Analysis Of Like Water For Chocolate

The images in the movie relate very closely to the amusing feeling the book gives us, giving us a high angle on the guests and long shots, showing us collectively how everyone was crying. At that night Nacha dies, and shatters Titas world. Later on Pedro gives Tita roses, and she decides to make quail in rose. The passion dripped from her to the dish, and made Gertrudis the older sister think of sinful thoughts. The aroma arousing from her reaches to a soldier Juan, who was Gertrudis dream, the moment is described magically: “A pink clod floated toward him, wrapped itself around him…naked as she was, luminous, glowing with energy… without slowing his gallop, so as not to waste a moment, he leaned over, put his arm around her waist, and lifted her onto the horse in front of him, face to face” (pg 55-56). The movie draws a great parallel here, the picture is blurry a little as if it is a dream, and for the first time in the movie, which is very dimly lit and poorly lighted, the picture is bright, with a flowing movement of the two as they disappear. One of the most significant moments in the book is when Tita delivers Rosauras baby Roberto, the thing she loved the most. In the movie however, the whole phase of taking care of Roberto in the kitchen and feeding him is very brief, which is very confusing for later scenes. As mama Elena senses that Pedro and Tita might have an affair going on, she sends them to one of her relatives in the United States.

Tita was born in a family with strict rules and traditions. It is tradition that keeps Tita and Pedro apart. Even though Tita and Pedro are madly in love with each other. However, because tradition demand that Tita the youngest daughter does not marry in order to take care for her parents. “For generations, not a single person in my family has ever questioned this tradition, and no daughter of mine is going to be the one to start”. (10). Tita mother makes this statement to shows that she has power over Tita life, she’s not going to let anybody come between her decisions and explained to her that tradition could not be broken. Later in the story, Pedro fails to gain Tita’s hand in marriage when he speaks to her mother. Instead Elena offer Rosaura the middle sister to marry Pedro in which pedro agrees. “When you’re told there’s no way you can marry the women you love and only hope of being near her is to marry her sister”. (15) This news leaves Tita broken-hearted because she imagines this could have been her, marrying her true love, having a future with him, and probably having children with him. Instead she is doomed to served her

Tita 's fear and her dislike towards her mother is also clarified in the film when Tita, as a child, hides behind Nacha 's apron as soon as Mama Elena enters the kitchen. Tita 's resistance to Mama Elena 's cruel demands are evident again when even after Mama Elena scolds her and orders her to stay away from Pedro, she is still happy knowing that Pedro still loves her:

The title of this novel, Like Water for Chocolate, is also a simile for the burning passion Tita and Pedro had for each other. In Latin countries, “like water for chocolate” mean to boil water to the right temperature in order to make chocolate milk. Figuratively it is a metaphor for state of sexual arousal. Despite their true love for each other, Tita and Pedro had to restrain their feelings under the eyes of society. Their love is like the boiling point of water.

It provides the audience with a sense of the character’s personality, while also captivating the attention of the audience through the tone in which the characters are communicating. In ‘Like Water for Chocolate’s case, dialogue is used effectively to convey Mama Elena’s attitude, often annoyance or anger, towards her daughters, especially Tita – sparking the rebellion within Tita. Mama Elena has the belief that Tita doesn’t “have an opinion” (14), repressing Tita’s opinions and choices. Despite her cruelty towards Tita, Mama Elena protects her ranch from the soldiers through threats that she “can shoot [them] before they can kill [her]” and warns them she has “a very good aim and a very bad temper” (81). This can be seen as a contradiction of the feminist idea of the novel as Mama Elena is depicted as being above the soldiers rather than equal to them; however, it can also be said that Mama Elena was simply protecting the ranch, so she had no choice but to do so. It also shows how powerful Mama Elena is, since she was able to threaten the “captain” with her abilities. The conversation amongst the characters reveals their personality as well as the occurring events, developing the audience’s

