During the birth, Tita had no idea how to deliver the baby, but in the magic realism world of the book, she was enlightened how to do so with Nacha’s whispers. The “tunnel, dark, silent, deep has transformed into a red river, an erupting volcano, a rending of paper”. The unknown tunnel has suddenly become a disgusting river of blood to portray Rosaura negatively.
“She knew how to put on the undershirt, and the shirt, the swaddling band around his belly, the diaper, the flannel to cover his legs, the little jacket, the socks and shoes, and last of all a soft wrap to keep his hands crossed on his chest so he wouldn’t scratch his face.” This list was used to amplify how much Tita cares and the magic realism of her suddenly knowing what to do.
As result of the birth, Rosaura, did not have any breast milk, and has hard as they tried to make Rosaura recover with Chocolate, finding a new wet nurse, or to feed the baby tea, there was no success. It was almost if destiny required Roberto to be feed with Tita’s milk.
At the end of the chapter, Mama Elena has realized Pedro’s situation with Tita, and suggested to move the married couple and Robert to San Antonio, Texas. “Mama Elena had managed to ruin the party for her, the first party in her life that she had enjoyed.” In the end the evil,
The month of April, has played an important role in the book, as it is at this time that Tita is reassured with Pedro’s love and sexual desire, the birth of new born baby that seemed to be like Tita’s son, and the admiration of Tita from Doctor John, the water.
May
June
July
Setting
The ox-tail soup is brought up to Tita by John, and the “firm belief” that “soups can cure any illness” (p123) is accepted by her. Tita is finally revived by the soup, something that “none of [John’s] medicines had been able to do” (p125). Hence in this long chapter, Tita is saved by the ox-tail soup and returns to life, yet Mama Elena’s death, despite Tita’s carefully prepared ox-tail soup, juxtaposes this.
Characterisation and the ideas behind each:
Tita
Not only had the ox-tail soup revived Tita. Her suppressed flame has also been “coaxed up” (p131) again by John. In the absence of Mama Elena, a new Tita emerges; a Tita independent of the repression of Mama Elena, and a free Tita. “A strange light” emitted from Tita’s eyes as she returned to face the cause of all her adversity. She prevails over Mama Elena, and Mama Elena finally admits defeat as she lowers her gaze.
As the autocrat abdicates, the revolution rises, and with it, freedom for the people.
Mama Elena
Mama Elena, the one with the greatest authority in the whole book, step by step descends in this chapter. Without Tita at the ranch, she encounters all sorts of misfortunes: the attack of the bandits, her paralysis, her humiliation at having to allow Tita back into her house, further humiliation because she relied on Tita to look after her, her death, and the revealing of her past.
Without passion and freedom (Tita), order and repression (Mama Elena) cannot be withheld.
However, Mama Elena’s authority is still prodigious. Chencha, even before she has to confront Mama Elena about Tita’s decision of never returning to the ranch, “had been paralysed by terror” about what excuse she should give.
Invention, imagination and the liberation of the mind, which are conveyed through Chencha’s “talent for invention” (p126) cannot survive under the restriction and repression that is Mama Elena.
Dr. John Brown
John has provided the cure for Tita more than once by simply being there. It is not a coincidence that he should appear so often in the chapter of the ox-tail soup. He and the soup are both medicines for a depressed soul. Tita’s exclaimation of: “John! Please don’t leave!” is a sign of her unwillingness for the rekindled flame to be put out, her flame being John (or so she believed and hoped). Again, more proof of John’s strike of the match: “to shield the tiny flame John had coaxed up inside her” (p131), “his warm embrace saved Tita from freezing” (p131).
Unfortunately, amid all this, Esquivel foreshadows the fact that John cannot be Tita’s true match. He “interrupted… by bursting into the room” when Tita and Chencha were mending and melding flavours (p125) of Tita’s life back together. It is as if John has destroyed, by the use of negative connotations, Tita’s love life between her and Pedro. Nor could his medicines revive Tita, and he cannot fulfil her.
Science cannot fulfil or please us, only humanity can.
