving for the cookies. His mother also defines his love for cookies as “He’d do anything for a plate of cookies”. The sight of a woman drinking a big chocolate soda make “Bubber’s mouth water”. Cold milk served with freshly baked cookies is his favourite and Mrs. Drew knows it very well and uses it for her own evil intentions.
Mrs. Drew is a very old lady, who thinks that youth is “everything” and “what did the world mean to the old ?” So she desperately wants “to be young again”. Surprisingly she has some unexplainable powers like a sorceress that she can drew the youth and vitality from the young boy.
Mrs. Drew lures Bubber with her tempting cookies. She bakes cookies with “nuts and raisins in them” and serves them with cold milk as Bubber likes. Bubber visits again and again to satisfy his temptation for delicious cookies.
Every time the boy visits her and sits by her side to read her books as she asked him to do, the old lady transforms into a “matron of perhaps thirty”. But her transformation was seemed to be temporary, as the boy moved away she has become old, wrinkled and withered again.
Mrs. Drew manipulates the boy, Bubber saying, “It makes me feel so young again to have you come visit”. She pretends to be a nice and lonely old lady who longs for his company and help. She insists on Bubber to visit her again.
Every time after her transformation the boy is left tired, exhausted and sucked up, but Mrs. Drew doesn’t care about him.
To make her transformation permanent and long lasting, Mrs. Drew moved away the lamp and table, so that her chair is right up next to the couch where the boy read her books.
When she got to know that, this is his “last time” to visit her, she got furious and anxious. She wants to regain her youth and vitality at any cost.
Usually she draws the youthful energy and life force from the boy, by the sound of his voice. But she needs to touch him to make the transformation complete and permanent. She didn’t even think about the young boy as she is going to drain out his energy in large amount and it can be dangerous for the boy.
She could feel a “pulsating vibrating youngness” of the boy, “flowing between her fingers”. The “feel of life” made her dizzy and unsteady.
After some time, she sees herself in the mirror “Young” and “filled out with the sap of vigorous youth”. She smiled and spun and overjoyed with her success.
After the transformation Mrs. Drew has become young, energetic, warm and vibrant. On the other side the boy Bubber is left tired, sucked up, “dull” and “a dead white”. He was exhausted, “his head ached”, and he stopped every few minutes, “rubbing his forehead and resting”.
He felt the cold wind “hammering at him, pushing and plucking” at him. The cookie lady has stolen away his life force and he was reduces to a bundle of “weeds and rags” at the mercy of the wind.
This way the story “The Cookie Lady” highlights the theme of exploitation and manipulation of innocence.
“The Cookie Lady” : Theme of Loneliness and Isolation
The story “The Cookie Lady” also explores the theme of “Loneliness and Isolation”. Mrs. Drew’s solitary life in an old and dilapidated house portrays a deep sense of loneliness and isolation, that is experienced not only by her but also by many elderly people.
Dick presents the loneliness of the old lady as. “she had been alone so long that she found herself saying strange things and doing strange things”. Here the author shows the psychological effects of loneliness on a human mind.
There is no one in her family and she lives alone in her house isolated from society. Her interaction is restricted with only few people like “garbage men” and “the mailman came with her pension check” or when she “went down to the store”.
The only effort she would have to do is to bake delicious coolies and in return she would get the company of someone in her life.
The lack of meaningful interaction with human being is evident in her eagerness to welcome the boy into her home and engaging him in a conversation with her.
Mrs. Drew’s reliance on the boy for companionship highlights the universal need for human being to establish connection, whenever they feel isolated and lonely.