Tita is born prematurely crying on the kitchen table in the De la Garza household. Pedro Muzquiz asks for Tita’s hand in marriage, to which Mama Elena refuses and suggest Rosaura. Rosaura De la Garza and Pedro Muzquiz are married. Nacha dies, clutching a picture of her fiancé. After eating Tita’s Quail in Rose Petal Sauce, Gertrudis becomes overcome with sensual desire, the quail acting as an aphrodisiac, she is then taken away by one of the Pancho’s Villa’s men. Pedro and Rosaura’s first child is born, to which Tita becomes attached to the child, as if Roberto is her own. Roberto dies from lack of proper nutrition. Tita becomes sickly and is taken in by John. Mama Elena dies. Rosaura dies. Alex and Esperanza get married. Tita and Pedro have

Laura Esquirel’s, Like Water for Chocolate, is a modern day Romeo and Juliet filled with mouthwatering recipes. It has become a valued part of American literature. The novel became so popular that it was developed into a film, becoming a success in both America and Mexico. Alfonso Arau directs the film. After reading the novel and seeing the movie, I discovered several distinct differences between the two as well as some riveting similarities. The novel begins with the main character, Tita, being born on the kitchen table. "Tita had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged; maybe that was because she knew that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage …Tita was literally washed into

Tita-youngest daughter of mama elena and also the protagonist of the novel. She is barred from getting married as per family traditions in the understanding that she would care for her mother till death. She faces many struggles such as not being able to marry her desirer Pedro and also watch him get married to her sister. The book progress with her life and shows a main focus on her disturbed relationship with pedro and also displays her hardships in her life to pursue love and distinctiveness from others. The purpose of her upbringing was to be excellent in the culinary arts.

A soul in distress is always looking for a mean to escape through a difficult situation. In the story Like Water For Chocolate, Tita De La Garza who suffered like no other, isn’t the exception. This young woman since birth was instilled with a very deep love for cooking. When the people who she loved most betrayed her, cooking eased her pain. All of the intense emotions that she felt while preparing food, were unknowingly added to the recipes. The author, Laura Esquivel through the use of symbolism, she demonstrates that the role of food in the story isn’t there just to sustain life, it also transmits strong emotions such as desire, sorrow and healing felt by the

Following, we learn that Mama Elena has no milk to feed Tita, which makes Nacha, the family cook - her official caretaker as she replaces Mama Elena. This is important to point out because the initial separation of the two main characters is quite evident; there is no mother-daughter bond that should have been established, Mama Elena doesn’t have time to worry about her, “without having to worry about feeding a newborn baby on top of everything else.” (7) We grow to understand why Tita forms other vital bonds with Nacha, and of course the food that surrounds her daily, helping her not only to grow but acts as an outlet for her emotions. “From that day on, Tita’s domain was the kitchen…this explains the sixth sense Tita developed about everything concerning food.” (7) From the beginning, Tita is given barely any freedom, she is given a purpose, she will not marry anyone until Mama Elena is alive, she is to look after her, which becomes a great conflict when the love of her life, Pedro, is to marry her sister, Rosaura, and not her. Mama Elena wants to hear nothing about Tita’s frustration. Mama Elena herself has lost her true love and because of it is insensitive to Tita’s love with Pedro. The reaction of each woman to her predicament helps explain the opposite characters. Mama Elena lets the loss of her young love turn into hatred for anything but tradition, and

Mama Elena, sensing Tita's reluctance to participate in her sister's upcoming wedding, warns her, "I won't stand for disobedience... nor am I going to allow you to ruin your sister's wedding, with you acting like the victim. You're in charge of all the preparations starting now, and don't ever let me catch you with a single tear or even a long face, do you hear?" (27). At the wedding party the following day, although Tita keeps a perfectly calm demeanor, her true feelings about her sister's marriage to Pedro are revealed in the guests' first bite of the Chabela wedding cake. "The moment [the guests] took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing... [T]he weeping was just the first symptom of a strange intoxication that seized the guests" (39), all but Tita, on whom the cake had no effect. The author uses the cake's effect on the guests to reveal first, Tita's grief over her loss of love through the guests uncontrollable weeping and second, her disgust over her sister and Pedro's

