Analysis of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel - Book Report/Review Example

 Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel This is a 1989 romantic Spanish novel by Laura Esquivel. Its main characters are Josefita Tita, who is in some conflict with her mother, after being denied the opportunity to marry her lover Pedro. This work captures on some aspects of the novel, it majorly tackles on Tita’s feelings or emotions towards her mother, mama Elena, how the feelings evolved and how they changed among other issues from the novel (Esquivel 24). The conflict or hatred between Tita and her mother (Mama Elena) begins the moment her mother denies her the opportunity to marry her lover Pedro. Mama clings strongly on the tradition which prohibits the marriage of the last born daughters since they should remain and care of their mothers till death. Tita’s express her feelings towards Pedro through her peculiar cooking styles. The author uses some food or recipe imagery to express romantic implications between Tita and Pedro. The narrator talks of Tita developing a first sight love towards Pedro only for her mother to strongly prohibit their marriage arrangements (Glannotti 47). The reader can learn that Mama Elena is authoritative or rather controlling. Her orders and wishes control major activities in the ranch. To some extend, some readers may conclude that Mama Elena’s wish against Pedro and Tita’s marriage could be linked to the fact that she will miss the good cooking, Tita is known for, and she was the best known cook in the ranch. The most pinching part is when Mama Elena denies Tita’s from marrying Pedro but later allows Pedro to marry her eldest daughter, Rosaura. The irony is that Tita is at ease with her eldest sister but put all the blame or emotions towards her mother. Tita peculiar cooking skills are attributed by the fact that Nacha, her main caretaker was a pronounced cook, She must have learnt such skills in her tender age. She was also born in the kitchen, and here the author must have used the element of coincidence to make her novel more convincing. One would simply say that Tita’s love for Pedro is extra-ordinary, she accepts to breast feed Pedro and Rosaura’s son, Roberto. She takes good care of the baby and this spikes their relationship with Pedro. To avoid offsetting Mama Elena and other family members, they opt to meet secretly to express their romance (Moore 134). One would conclude that Tita’s love towards Pedro would never fade, first it was a first sight attraction and grew even more, to an extent Tita would never stand Roberto starving, she chipped in and breastfed the baby, something very few women would do. She must have held big hatred towards her mother, Mama Elena, whenever she thought of the love she had for Pedro. The author applies the image of good food to imply the love or romantic life in the ranch. The narrator talks of Tita infusing the community with her peculiar recipe. Her deep and special love towards Pedro also spiced the food she prepared to her family and community members. After being denied the opportunity of marrying, she resolved completely into cooking, and did as if she was making love to her Pedro. At one point, her food drove her eldest sister Gertrudi to have sex with one of the ranch soldiers. It was not ordinary sex, but ravenous love. She was later disowned by her mother, Mama Elena and this never went well with Tita. She was not pleased with her mother’s decision to disown Gertrudi, out of a single mistake. The readers come to learn that Tita began despising the family traditions, since her mother used traditions to deny her happiness. She thinks having sex was normal and her mother should have understood her eldest sister. She takes some blame for the incident, since her food brought all the mistakes. Tita’s hatred towards her mother grows further when the later convinces Pedro and Rosaura to move to another town, Texas, suspecting that Tita and Pedro were having a secret affair. Being denied the opportunity to marry Pedro was one mistake, but convincing Pedro to move away was more than a mistake but torture. The readers learn that Pedro’s first son, Robert dies and Tita lament that he would not have died if she was her caretaker. Rosaura was weak and careless and this might have led to the death of Pedro’s first son. She blames her mother and Mama Elena responds by beating her in the face with a wooden cooking spoon. She develops a negative attitude towards her mother until Dr. John Brown applies her social and psychological skills to calm her down. Mama Elena does not want Tita around the ranch anymore, she laments that she cannot accommodate lunatics like Tita in her place, hence opted for Tita being institutionalized as she underwent the psychological therapies. Dr. Brown offers to accommodate Tita as she underwent her treatment. She develops a good relationship with the doctor but her deep love for Pedro would never allow her to make any advancement with the doctor (Willis). Pedro manages to sneak around and have sex with his secret lover, Tita when the doctor is away on some business issues. She suspects to be pregnant and such news later reaches Pedro through Gertrudi. Tita would never allow any anyone intimidating her lover, Pedro, not even her mother, Mama Elena. At one point, Pedro decides to get drunk and sing behind Tita’s window, objecting or confronting Mama Elena being against their marriage, and Mama Elena revenge by setting Pedro a blaze, an act that never pleased Tita. She expresses her stand or rather express her hatred towards her family tradition by encouraging her eldest sister, Rosaura to permit the marriage of her only daughter Esperenza, who is also the narrator, to marry her love, Alex Brown. She advocates for the marriage of last born daughters to drive a message to her mother, Mama Elena, that some tradition could be bent. Tita’s mother still denies her marrying Dr. John Brown, still holding on the family’s traditions. The death of Rosaura leaves Tita the responsibility of preparing and overseeing the wedding of Esperanza and Alex. She despises all the traditional norms and decides to be fully involved in the wedding. This must have upset Mama Elena; last born daughters should remain unmarried. However, Rosaura was dead so her daughter could just get married, and the readers are left wondering if Tita wished for her mother’s death so