Analysis Of Mama Elena In Like Water For Chocolate By Esquivel

“You know perfectly well that being the youngest daughter means you have to take care of me until the day I die.” (10). This statement shows how Tita is being oppressed not by mama Elena choice but family tradition. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel concentrate into the stories of the women of De La Garza. Tita the main character aim to find love, happiness and independent, and Elena De La Garza the antagonist who will stand in the way of Tita happiness and would do anything in her power to stop Tita to fulfil her goals which is to find true love with Pedro. This mother and daughter relationship was predestined since the day when Tita was brought up into this world, and her father’s sudden death. Mama Elena was the opposite of a loving, caring women she never had a relationship with Tita. While Tita formed a relationship with food that gives her the strength, and love she never experienced before. The women of De La Garza experienced many challenges in this strict societies. All the women expected to follow an oppressive family tradition.

In Laura Esquivel’s novel "Como Agua Para Chocolate" Esquivel explores the relationship between a mother and daughter but presents it in a way that is different from usual mother-daughter relationships. Mama Elena is the chief antagonist in this novel who, instead of loving and caring for her daughter, tortures the protagonist Tita throughout the novel by prohibiting her from marrying in order to take care of her until her death. However, Tita does not lose hope as she continuously manages to assert her authority despite her mother’s cruel attempts at separating her from her lover and at the

She is an important character that is viewed as a significant figure. Mama’s behavior through the plays shows that women could play the role of being a man. She conducts the house to her satisfaction. When Beneatha says, “There simply is no blasted God—there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!” (51). Mama reacts by slapping her across the face to show her that this is her house and that she is in control. Not only did Mama control her family’s actions in her house, but she also controlled any guests’ actions in her household. Mama was the controller of the house and the whole neighborhood knew about it. Mrs. Johnson even reminded herself of Mama’s control by saying to Mama, “Oh I always forgets you don’t know ‘low that word in your house” (101). Mama illuminates her status of being woman with not only her control but also her attitude and her dreams.

In Laura Esquivel’s novel “Like Water for Chocolate”, she skillfully illustrates that love is a powerful that can either make or break us. The author portrays this conflict through The use of descriptive metaphors and indirect symbolism.

Cruelty and violence have been often a solid influence with Mama Elena towards Tita. The psychological damage that Mama Elena cause Tita took effect after, Tita heard news of the death of her nephew Roberto. According to the chapter five (99) in the month of may. Mama Elena took a wooden spoon and smashes Tita across the face. The act of cruelty and the violent behavior of Mama Elena. In addition to Mama Elena attitude toward the death of her grandson being callous and tactless. This causes Tita to hide in the dovecote overnight. Where the psychological damage began to surface. When the Dr. Brown came to retrieve Tita from the dovecote, only to find Tita there naked with a broken nose and holding a dead pigeon. Tita then became suffer in silences for the next coupled of months. Instead of Mama Elena seeking professional help for Tita to get better, Mama Elena suggested that Tita be taken to the asylum.

Additionally, the sorrow that Tita felt was also unintentionally transferred to others. . Specifically the wedding cake in which she managed to communicate her longing and sadness to Rosaura and Pedro 's wedding guests. As she prepared the Chabela Cake, her tears fell into the batter and icing. "The moment they took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing...Mama Elena, who hadn 't shed a single tear 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 guests and scattered them across the patio and the grounds and in the bathrooms, all of them wailing over lost love" (Esquivel 39). The tears affected everyone at the wedding banquet with longing for lost loves, so much so that they become physically sick. They were literally love sick and Tita was responsible even though she had no idea what she had just done. In the same manner, even though Tita didn’t actually make the hot chocolate from story’s title "Like water for chocolate", it still symbolizes her biggest emotion. It is learned that once she hears Rosaura tell Alex about

Although many families acquire at least one tradition, some people interpret it as an injustice and there are several who wants to break their family tradition. Like Water for Chocolate demonstrates a family's struggle with the tradition of the youngest daughter, Tita, who is force to take care of her mother, but fails to notice that Tita is love with Pedro. Tita was conflicted whether she should follow her heart, either marrying Pedro or agreeing to take care of her mother Mama Elena till her death. The message about tradition is the direction for corruption of the family. According to Laura Esquivel’s novel Like Water For Chocolate, the role of tradition has interacted with the De La Garza family, as Tita is the first to break the tradition

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

Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate The novel “Like Water for Chocolate” written by Laura Esquivel is a historical piece of South-American literature which is parallel to the Mexican Revolution which took place at the start of the twentieth century. The De La Garza family in the novel emphasizes certain similarities with the things going on during the Mexican Revolution, especially with the people in the lower rank. One important structural device used in the novel is the use of recipes which is found in each chapter and sets the overall mood and atmosphere for that particular chapter, the mood or feelings of Tita.

No human being is completely free. Individuals’ values, ideas and identities are influenced, and to a certain degree, shaped by the cultures and societies they live in. However, by realizing identity, an individual can find a sense of independence, which subsequently leads towards self-actualization. In the novel “Like Water for Chocolate”, by Laura Esquivel, the protagonist, Tita, faces her journey from a young, submissive daughter to a strong, independent woman who is eventually able to achieve self-actualization, which is reflected in her non-traditional sense of identity and independence, and is something that not only ties in with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but I can relate myself to as well.

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel explains women’s roles in northern Mexico during the turn of the nineteenth century. The novel takes place in northern Mexico on a family ranch where many family traditions are carried out. Also, the novel describes some of the typical foods that were prepared and fiestas that were celebrated in the Mexican culture around this time. However, the novel mainly focuses on the roles of females in Mexican society at that time. The novel goes beyond explaining women’s roles and also explains what took place in the Mexican family. Throughout the novel, readers learn the role of mothers, the conflict between personal desires and tradition, and typical foods, celebrations, and family traditions that were

From the day Tita entered the world, her fate was sealed with the De la Garza’s family tradition, which lead to the cause of her pain and suffering from the hands of her mother, Mama Elena. Tita and Mama Elena’s estranged relationship was oppressed with complications from Tita’s premature birth and the sudden death of her father, which caused Mama Elena to reject her nurturing nature and discard bonding with Tita. Although Tita’s emotions would leave her in a weakened mind state, her determination towards breaking the brutal convention, she is faced with, would begin to display her strength, through her visualization of a fulfilled life without the criticism of Mama Elena. While Tita

From the day Tita entered the world, her fate was sealed with the De la Garza’s family tradition, which lead to the cause of her pain and suffering from the hands of her mother, Mama Elena. Tita and Mama Elena’s estranged relationship was oppressed with complications from Tita’s premature birth and the sudden death of her father, which caused Mama Elena to reject her nurturing nature and discard bonding with Tita. Although Tita’s emotions would leave her in a weakened mind state, her determination towards breaking the brutal convention, she is faced with, would begin to display her strength, through her visualization of a fulfilled life without the criticism of Mama Elena. While

The film, Like Water for Chocolate, represents a story through incorporating the idea of food as feelings and expressing the woman’s roles during the Mexican Revolution. The film is a romantic-comedy showing many joking ways of hard times and soft issues and the way of life. The most striking and theme seems to be how women seem to be in charge rather then males; during this time period, I thought that men were more likely to be the head of the household and in charge.