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
Swain 2
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 grounds and in the bathrooms, all of them wailing over lost love. Everyone there, every last person, fell under this spell, and not very many of them made it to the bathrooms in time-those who didn't joined the collective vomiting that was going on all over the patio (Esquivel 39).
This quote illustrates the prominent symptoms the guests experienced after the wedding. Tita shed tears over Pedro, Tita's lost love, into the wedding cake; the tears shed into the cake altered the people eating it. The cake caused everyone to weep over lost love, everyone except Tita. This was due to the fact that Tita's tears were already in the cake. These tears in the cake are what brought on the severe repercussions inflicted upon the wedding guests. It shows the influence of the food to the theme of love.
In Like Water for Chocolate, the food provokes love. Therefore, it is necessary to have food if love is to exist in the novel. The food in chapter three causes feelings to survive between Tita and Pedro, and Gertrudis and Juan. One couple finds love because of the recipe Quail in Rose Petal Sauce and the other couple's love was allowed to persist because of this recipe. The reason Tita prepared this is because Pedro had given her roses earlier in the day. The thorns on the roses had pricked Tita's hands and breasts causing the roses to turn red from the blood. “Tita's blood and the roses from Pedro proved quite an explosive combination” (Esquivel 51). This combination is what caused Gertrudis' strange transformation.
On her the food seemed to act as an aphrodisiac, she began to feel an intense heat pulsing through her limbs. An itch in the center of her body kept her from sitting properly in her chair. She began to sweat, imagining herself on horseback with her arms clasped around one of Pancho Villa's men: the one she had seen in the village plaza the week before,
Swain 3
smelling of sweat and mud, of dawns that brought uncertainty and danger, smelling of
life and of death (Esquivel 51-52).
This quote portrays Gertrudis' reaction to the meal. The Quail in Rose Petal Sauce recipe provoked feelings of love inside Gertrudis. She thought of Juan, her future husband, and her sexual desires for him. Gertrudis acting as a medium also allowed Pedro and Tita to connect. Pedro and Tita had already fallen in love and this connection caused their relationship to grow even further. It caused Pedro and Tita to create sexual desires for each other. “That was the way she entered Pedro's body, hot, voluptuous, perfumed, totally sensuous” (Esquivel 52). This quote explains how Tita interacted with Pedro. It shows how the sexual desire was put inside Pedro and how the Quail in Rose Petal Sauce brought it about in Tita. “With that meal it seemed they had discovered a new system of communication, in which Tita was the transmitter, Pedro the receiver, and poor Gertrudis the medium, the conducting body through which the singular sexual message was passed” (Esquivel 52). Tita and Pedro were not allowed to speak or interact in the house because Mama Elena did not allow them to, but this system of communication allowed them to interact and let their love grow. Without this meal, they may have never had the opportunity to find their love in this way.
The novel Like Water for Chocolate had many examples where food influenced love. We see another example of this at the wedding of Alex and Esperanza.
What a difference between this wedding and that unfortunate day when Pedro and Rosura got married, when all the guests had been overcome by food poisoning. Today, instead of feeling a terrible longing and frustration, they felt quite different; tasting these chiles in walnut sauce, they all experienced a sensation like the one Gertrudis had when she ate the quails in rose sauce. Again Gertrudis was the first to feel the symptoms. [...] She immediately recognized the heat in her limbs, the tickling sensation in the center of her body, the naughty thoughts, and she decided to leave with her husband before things went
Swain 4
too far, When she left, the party started to break up. All the other guests quickly made
their excuses, coming up with one pretext or another, throwing heated looks; they too left (Esquivel 241).
This extract from the novel once again shows the influence the food had on the characters and their feelings of love. It relates to the quote from chapter three about the recipe, Quail in Rose Petal Sauce. The quote shows the difference between food made with love and food made with jealousy and hate. The food caused the guests at the wedding to feel intense feelings of desire towards the person they loved. It provoked feelings that the couples may not have found otherwise.
The novel Like Water for Chocolate had many examples of food affecting love. The entire novel had food intertwined within it. The theme of food influenced the love felt throughout the novel. The love between Gertrudis and Juan was brought about by the recipe Quail in Rose Petal Sauce. The love between Alex and Esperanza was brought even closer by the food. The wedding of Pedro and Rosaura showed that a relationship filled with jealousy and lies does not create a positive outcome. This was shown in the food cooked for that wedding. This novel shows us that food cooked with love creates love inside a person, but food cooked with envy creates feeling of sadness and desire. Tita proved to be an exquisite cook. Without her, this relationship between food and love would not have existed. “Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” -Harriet Van Horne.
Word Count: 1341
Swain 5
Works Cited
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Carol Christensen and Thomas Christenson. New
York, 1992.