As There Will Be Blood shows, how a baby is weaned has huge effects on how the baby turns out. Paul Sunday was nursed by Mother Sunday's breast milk and became a prophet, a smart and successful prospector who with an initial cash of $500-$10000 dollars was able to build his own company: a prosperous little business, three wells producing five thousand dollars a week. Similarly, HW Plainview was raised on goat's milk and occasional whisky, and eventually learned the tricks of the trade and married a beautiful woman and set up his own company in Mexico. Meanwhile, Eli Sunday slithered out on his mother's filth, and hence was treated as an afterbirth by his family, with his parents considering putting him in a glass jar in a mantelpiece. While Paul was suckling at his mother's teat, it was up to Bandy's sows to nurse Eli. Eli eventually becomes a weak preacher, who naively thought his song and dance would help him -- whereas the smart Paul Sunday found Daniel to take the oil out of the ground. Eli's fate wasn't helped by the fact that his milkshakes were drunk by Daniel who had a straw that reached across the room.
Questions for understanding of the plot, with concomitant implications for child and adult nutrition.
1) Daniel Plainview ate steak, but what did he drink to complement his healthy meals? List 5 drinks. (A: whisky, Tilford's whisky, Eli's water, blood of lamb from Bandy's tract, and Eli's milkshake).
2) Contrast goat's milk, regular milk and sow milk when it comes to child nutrition.
3) What is the humane way to deal with afterbirths?