Chencha
Chencha’s personality starts to really unravel as well. The thoughts of a person usually lead to enlightenment of that person. The same goes with Chencha. Esquivel lets Chencha’s thoughts flow into words as she cooks up (excuse the pun) a lie to tell Mama Elena. “Tita would resume weeping… the thought that she would never again cook alongside Chencha” (p128) shows the self-centred and somewhat arrogant girl within her. The lies she used before in the past also gives her a sly image, especially the mention of a lie that would “cover her with glory” (p129). Yet we must admit that she is smart in realising that “lying was a survival skill… at the ranch” (p127).
Gertrudis
The short mention of Gertrudis relates to magic realism. She was found “working in a brothel” (p125) because her fire had to be quenched. Her letter to Tita makes her seem far away and in another realm. This is due to the repetition of the ambiguous word “someday”. The use of “perhaps” and “somewhere” creates the same sensation. This emphasises the fact that Gertrudis has completely left her former life of repression. It also deepens the image of her liberation. Her act of becoming a whore is the consequence of the never ending restriction, and the “intense fire” that was suppressed builds up until it exploded in the form of fire.
Being outside society’s rules (Mama Elena) is a way of liberation. Too much repression can cause an outburst.
Action and Style
The chapter begins with ingredients on how the soup should not be “watery”, which connects to the title and the feeling of fulfilment, both in taste and in material (of the soup and of the sentiments). The ox-tail soup is made with onions, which is a key feature of the book. Like always, they make Tita cry, and this is no exception. Tita let out a “stream” of grief that flowed “down the stairs” (p125). “She cried as she hadn’t cried since the day she was born” (p124) suggests rebirth and a renewal of life.
“Tita, Chencha and John dried the bedroom, the stairs, and the bottom floor” (p126) contains two triads, the second of which is descending. The double triad emphasises the downward pour of the tears. The grief that Mama Elena imposes is being brought down, and therefore foreshadows the condescending of Mama Elena.
Tita’s kitchen is almost her life, where her emotions and feelings are expressed. Chencha imagines all the “horrible things happening to Tita away from her kitchen” (p127), away from her comfort zone, her normal life, and her home.
Tradition, belief and obedience mould the character’s actions throughout the novel. Tita, despite being away from Mama Elena, is still bound by “the strong tie of blood and obedience” (p129), and has to resign back to the ranch to care for her mother. Yet tradition makes a fool out of us: “It made her feel like a fool” (p131).
Mama Elena continually detects “a bitter taste” (p132) in the food made my Tita. Although Tita prepared the ox-tail soup “very carefully, with the good intention of serving it”, Mama Elena’s senses reject it. It is as if she refuses to accept the disobedience and rebelliousness of Tita, and she feels “bitter” at having to resign in hopeless despair to her daughter’s care, and “she absolutely refused to eat anything that Tita had cooked” (p133). Her efficiency is shown as “she immediately detected” the bitterness. Esquivel emphasises this by Mama Elena saying, “I don’t want it. Take it away!” The ox-tail soup was able to save Tita, but not Mama Elena.
Tita continually opposes Mama Elena. Her constant defiance takes her away from her mother and to freedom; freedom that would have been “too much even for Chencha’s feverish imagination” (p128). Under John’s care, Tita finds herself “radiant… dining my moonlight…” (p128). A whole passage on page 128 is dedicated to her and John. The rapid concession of short sentences about what John did for her and what she had is overwhelming. The reader is left breathless physically by reading it and mentally by the wonders that Tita is now confronted with.
Mama Elena’s control is still present, as always, despite her state (and does so even after her death as a ghost). After she dies, Tita finds “the enormous keyring that had been chained to her as long as Tita could remember”. Not only are the people around her and “everything in the house…strictly monitored”. Her own life is also “under lock and key”. The box Tita discovers is full of her mother’s past love affair is a strong symbol of Mama Elena’s own restrictions on herself. She locks her sentiments away, and represses herself. Another symbol is Tita taking away the keys from Mama Elena. By doing this, she takes back her own life and they key to her own freedom.
