The Significance of Food in Chapters Two and Three to the Theme of Love

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Nicole Swain

Mrs. Feasley

Language A1 (HL) III

December 10, 2007

The Significance of Food in Chapters Two and Three to the Theme of Love

        The food found in the novel Like Water for Chocolate is very significant to the theme of love.  Chapter two shows, through the food cooked by Tita, how false love is not a positive aspect in a marriage and that love should not be denied.  The wedding cake that Tita baked in chapter three cause everyone at the wedding to become “flooded with a great wave of longing” (Esquivel 39).  The guests then proceeded to wail over lost love and they collectively vomited throughout the house.  This shows us that false love should not be denied because this is what caused the strange occurrences at the wedding.  The food in chapter three also shows us that false love should not be denied through the scene with Gertrudis.  The dish Quail in Rose Petal Sauce allows the secretive love between Tita and Pedro to exist.  The dishes seen in chapter three causes everyone who ate it to feel a deep sense of love and passion.  These feelings were provoked by the food cooked by Tita.  The food seen in chapters two and three allowed Pedro's and Tita's love to exist and grow.  

        The food in chapter two of Like Water for Chocolate adds to the theme of love.  In chapter two at Pedro and Rosaura's wedding, the wedding cake caused everyone attending to become sick to their stomach.  When Tita was making the cake, she cried and some of her tears fell into the cake batter.  This special ingredient caused the entire crowd to become sick,

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She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that all around her something very strange was taking place. The moment they took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing.  Even Pedro, usually so proper, was having trouble holding back his tears.  Mama Elena, who hadn't shed a single tear

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 over her husband's death, was sobbing silently.  But the weeping was just the first

symptom of a strange intoxication-an acute attack of pain and frustration-that seized the guest and scattered them across the patio and the ...

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