A Character of Tita in the Novel Like Water for Chocolate - Research Paper Example

1 A Character of Tita in the novel ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ is a very scintillating novel written by Laura Esquivel, (1950) that is categorized into twelve chapters, each of which starts with an interesting recipe named after each month in a year. The story which is very simple and straight forward revolves around the life of its protagonist Tita De La Garza who is a young lady filled with deep passion about whatever she does. However, even her deep passion could not save her from the loneliness and despair that she experiences because it seemed to be her lot in life. However, her natural passion for working in the kitchen with her hands limits the role of femininity by the burden of tradition. Though submissive to the authority meted out by her dominating mother, Tita understands that this is not what she bargained for in life. Tita lived with Mama Elena and her two elder sisters Rosaura and Gertrudis on a ranch in Mexico. Tita was a homely girl who always had a deep connection with cooking, food and the kitchen table, right from the time of her childhood. All through the novel we find this theme recurring among the different chapters. Tita’s character is portrayed as 2 one of sadness and loneliness brought about by the unrequited and forbidden love of her heart, Pedro. While Rosaura was the quiet and shy type, Gertrudis was the rebel in the family. Pedro falls in love with Tita almost instantaneously when they set eyes on each other. She is so overwhelmed by her love for Pedro and expresses the same. But their happiness is short lived as Mama Elena deals a tragic blow in the form of family tradition that tears the lovers apart from each other. Tita’s mother does not care for her younger daughter’s feelings but in a callous act tells Pedro that he can marry her elder daughter Rosaura. Not to be deterred, Pedro agrees because he wants to be close to Tita at any cost. Tita is bound by tradition to remain unmarried because she was the youngest daughter in the family and so had the responsibility of looking after her mother Elena till the time she passes away and also to serve the rest of the family. This harsh tradition presents itself as a huge problem to Tita because she has already deeply fallen in love with her dear Pedro whom she intended to eventually marry and settle down with. Unfortunately, even her mother Elena upholds this tradition strongly and does not allow her daughter Tita to get married. Hence Tita is so disillusioned by this fact and begins a long drawn out struggle involving her obligations, her duty and her love for her mother. The character of Tita is depicted as an individual who lacks the zest for life and is constantly experiencing pain and suffering and this is clearly brought out by the author through the crying and tears of Tita who is always closely associated with images that are 3 cold. In addition to these cold images, is the sensation of utter loneliness and helplessness, which is brought out by Esquivel in a unique manner by associating it with food and cooking. The ‘icy’ and ‘hollow’ sensations conveys Tita’s great sorrow and a sense of great loss by her not being permitted to consummate her love with Pedro as girls of her age are usually allowed to do so. She is being prevented against her will and she is unable to face this bleak situation and so is always seen resorting to tears and crying as she pities her poor miserable self. Tita feels trapped in her situation with her love for Pedro on one hand and strict tradition on the other, and tries to find a way to free herself from this bondage. To compensate for this emptiness, she tries to comfort herself by knitting a bedspread to keep out the loneliness and cold that surrounds her. It is sad because try as she might, she is incapable of stifling the sorrow and loneliness that wells up into her heart. Though she tries hard to find solace and comfort by trying to free herself from the coldness and pain, she does not succeed in doing so. Her sadness is deeply rooted in her heart and as long as she is not allowed to be with Pedro, these feelings of loneliness and emptiness cannot be conquered. Tita’s sister Gertrudis runs away from home with her lover and this makes matters all the more worse for Tita because loneliness creeps more closely than ever into her life. The author uses the metaphor of the last chili that was left all alone on the platter after the rest had been eaten shows that Tita felt so rejected and unwanted in her life. Life seemed 4 so meaningless to her because she had no one to share it with her. Tita is cold and lonely and angry with the world around her, especially her mother Elena because she refused to let Tita get married to her love Pedro. She is well aware of her mother’s lack of empathy and strict rules which she makes everyone to follow. Emphasizing the character and personality of her mother, Tita states – “Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching,...or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro.” (Laura Esquivel, pg. 96- 97) Tita is well aware of the skill her mother uses in splicing a watermelon and the same skill she uses when dealing with people. When she wants to do something, she does it precisely and with great decisiveness which often turns to be quite destructive. Even when dealing with Tita we find that she is so callous that she cannot empathize with her daughter who is suffering so much pain and loneliness when she does not allow her to marry Pedro who comes and asks for her hand in marriage. Mama Elena refuses Pedro Tita’s hand in