August
In August, it begins again with a recipe and as a reader we explore the role and “power of food”, guided by the recipes themselves. In the beginning of August the death of “frees” from her mother's wretched sentence and her excitement about marrying is also sidetracked by the birth of 's second child who Tita names . Tita chooses this name after refusing to let name the child Josefita saying she doesn’t want it to have the same ‘fate’ and destiny and that of her own, and also to make sure Pedro and her have no personal links. So Tita eventually chooses the name Esperanza which signifies hope because she wants her niece who is Rosaura's youngest daughter (just as herself), to escape the cruel family tradition that Rosaura is continuing, which prevented Tita from marrying.
Just like Nacha did with Tita, Tita raises her niece because Rosaura is bedridden. Esperanza is reared in the kitchen, just as Tita was, and fed with the same teas and gruels with which nurtured Tita. Rosaura is quite jealous at the closeness between Tita and the infant. Rosaura confirms Tita's fears when she announces her wish to follow family tradition and not let Esperanza marry. This news with Pedro's confrontation efforts to stop Tita from marrying John inflames Tita and its with this rage that Tita makes a meal called champandongo for John's visit to ask for her hand in marriage.
While cooking, Tita experiences a sensation of tremendous heat that compounds the heat of the kitchen to create an intense steam. Anger contains her body as well as everything surrounding her just aggravates her more. Tita's feeling is said to be "like water for chocolate," referring to the preparation of chocolate, during which water is brought just short of boiling several times before use in the recipe. The heat of Tita's anger rises until she is interrupted by the Chencha.
Tita takes a shower in the outdoor bathroom (a new one built on the same spot where 's shower experience took place, signifying the trouble that goes on around this ‘shower’) where Tita's rage cools off, and the heat slowly dissipates. However, the water suddenly becomes so hot that it burns Tita's skin. Fearing that the bathroom is once again on fire, Tita opens her eyes and sees that Pedro has been standing outside of the shower watching her intently, his eyes radiating lust making Tita flee. After dinner, Tita is left to clean the kitchen. In a small room in which Mama Elena used to have her baths Pedro again confronts Tita and without saying anything he takes her to the bed and makes love to her, taking her virginity. Rosaura and Chencha see the "phosphorescent plumes" and glow coming from the room but they dont to go near fearing that the commotion is the ghost of Mama Elena “from the other side”.
The never ending images of intense heat we’re given in this section reflect the tensions trying to get out of Tita, building to the release of passion in which Tita loses her virginity to Pedro on her engagement night. Rosaura's decision to continue her mothers tradition and not allowing her newly born daughter to marry evokes a aggressive emotional reaction in Tita, and Pedro's lust adds to it, tita feels like shes suffocating in a nearly unbearable sensation of “heat”. Which is also refers back to when her fiancé, John Brown taught her of her ‘internal flame/fire’ and in recognizing her internal flame it forces Tita to consider letting passion take over her life, throwing into focus the new conflict (Tita's love for John) who in the first place taught her the mysteries of her inner fire, and her passion for Pedro, who she has finally experienced it with.
