Petruso earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in screenwriting from the University of Texas. In the following essay, Petruso explores how the idea of art saturates aspects of Dinesen's short story.

According to The Random House Dictionary, a definition of art is "the quality, production, expression, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful." This concepts of art and artistry and how they can affect life is a central theme of Isak Dinesen's short story, "Babette's Feast," primarily expressed through characters and their actions. Though Babette Hersant is most obviously an artist with food as the title implies—the story's title claims that she creates a "feast" not a "nice meal"—several primary characters have an artistic element that helps answer questions such as "what is art?" and "how does it affect every day life?" Some believe that...