marriage but gives her permission for him to marry her other daughter Rosaura. Tita’s mother did not bother about her sadness or her pain at all. Tita was shocked and very unhappy about these proceedings but tried to take everything in her stride. “Tita was literally “Like Water for Chocolate” – she was on the verge of boiling over. How irritable she was!” (Laura Esquivel, pg. 151) Figurative language is used by the author to depict the emotional state of Tita which was based on a culinary process. Here we find how language is intermingled with food and human emotion. The same 5 intermingling of the same elements are found in another incident that takes place between Tita and her sister Rosaura at the dining table of the De la Garza household. Tita had cooked a delicious meal and served Pedro, now Rosaura’s husband, Rosaura and her mother Elena. As soon as Pedro took a mouthful of the food, he closed his eyes and exclaimed with delight, “It is a dish for the Gods!” (Laura Esquivel, pg. 51) This proved that Tita was indeed a better cook than her sister Rosaura and while Tita felt so happy at Pedro’s compliment, Rosaura and her mother were anxious and worried that Tita maybe seducing Pedro by making such delicious food. Once again we find human emotion and feeling linked with the concept of food. Unable to communicate her feelings and emotions in any other way, she feels trapped beyond words by her sense of duty laid down by harsh tradition. Tita uses her most potent weapon which is her culinary skills, in the kitchen to concoct some of the most mouth watering recipes for the table and magically she is able to convey the emotions that well up inside of her. Literally born in the kitchen, Tita skillfully crafts each meal and thereby has an uncanny ability of communicating her various feelings of loss of love, helplessness and sadness through her cooking and in this way she tries to find solace to her soul. It was through these exotic preparations that Tita was able to communicate her forbidden love to her soul mate Pedro. A good example of Tita’s exotic food recipe was when Pedro gives her a bunch of roses which Tita uses to make a dish of Quail. The dish, besides being very tasty, had an extraordinary effect on the whole family because after the sumptuous meal, the whole family experienced a dramatic change and 6 conveyed their emotions of love and desire as they communicated with each other. It was through this channel of cooking and consuming, that both Pedro and Tita could communicate their forbidden love to each other. This results in their secret meetings and overnight escapades as they take great risks just to be in each other’s company. Their romancing when with each other and their sadness when apart touches our heart and instills a sense of appreciation of true love. In a turn of events Dr. Brown proposes to Tita who agrees to marry him. However, the spark of love she had for Pedro is absent. Mama Elena is very angry at the prospect of Tita marrying the doctor but she is unable to do anything about it because she becomes sick. Sadly, she dies after some days from pain and spasms. Though Tita still gets tortured with images of her mother, she finally resolves and swears that she would never reject love ever again in her life. She reconciles to the fact, that Pedro does not deserve her love since he did not prevent her from going away to San Antonio. Tita decides to make the best of life with her husband Dr. Brown. However, like her husband Dr. Brown, she remains an unfulfilled woman till the end, because none of the men deserved her passion and love. The Hispanic writer’s unique style really captivates her audience in her portrayal of love of two simple people joined in love, but torn apart by tradition. The element of cooking different recipes is the central theme around which this fascinating tale of love is 7 woven together. The story though filled with humor, has a sad and painful thread of unrequited love and longing which is the essence that makes it all the more interesting and endearing. Esquivel has created very unique characters to convey her thoughts and ideas and the character of Tita as a passionate lovable soul, but becomes a victim due to harsh traditions becomes all the more attractive as she battles with her pain of losing her dear love to her sister who is quite a shy and loveless person. In her final attempt to reach out to the world Tita leaves behind a record of her transformation to other women who suffer by the bondage of tradition because she does not favor them having a limited and loveless life like hers. In a way, we could say that she was responsible for transforming traditional culture to a certain extent. By the end of the story, ‘Like Water for Chocolate’, the character of Tita stands out as best and gains both the sympathy and empathy of every reader because not only is it heartwarming but also has all the right ingredients for a good romance. I really enjoyed reading the book as it gave me deep insight into the tradition and culture of Mexican families and helped me realize and understand how different their lives were from my own. References A Thousand Books with Quotes – Like Water for Chocolate. Web, April 20th, 2011 www.athousandbookswithquotes.com Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate. Published by Anchor; Anchor Books Edition. (1995) Pgs. 256 www.amazon.com Like Water for Chocolate Quotes, Web, May, 2013 www.gradesaver.com Like Water for Chocolate, Tita character Analysis, Web, April, 2011. www.studymode.com Like Water for Chocolate Quotes by Laura Esquivel, Web, May, 2013 www.goodreads.com/.../quotes/1172473-como-agua Read More