The presence of Tita's rage strongly CONTROLS the events of this chapter in contrast to the control that Mama Elena's violence exhibited over Tita's earlier anger. Tita's emotions are now free to grow in any direction she pleases. The physical symptom of her feelings within the overpowering waves of heat are caused by Rosaura and Pedro mainly now (not MaMa Elena)
When Tita shower’s she’s able to maintain some control over the heat that is spurring from her emotions, but Pedro's lust forces upon her a ANOTHER intense wave of heat upon her. Pedro transforms Tita from a subject deep in contemplation of her own intense emotions into an object of his desire and the focus of his own emotional heat, just like hers. Tita's involvement in her sexual relationship with Pedro is passive. Her flee from the shower as Pedro approaches her clearly echoes Gertrudis's earlier escape from the burning shower making it very significant for ‘what’s to come’. However, instead of fleeing, like Gertrudis, in active pursuit of desire, Tita runs away from a sexual encounter with Pedro because it is the right thing to do as its not allowed, and to some extent, she feels no desire because of her engagement, even though Tita's running from the shower doesn’t fend Pedro away as he then confronts Tita in Mama Elena's former bathroom, the language used to describe the encounter does not suggest any ‘agreement’. Tita shows no control in what happens but is a sort of vessel, receiving the long-stifled force of Pedro's desire (quote). Pedro's forceful sexual behavior makes their sexual encounter extremely strong, as embodied by the "phosphorescent plumes", suggesting that the only way Tita can express herself sexually is as the object of her lover's desire. From a feminist point of view, this confined sexuality is problematic, as it serves to illustrate that though Tita may seek the "freedom" of true love, the possibilities for women of the novel's time period and culture are rather limited. [An interesting view that I will leave here as stimulus for thought about the text – however, it also illustrates the DANGERS of reading into a text rather than working with the evidence, as the language of the final consummation of Pedro and Tita tends to majorly contradict the feminist view given above. – Mr Turver]
September
In this chapter, September, it instructs us that we should never give up on our ‘chocolate’, and that we should console to our heart’s true desire. This is demonstrated with Tita, introduced to the scene as believing that she is pregnant; she cannot marry John, the ‘water’, anymore, the insufficiency in the story, and the symbol of Gertrudis’s return. This chapter highlights the consequences of repressing feelings for too long and the reoccurring motif of chocolate.
The chapter is introduced with a recipe for Chocolate, a symbol supposedly to symbolize loves, lust, emotions and indulgence. Tita’s emotions are swimming around in her head as she prepares the chocolate in the kitchen. During preparation, she is overwhelmed with sadness as she was afraid that she is pregnant, she “didn’t have a lot of reasons to laugh”. Her senses are numb with her act of betrayal. While preparing the meal, Tita is conquered with nostalgia, which makes her realize how much she misses Nacha and her ‘peace’ with Rosaura and her idol, Gertrurdis. All of these events take place in the kitchen, a place of magic and communication. It is the central place, where anything can happen.
Tita represents repressed love, as she is bound to tradition even with Mama Elena’s death. She is unable to be with Pedro, even with the belief of carrying their child, as Pedro is married to Rosaura. Her characters’ development is demonstrated when she ‘defies’ people’s judgement. “If I didn’t know perfectly well that you are a decent girl, I would swear that you are pregnant.” This shows how she is trapped by tradition. She is bound to society’s moral right, judgement, which can lead to pain and unhappiness until one rebels, to make our lives not “like water for chocolate”. In this syntax, she revolts against the ‘decent girl’ image, and foreshadows how she finally finds happiness at the end of the novel.
As she wishes to tell someone about her problems, “she had missed a period and thought… she couldn’t go on hurting Rosaura. That was all! But she couldn’t say that to Chencha”. The long list of confessions being subdued suggests that Tita feels lonely and is repressed of her feelings. The build up of guilt is the result of suppressing her feelings, which leads to unhappiness, which again links to how we should strive for chocolate to be happy.
Her loneliness makes her long for Gertrudis’s return. Her return is a symbol to show to Tita that you can gain happiness with liberation because Gertrudis finds happiness when she contradicts the traditional role of women with her role in the army. Again, this links to the title of the story and the “chocolate” in the recipe for September. By rebelling against tradition, liberating herself, she achieves the ‘chocolate’ and replaces the water with it. In addition, being Tita’s role model, it inspires Tita to act on what her heart tells her to, which Esquivel is trying to translate the message to the readers.
Mama Elena is characterised as someone that has overwhelming power. She comes back to haunt Tita even when she is dead and threatens to curse her and her baby. “I told you many times not to go near Pedro. Why did you do it?” Her return marks the power of repression, and that it can only be overcome if she fights for her liberation, which foreshadows her act of refusing to let Mama Elena control her anymore, making her ghost disappear forever. Her act of liberation is linked to Gertrudis’ return. Being her role model, Gertrudis is the character that follows her hearts desire at a spur of a moment, which influences Tita.
