Essay_Like Water for Chocolate

Viridiana Ortiz

Mrs. Bosch

English 12 Lit.

21 July 2008

Like Water for Chocolate

Although there are traditions people have tried to sustain by passing them through generation to generation, there’s a point in where it makes people life more difficult to follow. In the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, the author Laura Esquivel gives an example of a young lady, Tita De La Garza, who falls in love with Pedro but can’t marry or even be near him because of the obstacles they face but especially because of the tradition Mama Elena makes her follow. Pedro insists in getting married with Tita but Mama Elena forbids it because she wants her daughter had to take care of her until her death. This news was a tragedy for both Pedro and Tita even though she knew well her destiny and what had to be done to please her mother. It was when Pedro decided to get married with Rosaura, Tita’s older sister, only because it was the only way Pedro knew he would be closer to Tita. This news made it even harder for her and it was when all her problems began to arise such as having to deny that she didn’t feel anything for Pedro, it affected sometimes the way she cooked her foods, but overall family problems. By the end of the novel Tita faces all the obstacles but unfortunately both Tita and Pedro die together.

Like Water for Chocolate is considered one of the most unique novels because it contains two different type of languages and recipes inspired by Tita. Written in the nineteenth century, in Mexico, Esquivel mentions that these traditions where very important in the Spanish heritage. It was a way they respected the culture and show responsibility toward life. Although she claims that these traditions are important, cooking is one of the traditions that are highly significant as well (Laura Esquivel: Wikipedia). Laura relates her life with this novel in in variety of ways. Coming from a Mexican background and being the third of four children in her family, she had also learned how to make special recipes with the help of her grandmother as Tita did with Nacha.
“She had a chapel in the home, right between the kitchen and dining room. The smell of nuts and chilies and garlic got all mixed up with the smells from the chapel, my grandmother’s carnations. The liniments and the healing herbs (L.E. Biography).”
When Esquivel was a young girl being in the kitchen was the most important time in her life because it brought knowledge and pleasure (L.E. Wikipedia). Spending her time as a young girl making food with her grandmother gave her an inspiration to write Like Water for Chocolate. To Esquivel the idea about the meaning of the title was a way in expressing most of the hidden themes she wanted to express through Tita’s emotions which was anger, passion, and sexuality (L.E. Wikipedia). In the beginning of every chapter it always had a different type of recipe that related to Tita’s upcoming event but also the dishes were made for certain occasions such as when she made her famous “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” that transmitted a form of sexuality and passion Tita has for Pedro.

Through all the books Laura has written as Law of Love, Swift Desire, and even Malinche, shows a theme of romantic love. In the other hand the most themes Like Water for Chocolate deals with is love, hate, humor, traditions, relationships, responsibilty and magic, by the food Tita makes (L.E. Wikipedia). It seemed that Laura enjoy connecting both unreality with the real world with magical realism. For example when ghosts appear to Tita when she is in need of an advice as Nacha does but also when Mama Elena tries to torment Tita for having an affair with Pedro and not respecting that he’s a married man.
“I told you many times not to go near Pedro. Why did you do it?…I tried, Mami…but…But nothing! What you have done has no name! You have forgotten all morality, respect, and good behavior. You are worthless, a good-for-nothing who doesn’t respect even yourself. You have blackened the name of my entire family, from my ancestors down to this cursed baby you carry in you belly!” (Like Water for Chocolate (pg.173).
The appearance with Mama Elena in the novel showed fantasy transform into reality because at that scene Mama Elena was considered dead already. Although Tita tried to please her mother in many ways, she couldn’t take it any longer and revealed the secret words “I hate you” and made Mama Elena’s ghost disappear forever. This event can also be a classified as a form of personification because it‘s a feeling Tita feels toward her mother which is hate and anger, allusion because Nacha and Mama Elena kept appearing in her life and symbolism through Tita’s foods which where different type of recipes that represented Tita‘s emotions.

Through the magical realism themes, romances, home recipes, and the intense emotional expressions of Tita’s life made the novel have its own unique way of style that could captivate readers attention. This can highly represents, Like Water for Chocolate a type of literary merit novel. Through the “madness” of Mama Elena with Tita and her decisions created an intense relationship between the two. It caused Tita to struggle a lot with her mother but gained her independence which she represented herself as a “soldadera” because she tried to win her battles as her mother always tried to do. “Obstacles to love” is also another example that is shown through the entire book because both Pedro and her try to face Mama Elena’s obstacles (L.M. for Dummies). Overall this novel should be a quality of work that represents the examples of most literary merit words not only because it represents it in the entire book but also because it gives a significance of what the author is trying to reveal through the themes and style of writing.