What Is The Theme Of The Wedding Cake Short Story

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’s thoughts shows how, despite her fear of Mama Elena, she still attempts to gain her right to marry and she is secretly happy about Pedro marrying Rosaura just to be near her. Despite Mama Elena 's intentions to break Tita 's heart by making her watch the person she loves getting married to her sister, Tita completely changes the meaning of this wedding to something that makes her love for Pedro grow stronger. This is also portrayed in the film when Tita 's smile remains even after Mama Elena scolds her. The contrast in Mama Elena and Tita 's behaviour is conveyed when Tita thinks about what it would be like to have her mother’s strength:

Chencha had brought Tita ox-tail soup, its scent brought back Tita’s memories “With the first sip Nacha was there at her...There were all the times with Nacha. As always throughout her life, with a whiff of onion, the tears began. She cried as she hadn’t cried since the day she was born. How good it was to have a long talk with Nacha” (Esquivel 124). The mood created by this imagery here is relief. It is expressed through Tita’s memories. Tita recalls Nacha stroking her hair when she was young and ill, through it, we feel our own mothers’ stroke our hair with our memories. With the mention of familiar scents, the reader could also smell the tortillas and the atole. This sensory imagery enhances this moment to its full splendor. The imagery has the ability to bring us to tears as well as we recall all of those heartfelt moments with her. This augments the mood of relief in the passage when she cries. Her crying now is compared to how she had cried at her birth. Esquivel uses a hyperbole and describes Tita’s tears as a stream. The mood builds the purpose because, with Tita as the example, once you do find yourself you feel immense relief and can be comfortable without the tension of holding it in

As Esquivel describes the inner emotions of Tita; the main protagonist, through the use of descriptive metaphors she asserts that “The anger she felt within her acted like yeast on bread dough. She felt it's rapid rising flowing into every last recess of her body; like yeast in a small bowl, it spilled over to the outside, escaping in the form of steam through her ears, nose, and all her pores” (Esquivel 149). Her use of metaphors enable the reader to visualize Tita’s anger and frustration by relating them to food items. The way Esquivel is very descriptive when expressing the emotions of Tita convey the mood of resentment; because of the all too familiar feeling of loving someone who you can not be with.

This film has many protagonists. The main protagonist is Martin Naranjo. He is an accomplished chef who is a widower. He lives with his three adult daughters who are very beautiful, but remain single. Naranjo lost his wife approximately ten years prior to the setting of the film. Since then he has assumed the role of father and mother. Naranjo works as a chef fulfilling is fatherly role and he also does all of the cooking, cleaning and laundry fulfilling his motherly role. Naranjo maintains that on every Sunday, the family shares a meal to share their life experiences of the week with each other. The meal seems to be a tradition in that family that has been a part of the family’s ritual prior to the passing of the mother. Some of the daughters find the meal to be more of a punishment than an enjoyment. Martin for most of the film has lost his ability to taste the flavor in the food he creates. He relies at work upon his best friend and fellow chef, Gomez played by Julio Mechoso, for taste. Martin is the main protagonist as he demonstrates the most change. He lets go of his adult daughters, one at a time while gaining two more daughters, Eden the daughter of his much younger bride than he and his unborn child with the same, Yolanda.

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

Food and family tradition are important for this story, since the food is seen as a way of communication and family tradition as an obstacle within Tita’s life. Ever since she had been born, her closeness to food was seen from that very moment. In the first "scene" of the book, this can be seen. “Tita made her entrance into this world, prematurely, right there on the kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro, steamed milk, garlic, and of course, onion” (Esquivel, 5-6). This shows how she connects to food, and this connection only grows more throughout the story. Although, later on Tita is able to mix her own feelings within her food preparation helping her communicate what she feels. When she is cooking is also gets emotionally involved, therefore this lets her mix her feelings in the recipe as well.

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

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

An oppressed soul finds means to escape through the preparation of food in the novel, Like Water for Chocolate (1992). Written by Laura Esquivel, the story is set in revolutionary Mexico at the turn of the century. Tita, the young heroine, is living on her family’s ranch with her two older sisters, her overbearing mother, and Nacha, the family cook and Tita’s surrogate mother. At a very young age, Tita is instilled with a deep love for food "for Tita, the joy of living was wrapped up in the delights of food" (7). The sudden death of Tita's father, left Tita's mother's unable to nurse the infant Tita due to shock and grief. Therefore Nacha, "who [knows]

This means in terms of health a women looks at what types of food will help take care of people and make remedies for sicknesses. Tita did that when she “poured the seasoned broth with the potatoes and beans into the pan… she served the soup and took it to her mother on a beautiful silver tray” (130). This displays Tita playing the role of a domestic woman because of the way she served it was to impress her mother, like traditionally in Bangladesh, when serving people you have to do it neatly and display it appealingly because that is considered feminine. So in that sense, Tita is pulled back to this

Tita develops a strong connection to the son of Pedro and Rosaura and is able to breastfeed him while her sister remains dry. When Pedro and Rosaura move away their son Roberto dies because of the connection that is broken between him and Tita. Tita’s mother dies later into the book freeing Tita from the lifelong curse of having to take care of her. Once Tita’s mother dies Pedro takes her virginity causing her to become pregnant. Her mother comes back in the form of a ghost cursing Tita and her child for

Since Tita was unable to stand up to Mama Elena, she felt helpless, which she then realized how strong her fate for an identity would be nonexistent; however, Tita would not accept that fate. From the day Tita was born and past off to Nacha, the cook, Mama Elena formed resentment towards Tita, while attempting to make Tita obedient through force, cruelty and mistreatment. The physically punished Tita endured, multiple times, by the hands of Mama Elena, forced her to live the life as a servant and a house cook; as well as, arrange the wedding of her love, Pedro, to her sister, Rosaura (26-29). While under Nacha’s care, Mama Elena bounded Tita to the kitchen and constrained her to cook for the family, and if Mama Elena saw signs of Tita disobedience, she would strike Tita in rage. The preparations for Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding was Tita’s responsibility, which Mama Elena placed Tita in charge just to lower her spirits and eliminate any hope she may have within, causing Tita to have a weak moment that triggers her to hallucinate. In the opinion of

Since Tita was unable to stand up to Mama Elena, she felt helpless, which she then realized how strong her fate for an identity would be nonexistent; however, Tita would not accept that fate. From the day Tita was born and past off to Nacha, the cook, Mama Elena formed resentment towards Tita, while attempting to make Tita obedient through force, cruelty and mistreatment. Tita was physically punished multiple times by the hands of Mama Elena, and forced to live the life as a servant, and punished to cook, as well as, arrange the wedding of her love, Pedro, to her sister, Rosaura (26-29). Mama Elena bounded Tita to the kitchen and constrained her to cook for the family, under Nacha’s care, and if Mama Elena saw signs of Tita being disobedient, Mama Elena would strike her in rage. Mama Elena put Tita in charge of the preparations for Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding to lower her spirits and eliminate any hope she may have within, which caused Tita to have a weak moment and triggers her to hallucinate. In the opinion of a journalist, Justine Baek, which was

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.