Rosuara’s character is fat, with “foul breath”, which suggests that she is inferior to Tita and that Tita has won ‘the competition’ for Pedro’s love. Rosaura is the one who is suffering as she goes to ask Tita for help for her problems even though she is the one who is married to Pedro. Again, this relates to how staying with water can lead to unhappiness. However, as Tita hopes to solve the “water in boiling oil” relationship between their sisterhood, it seems as if the chocolate, has unleashed their senses, indulged their relationship. The diction “water” used to describe their relationship depicts a sense of mediocrity; the chocolate has enhanced it, into a more ‘sensational’ relationship. Yet the way Tita ‘instructs’ her sister’s remedy is portrayed to be cold. “Bad breath originates in the stomach… can purify the foulest breath”. This is contrasted to the way Tita converses with Gertrudis, which again suggests the overwhelming power of the chocolate in comparison to the water. Moreover, the implied grudge against Rosaura foreshadows their fallout later in the novel.
The motif of chocolate is repeated across the chapter, which portrays importance of cooking is it the only form of communication for Tita. As “she would rather not torment herself”, she would turn herself to “trivial matters” such as the preparation of the lip balm, which involves cooking in a form to express herself and to escape from reality. Hence, it is also a place where she is trapped from tradition and her role as the youngest daughter. In the beginning of the extract, she is preparing for the chocolate and wishes for Gertrudis to come back, “if she could only have her sister Gertrudis by her side! But it seemed more likely that a corpse would come back to life than that Gertrudis would come back home.” The simile emphasizes the near impossibility of her sisters’ return, and yet she does come back in the end of the chapter and again, emphasizes the power of her cooking.
Tita’s pregnancy is a symbol of the consequences of repressing her lust too much. It had “not occurred to her as she consummated her love with Pedro”. If they sought for the ‘chocolate’ earlier, it could have been prevented. Hence, the consequences of repressing love is great, and are highlighted when Tita compares “Gertrudis’s sense of rhythm” to the “failure of Rosaura’s marriage and for own pregnancy”. The diction “failure” connotes negativity, and that repressing would lead to negative results as Gertrudis is the product of Mama Elena’s affair for her true love when she is unable to marry her loved one. Similarly, Rosaura’s failed marriage is because of Pedro’s repressed love for Tita, and Tita’s ‘pregnancy’ is due to repressing her love for Pedro. Esquivel is trying to portray the dangers of repressing love.
Esquivel uses lists to emphasize the destructive power of repression. As Tita starts wishing that she had never “known Pedro, never had to flee from him”, she is drawn towards the chocolate, but is unable to obtain it; the pathway is blocked withhe listing of wishes. In order to relieve her emotions, the content is interrelated with the cooking preparation, as she goes straight back into the recipe after wishing - her emotions are mixed with the food, as the food is the only way to express herself. The increasing amount of content being interrelated with food shows that Tita is increasingly rebellious, her fight for her desires are building inside.
In the preparation of the King’s Day Bread, eggs are included in the ingredient which symbolises preserved love and that due to her ‘pregnancy’, she is going to reveal her love for Pedro. This is ironic, as the King’s Day bread is supposedly prepared for celebration, yet Tita does not “have a lot of reasons to laugh”, emphasising the impact of the rebellion has caused her because “this possibility had not occurred to her as she consummated her love with Pedro”. The pregnancy could have been avoided if she had been repressed
The recipe emphasizes the motif of the chocolate, which instructs to fulfil our dreams and desires as it is written command form. The language of instructions shows how we should express our own feelings, and not repress them like Tita has because of her fear of her pregnancy. The recipe of the chocolate relates to the title of the book.
The preparation of the chocolate also produces a nostalgic element to Tita’s emotions. She is comforted with the happy childhood memories of “Nacha! The smells: her noodle soup…” The magic realist aspect is a way of releasing the repression locked within her by means of remembering the happy moments in her life, with associations to food, and hence reinforcing what matters to Tita the most; the importance of a ‘true’ family and the power of love.
When she hopes to have not had to “compete for the love of a man” with Rosaura, to solve the “water in boiling oil” relationship between the sisterhood. Almost instantly, she fulfils her wishes, as she is shortly approached by Rosaura, seeking for help. This emphasizes the power of the motif, ‘chocolate’ as a symbol to represent the need for something fulfilling is powerful as the event happens after she has prepared the chocolate in her recipe. Moreover, she hopes for Gertrudis to be “by her side”, her desires are fulfilled when Rosaura approaches her shortly seeking for help and Gertrudis returning home. The association of the recipe with food is narrator’s way to remember Tita by, and similarly, Tita remembers her loved ones with references to food as well.