The phrase “mother knows best” refers to maternal instinct and wisdom. It is often used to describe how mothers are the most knowledgeable when it comes to their children’s needs. This cliche is frequently used by mothers who try to guide their children on the path towards success, especially when the child protests. Tita’s mother, Mama Elena, embraces this expression fully, and always pushes Tita towards what she believes is the road to achievement. Mama Elena is perhaps one of the best portrayals of “tough love” in a character in literature. Like Water for Chocolate’s author, Esquivel, depicts Mama Elena as a strong, independent woman who does not bother with things she deems insignificant. This translates to the reader through the decisions and actions Mama Elena makes throughout the book. Her disregard for emotions is often the reason why her actions are misunderstood by readers who claim that she is a cruel, unrelenting mother who is apathetic to her daughter’s suffering. However, this is not the case, as Mama Elena never acts without reason and only goes out of her way to discipline Tita when she believes that Tita is in the wrong. The readers see her go to great lengths to protect Tita numerous times, although these instances are often hidden behind her less than pleasant words, such as when she tries to shield Tita and Nacha from the rebels who were known to frequently terrorize families and rape women. Despite being a strict and unforgiving mother, Mama Elena’s

But of course Rosaura was hurt because of the fact that he brought Tita roses instead of her and Mama Elena did not approve and told Tita to throw them out, but Tita didn’t listen to her so she went into the kitchen to express them the best way she could which was through food, so she cooked the quail in rose petals sauce making the food have a sexual tension especially towards Gertrudis. When Pedro complimented the food Mama Elena downgraded it and Rosaura excused herself. Gertrudis was feeling very hot and lusty causing her to go to the bathroom and shower herself but that didn’t help and the heat from her body cause the bathroom to catch on fire which made her run out of the bathroom naked the opposite way of the ranch, pg. 51 in “Like Water for Chocolate says “The delicacy of her face, the perfection of her pure vaginal body contrasted with passion, the lust, the leapt from her eyes, from every pore. These things, and the sexual desire Juan had contained for so long while he was fighting in the mountains, made for a spectacular encounter.” The tension that she was feeling made her run away from the ranch with Juan on the horse and from there that’s when Gertrudis made love for the very first time. Those two examples were the two major recipes that showed how much Tita’s cooking had a big impact on the people that surrounded her and what it did to them to affect them.

Like Water For Chocolate is one of the Laura Esquivel’s books. The uniqueness of this book is that it uses the cooking, or recipe, to tell a story. In the story, she uses the magic realism, which expresses a primarily realistic view of the real world while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, to reveal her familiar theme ‘love.’ To summarize the book, there is the family tradition that the last daughter needs to take care her mother until mother’s death without the marriage. The protagonist of this book, Tita, is the last daughter of her family, and therefore, she cannot marry with her love. So, there is the conflict between Mama Elena, who wants to keep the tradition, and Tita, who wants to marry with her love, Pedro, even if it forces family tradition. Esquivel utilizes magic realism to expose the passion to keep family tradition, family relationship, and the complexity of love.

Like Water for Chocolate is a totally enchanting movie that has a dreamlike quality. But there are several suspicious actions in the movie, such as mother’s insistence and Pedro’s choice. It’s somewhat hard to understand why Tita’s mother block Tita from getting marry until she died, compare with mother’s sweet smile as gravida. But from the angle about love, we can understand that mother’s insistence is general in the Latin American culture. Likewise, mother’s insistence cause Tita that she was leaving with Pedro with the “shroud” in the middle of the movie, and challenge her mother’s authority. Additionally, we can understand why Tita went back to take care of her mother, why Pedro and Tita still cannot be together, even though she knows