Like Water For Chocolate And John Steinbeck 's The Grapes Of Wrath

“Ma Joad, the inner driving force of the Joad family, has always been considered Steinbeck’s foray into the ideals of feminism, of female control, a statement far beyond the standards of the time” (Sharpe 1). The members of the Joad family are very close knit because of Ma Joad’s role she has on all of them. Many family members of the Joad family have a great deal of influence on Ma, and Ma on them.

Cooking is one of the things that keeps Tita to go on with life, it is her passion. When Tita was going through dramatic situations in her life she used cooking as one her strengths to help her to be strong. In the article “Feminism in Like Water for Chocolate” it states, “it is through food that Tita both compares and understands her own emotional and physical state. This statement explains to the readers that Tita can only figure out her emotions when it comes to the kitchen and cooking.” Cooking to Tita is important because she entered the world right there on the kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro. Cooking become a huge impact on Tita life because she felt like she can only express herself when it came to cooking. Just in the same way, Tita had another strength that attributed to her which includes, the long-lasting love she has for people. In the novel, the author Laura Esquivel explains how Tita is a person who is nurturing and self-sacrificing. For examples, in the novel she states “the baby’s cries filled all the empty space in Tita’s heart. She realized that she was feeling a new love; for life, for this child, for

Laura Esquivel uses all of her strategies to make small moments in Like Water for Chocolate have meaning and emotion in relation to her characters. In the book, the month of July is where Tita, the protagonist, is staying with a doctor named John and she refuses to speak. That is until Chencha comes to see her. Esquivel uses repetition and imagery in a few paragraphs to enhance that moment, Chencha’s arrival, and to make it meaningful. With her use of repetition and imagery, Esquivel is able to convey her tone, create a mood and support her purpose in the matter of one page.

In our society today, there are many ways identity plays a role in how people live their lives, as well as how people are viewed or treated by others. A big part of a person’s identity comes from their gender. Men and women are raised differently, whether it be their beliefs and ways of thinking, how they view their future, or the actions they choose to take throughout their lifetime. In both Katha Pollitt and Silko’s essays, they discuss the differences in the lives of men and women and how these differences result from society’s expectations by using metaphors and life examples to explain their message to the reader, as well as allow the reader to connect to this message.

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

The concept of femininity and masculinity is mentioned many times throughout the essay to highlight it

This annotated bibliography is designed to give the readers comprehensive understand of how the theme of feminism is manifested in William Faulkner short story A Rose for Emily. The information gathered about the story was mainly taken from scholarly journals and credible internet sources. The information gathered on the primary text gives and in-depth and critical look on the topic feminism. Through ongoing secondary research literary critics have a wide interpretations of the primary sources. In relation to the topic feminism, literary critics say that feminism can be seen in the story. Issues that literary critics emphases on are the reason behind the feminism theme. Some say it is because of the author personality, while others say it is just the writer expressing what he sees around him during the time that the story was written. These interpretation by literary critics have influenced me not only to look at the words in story but also to look at the author. Further research on the author would be useful, which will give me a full understand of who he is and what was going on when the story was written.

The initial state in Like Water for Chocolate is when Tita is saddened when she is told by Mama Elena that she cannot marry, and must take care of her mother until she dies, as this is the ritual of the family, since Mama Elena was a young girl. The final state is when Tita finally stands up to Mama Elena,

Analyzing the ways in which a piece of literature includes feminist ideologies can bring out the potential messages that the creators of these productions were attempting to portray, while allowing the reader to critique the literature from a feminist perspective.

This passage gives the reader an initial insight on the central conflict in the novel, Tita’s fight for freedom from Mama Elena’s suppression. Mama Elena is portrayed to have characteristics which resemble to that of the stereotypically domineering, abusive male figure. Tita must tread waters very carefully when she is anywhere near Mama Elena, otherwise she would be beaten for any reason. Yet as the novel progresses, Tita undergoes a change due to exposure and desire. With the introduction of Pedro (Tita’s lover who ends up marrying Tita’s sister), Tita experiences new emotions, desire and lust. Previous to meeting Pedro, Tita never felt the desire to defy Mama Elena, yet her new found love - lust - for Pedro gave her a reason to rebel. The introduction of the emotion of desire, a need sparked the flame of change in Tita. This concept of women in oppression finding something to strive for, even at a risk, gives women courage. As the age, old saying goes ‘if they can do it so can I’. By creating a relatable scenario, Esquivel hopes to show women that even if the task seems too great to overcome, they

In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both authors introduce female protagonists that are confined by men’s authority. By displaying the protagonist's transformation, Glaspell and Faulkner highlight the repercussions of gender roles, to show that when women are trapped, they will go to great lengths to retaliate against their oppressors.

Both Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums portray oppressed female characters in the early 1900s. In Hemingway’s short, Jig is oppressed by her lover known only as “The American,” whereas, the main character in The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen, feels the weight of oppression from society (male dominated) as a whole. Although the driving force of the two women’s subjugation varies slightly, their emotional responses to such are what differentiate the two.

It is impossible to discuss the role of women in literature without mentioning the influence of feminism. The later in the timeline one reads, the more prominent it becomes. Each new wave of feminism brings with it its own goals, yet it also continues to strive for some of the same goals as past generations because not everything is accomplished all at once. Although “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall and “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, are two starkly different texts that strongly reflect the feminist eras in which they were written, they have some similarities as well.

Literature changes as current events change and as the structure of society begins to shift. American feminist literature started to become prevalent during the Victorian era, or around the latter part of the 19th century. This is the time when the first wave of feminism in the United States hit. The Seneca Falls Convention - the first women’s rights convention - and the emergence of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s American Equal Rights Association in the middle of the 19th century are among some of the noteable events that sparked this movement in literature. Women across America were inspired by the changing of the times, and that is reflected in many American female authors’ writings.

I chose gender criticism this theory to analyze the gender roles and the gender expectations displayed in “Lady Susan”. I chose this theory because “Lady Susan” mainly discussed the relationship between males and females, and the interesting gender roles the characters played. Thus, gender criticism theory can help me to understand and comprehend the underlying meanings of different characters’ conducts and personalities as females.