Tita finally realizes that she cannot be with John anymore, as she feels guilt in ‘betraying him’. “John, the person to whom she owed nothing but thanks; John, who had brought her back to her sense…” She is upset by her betrayal to John and realizes that her true desire is Pedro. The parallelism used here emphasizes all her faults and the impact it would have on the ‘pure innocent’ John, and that she has chosen Pedro, the chocolate, over the John, the water. This implies that as a consequence of choosing the water, the consequences are always undesirable and thus, we should replace it with chocolate.
The main themes in this extract are the power of passion and love, and the dangers of repressing the ‘fire’ within a person. This is emphasized with the magic realist aspect in the story, and the repeated motif of chocolate; the overwhelming greatness of chocolate in comparison to water. The only way for happiness is repeated across the whole chapter, that a repressed one such as Tita, can only overcome this by liberating herself. Therefore, in conclusion, Esquivel is trying to put emphasis the main message through this chapter and through the whole book, that we should act on our passion no matter what the consequences are and to prevent what Tita feels, repressed love.
October
November
Setting
In this chapter, as the setting changes, so does Tita’s mood. While Tita prepares the Beans with Chile Tezcucana-style in the kitchen, she “felt completely empty” (p210) due to the difficult situation she is placed in with John, while it then becomes a mix of anger and sadness as she leaves Pedro’s room. After a verbal confrontation with Rosaura in the kitchen, a chicken fight occurs out in the patio. This is a drastic change in the setting yet it is actually more of a physical representation of the conflicts happening inside Tita. Only until Tita returns to the kitchen, her realm, does the frenzy “subside and give way to infinite tenderness” (p219) When Aunt Mary and John finally taste Tita’s cooking in the dining room, Tita’s uncertainty in what to do next returns
Characterization
In November particularly, Tita’s character shows the struggle between pursuing sexual passion and an ideal family now that she no longer feels obliged to follow her family’s tradition. Having learnt most of Nacha’s skills and proficiency, her role in this chapter shows us the effect of emotions on the cooking of food and how food can also alter emotions while being able to provide an excellent meal for Aunt Mary despite having their pantry and larder empties from Gertrudis’ visit. Being the victim of a cruel tradition, she conflicts with Rosaura, who was not harmed from this tradition but more of a victim of a marriage without passion. Having bonded with Esperanza, the baby whom she originally thought she would never have, it becomes a weakness which Rosaura exploits following the end of their confrontation in Tita’s kitchen.
John was “a marvelous man” and Tita loved him, but as he is a representation of a love which is more on the grounds of gratitude and thanks, Tita struggles to figure whether he is the one for her. He is caring and understands the internal conflicts she has inside, for that reason, “the doubts had grown inside her head” and she would be trapped in this conflict in choosing between John and Pedro until she tastes her jasmine sorbet, which “provide a great relief” (p224) and allowed her body to be refreshed since it had cleared her mind of worries.
Pedro, having been forced to rest in bed due to the burns from the previous chapter, is passionately in love with Tita but grows jealous of her spending time preparing a meal for John and his aunt instead of him. Pedro’s experiences with her allow Tita to sing with “a seething passion” (p219) and thus the beans were then fully cooked as Nacha once said that she would have to “sing them a song full of love” to finish preparing the meal. Pedro grows suspicious in this chapter as he cannot understand the way Tita treats John. As her love for John contains much gratitude, she cannot simply tell John she is not going to marry him as she feels that it is “unjust to treat John that way” p(211). In this chapter, it suggested that “perhaps the accident he had suffered had affected his mind” and that “his usually pleasant words turned into awful ones”, although Pedro was usually the one that Tita was madly in love with, here he upsets and enrages Tita as a result of his lack of faith in her.
