English World Lit - The effects of the absence of love in the lives of Tita and Mikage in the novels Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Both characters pursue to find substitutes for the love, as the absence of it leaves them incomplete as individuals. Tita had a mother but never received any love from her, Nacha on the other hand was playing the role of a mother for Tita. "And so, arms around each other, Nacha and Tita wept until there were no more tears in Tita's eyes... she cried without tears, which is said to hurt even more, like dry labor" (p. 30). The writer shows that Nacha not being her biological mother, still had a better relation with Tita then her mother Mama Elena. The writer uses a simile "like dry labor" to compare the physical torture that Tita was putting herself through, the words "dry" and "labor" suggest torture and distress. The reason for her sadness is evident, as it had been foreshadowed at the start, she has been denied marriage, her mother Mama Elena denies legitimate love in marriage.

Mikage still was not able to accept the fact that her only family member, her grandmother had died. "Three days after the funeral I was still in a daze. Steeped in a sadness so great I could barely cry, shuffling softly in gentle drowsiness, I pulled my futon into the deathly silent, gleaming kitchen" (p.4) the writer creates an atmosphere of complete loneliness in the life of Mikage with her grandmother's love. The use of sibilance catches the readers attention as the words contribute to the loneliness, isolation and grieving in Mikage's lonely life. The quote "deathly silent, gleaming kitchen" this gives us Mikage's perspective on the situation, as we can tell that she is looking for a substitute for her absence of her grandmother's company and love. Both these characters are suffering from the absence of love, Tita is receiving some from Nacha, but it is not the love she wants, she wants to be loved by Pedro like a wife. Mikage on the other hand has lost love and considers the kitchen a place where she can be whilst leaving all her fears and loneliness behind. Both characters are in similar situations, Tita has a mother and wants her love, but doesn't get it, while Mikage has love her grandmother, but she loses it.

During Tita's time without Pedro, she had become quite attached to Pedro and Rosaura's son Joseph, her nephew. She had created a bond with him, her love for him was endless as he was the only one who would love her back. Tit even fed him, just like a mother which again shows us the love she had for Joseph. He was her new love, until one day when her mother gave Tita horrendous news that her nephew had died. "Well, what child do you think! Well, your nephew; whatever he ate, it didn't agree with him and so, he died" the quote informs us about the communication style between Mama Elena and Tita, the immediate response of Mama Elena suggests that she does not prefer talking to Tita and finds it disturbing as we can clearly see from her responses which are rude and the writes uses rhetorical questions to show that Tita has no say no matter how she is spoken to. This gives us answers to the loneliness and lack of love in Tita's life. The reason being that her mother would never respect her and did not care about her feelings; therefore she throws this tragedy as a normal event at Tita, knowing that it would again shatter her world. "Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable" (p. 60) from this quote we can deduce that she is referring to her family, which is now non-existent, therefore the quote suggests that she misses her family . The use of the oxymoron "love", "dying" suggests the impact the absence of the love has had in the life of Mikage. She continues onto saying that living with this sorrow is impossible which tells the reader that she does not find much point in living alone.

Both the characters relied on their loved ones to give them love, Tita relied on Nacha and Pedro, who both failed her, Nacha died leaving Tita alone to suffer the ruthless Mama Elena, while Pedro on the other hand decided to marry Rosaura to be close to Tita which had the total opposite effect in their lives. Therefore Tita never really got the love that she wished, until Mama Elena and Rosaura's deaths. Mikage on the other hand, never experienced love that she wanted, love from Yuichi or her parents her grandmother who was her only family member, died and left Mikage to face the world all by herself. Both characters wished they received love; Tita wished she got the kind of love that Pedro had with Rosaura. She wished she had had the child with Pedro instead of her sister Rosaura. Mikage on the other hand wished she could live with Yuichi for the rest of her life, she longed for love from her parents, who were never there to provide it. Overall both character do end up finding their, after overcoming all the obstacles in their way. But the cost that they had to pay was tremendous; Tita had to live nearly all her live single, and unloved and unwanted. Mikage who has to live her entire life without experiencing love from her beloved grandmother. To conclude I would like to say that the effects of the absence of love on the characters were both positive and negative as both of the characters became stronger towards the end.

Bibliography

Single Author

Laura Esquivel, G 1989, Like Water for Chocolate, (translated by Doubleday) Random House Inc, New York

Single Author

Banana Yoshimoto, G 1988, Kitchen, (translated by Megan Backus) Mackays of Chatham, England