ABSTRACT
The commercial 1978 blockbuster film at first glance may appear to hold very little in common with outlaws and outlawry. Animal House has a relatively simple plot: it is 1962, and the underdog members of Delta Tau Chai fraternity at Faber College are at the receiving end of attacks from the rival fraternity, Omega Theta Pi, who have the support of the Dean, the head of the ROTC on campus, and the mayor of the city; they want to expel the Deltas from college. The Deltas fight back and win the day. Upon closer examination, not only are Animal House and its characters closely tied to the genre of the outlaw narrative; it is also a film that embraces one of the significant, unifying tropes of the Matter of the Greenwood: food and feast. The film, with its sophomoric humor, uses food and feast to help define the outlaws and to differentiate them from their adversaries. In doing so, the film underscores the divisiveness that exists between the outlaws and their overlords: the former, the Deltas, are gluttonous, jovial, and amorous; while the latter, the Omegas, are teetotalers, who are vindictive and sexually deficient.