Action
Esquivel’s choice of embedding recipes into the story here shows how interrelated the events in Tita’s life are with food. It could be the onions which cause her tears, but it could be a jasmine sorbet which clears her of any doubts. The dish in this chapter, the Beans with Chile Tezcucana-style, takes over half the chapter for the beans just to cook, but while preparing this dish she experiences all sorts of emotions, but only in the last step of singing “a song full of love” does she find the wonderful memories she has of Pedro.
In November, there is a constant fluctuating representation of Pedro and John. While at the start, it was described that “Pedro had turned into a monster of selfishness and suspicion” but in Tita’s conflict with Rosaura, Tita’s love for Pedro was still shown when she tells Rosaura that she “had no right to stand between two people who were deeply in love”. Much similarly, although it was often suggested that John would not be the one Tita chooses, phrases such as “What a fine man he was.” And “How he had grown in her eyes!” at the end of the chapter suggest the possibility of him having a chance. This is further emphasized when Tita tries to persuade herself that “as time went by, it wouldn’t be hard to fall deeply in love with him”.
Style
Symbolism – The cock-fight which occurs out in the patio which at first seems to be a random outbreak of violence between the chickens could actually be a representation of the conflicts that Tita faces (such as with Rosaura). It was described that blood from this incident had sprayed Esperanza’s white diapers. This could suggest that these conflicts could eventually result in Tita’s loss of Esperanza. When Tita pours water over them, (this could symbolize Tita trying to stop these conflicts) the result is that this fight only intensifies and suggests it to be better that Tita don’t try and interfere. With some magical realism elements, this “incredible whirlwind” made of chickens lifted Tita and dumped her down while she “landed like a sack of potatoes”. At the end of the fight, 3 chickens remain only, all having been plucked bald and left with one eye while the diapers were missing. This suggests that these conflicts would hurt, harm and affect everyone while Esperanza could be taken away from Tita’s life.
Magic Realism – Other than the magic realism of a whirlwind made of a cock-fight, magic realism is used when only Tita’s singing could make the tamales fully cooked. This emphasizes how important it is to think of your loved ones and memories with them when cooking. Magic realist elements can be found in many of Tita’s treatments such as the diet she set for Rosaura which helped her lost 65 pounds in 1 week and her treatment of Pedro’s burned wounds such that no scars were left had been used to show how love can heal. Finally, despite all the troubles and worries that Tita had, just a simple taste of the jasmine sorbet had cleared her mind. This suggested in an exaggerated fashion how food can affect emotions both positively and negatively (although positive only in this case.)
Simile – During the incident involving the hurricane of chickens, they lifted Tita up and carrier her until “She landed like a sack of potatoes.” This simile emphasized how helpless she was and that it was futile trying to escape for she is portrayed as a mere sack of idle potatoes.
Listing – “They are covered with grated cheese and garnished with tender lettuce leaves, avocado slices, chopped radishes, chiles tornachiles, and olives.” To overwhelm and tantalize our taste buds by describing the dish in detail.
Ideas
The struggle between sexual passion and a warm family is shown through Tita’s inability to choose between love with a passion and love with gratitude causes her to be stuck between John and Pedro.
Defiance of traditional values is shown through Tita as Mama Elena has passed away. Tita feels that she has just as much rights in marrying Pedro as Rosaura despite of the “stupid tradition” that Tita grew up following.
The exploration of food’s effects on emotions and emotion’s effects on food are shown through Tita’s cooking and her tasting of her own dishes. Only through cooking while thinking of happy memories do her beans get fully cooked and only eating her jasmine sorbet does she manage to clear her mind.
December
Like Water for Chocolate, page 65
Like Water for Chocolate, page 66
Like Water for Chocolate, page 66
Like Water for Chocolate, page 66
Like Water for Chocolate, page 66
Like Water for Chocolate, page 66
Like Water for Chocolate, page 67
Like Water for Chocolate, page 67
Like Water for Chocolate, page 67
Like Water for Chocolate, page 69
Like Water for Chocolate, page 69
Like Water for Chocolate, page 71
Like Water for Chocolate, page 72
Like Water for Chocolate, page 81