Spontaneity vs. Caution: Pedro's Persona Compared to John Brown's
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is the story of a girl named Tita who throughout her life has to deal with chaos. Mama Elena prohibits her from marrying the man she loves, Pedro, and instead, her sister Rosaura marries him. However, Pedro's intent is to be close to Tita and they each spend a lifetime trying to get closer and find a way to marry. Later on, John Brown comes into her life and Tita believes she is falling in love with him. John proposes to her and at first Tita accepts but later changes her mind and ends up marrying Pedro. Esquivel uses Pedro's spontaneity to make the book more exciting and unpredictable while she uses John to add an element of stability to Tita's chaotic life.
Pedro is a spontaneous character who is constantly changing his mind and jumping from mood to mood. While Tita was cleaning up in a room by the kitchen after John had proposed to her, Pedro came in, surprising Tita. She asked what he was doing in the room but without answering, Pedro went to her, extinguished the lamp, pulled her to a brass bed that had once belonged to her sister Gertrudis, and threw himself upon her, causing her to lose her virginity and learn of true love (Esquivel 158). This is a completely spontaneous action that Esquivel used to make the book more exciting and unpredictable. After she had just been proposed to by the man she seemed to love, it wouldn't be expected for her virginity to be stolen by another man. Tita at this point in the book didn't even want anything to do with Pedro. When she found out the John wanted to go to America to retrieve his only living aunt for the wedding ceremony, she claimed that she wanted to get away from the ranch -- and the proximity of Pedro -- as quickly as possible (156). Pedro wanted his whole life to be with Tita but never asked for her hand in marriage or made any significant advances until this point where it would be least expected.