that she could get married to her lover, Pedro. Mama Elena is seriously injured by the rebel soldiers and Tita decides to get to the ranch and take care of her as the tradition demands. But Mama Elena turns down Tita’s offer. She refused to take Tita’s food, claiming it could be poisoned. She instead opts to take a strong emetic to protect her in case her daughter decides to poison her. She later dies of an overdose of the emetic. Although she grieves the death of her mother, she is free to make her own decisions rather than being enslaved by the family traditions. This could have marked the end of Tita’s ill feelings towards her mother. One would say the hatred between the two, Tita and Mama Elena must have caused the latter’s death. Tita had no intention of poisoning her mother, but out of the hatred and lack of trust, Mama Elena consumed lots of strong emetic that led to her death. Tita later accepted Dr. John’s marriage proposal but all goes in vain for the return of Pedro and Rosaura into the ranch. At one instance, Dr Jon asks Pedro to bless their marriage, but Pedro takes this opportunity and breaks Tita’s virginity. Tita is in a state of confusion to tell Dr. John of the affair or not. Mama Elena is annoyed with the act and returns a sprit. Mama Elena’s sprit main aim is to curse Tita and her unborn child, since she was totally against the relationship between Tita and Pedro. Mama Elena is further annoyed on the return of her first born daughter Gertrudis, who makes Tita confess her pregnancy to Pedro. Drunk and in a celebration mood, Pedro lifts Tita and immediately Mama Elena ghost reappears, threatening it would do something dreadful if Tita does not leave the ranch. Tita stands strong and fearlessly expels her mother’s ghost; she uses strong words and declares her independence until the ghost disappears in some tiny light (Campos 213). No sooner had the ghost disappeared than Tita’s Pregnancy pains disappeared. This was some kind of special relief to Tita and Pedro. However, Pedro is left to experience the final wraths of Mama Elena. Her ghost busted out through Tita’s window only to set ablaze on Pedro. Tita love towards Pedro grows even further as she decides to care and nurse Pedro wounds. Dr. John is made to learn of Tita and Pedro tight relationship and he still expresses his wish to marry Tita but gives the opportunity or will to decide on whom to marry. Here the difference between the illiterate folk’s dictatorship traits can be compared with the learned democratic life style. Mama Elena was authoritative and controlling while Dr. John representing the literate is democratic, he understands that marriage is free will and anyone should marry his or her love. Despite taking care of Tita when mentally ill, he provides her the will to decide on whom to marry. Pedro later approaches Tita after the wedding and expresses her will never to die before marrying her; they develop some romantic environment which advances to actual sex and Pedro dies while he is making love to her. She is filled with sorrow and opts to commit suicide by consuming poisonous food, but all in vain. She must be filled with more sorrow and hatred towards her mother as she reflects on her deep love towards Pedro yet her own mother could never allow her to pursue her happiness, just because of mere family traditions. Tita and Pedro’s love lead them to their afterlife, their intense love drives them to a dangerous tunnel that could not spare their lives. At one point, Tita realizes that her lover has already crossed the tunnel. She desperately wants to be with him, so she ignites herself with the candles that had lit till Pedro’s death; she too dies and joins her lover in the after life. They combine their powers to set the ranch ablaze. Everything is consumed by the furious fire except her recipe books, where Tita recorded all her love, passion and wisdom while still on earth. All main characters end up dead but the death of Pedro and Tita is more interesting. They remained in love while on earth and the afterlife. Tita’s ill feelings towards her mother, Mama Elena must have some effects in their lives. First, Tita’s life was always tired and dictated by her mother. She never married her love, Pedro despite all the efforts. Her mother was a keen or a serious follower of the family traditions. This makes Pedro marry Rosaura, her eldest sister instead. To worsen the situation, Mama Elena forces Pedro and Rosaura to leave the ranch, suspecting that Pedro and Tita are having secret affairs. While away from the ranch, Roberto, Pedro’s first son dies and Tita put all the blame on her mother. She decides to quarrel her mother, and this makes her smacked by a wooden cooking spoon. Tita becomes violent and restless that her mother calls her lunatic and not fit to stay at the ranch. She is forced to seek asylum in Dr. Brown’s home. Mama Elena’s death must result from her hatred with Tita. She refused to take Tita’s food and overdosed herself with strong emetic, in the knowledge that Tita was likely to poison her. There are instances when Tita felt relieved from her mother’s control and authoritative nature. While in Dr. Brown, she decides never to return to the ranch, meaning there was some sense of relief while with the doctor. She had developed a good relationship with the doctor, who had the intentions of making her his wife. But the relieve moment comes to an end on learning that Mama Elena is nursing wounds from the rebellious soldiers’ attacks, and must return to the ranch and take care of her. The second sense of relief is attributed by Mama Elena’s death. Tita and Pedro are finally free to express their love and even marry each other. But the freedom is brought to an end when Mama Elena has returned in the form of a ghost, just to curse Tita and her unborn baby. She experiences pregnancy pains and some discomfort from the cursing spree. But Tita cannot withstand the experience and later decide to expel her mother’s spirit which later bursts out through her window and sets Pedro ablaze. This marks the second and the final relief. However, they do not enjoy their love for quite a longer time, as they both die and furiously set the whole ranch a blaze, consuming everything but Tita’s recipe book. Works Cited Campos, Catherine. Ingredients of Communication in the Novel: "Like Water for Chocolate. New York: ProQuest publisher, 2008. Esquivel, Laura. Like Water For Chocolate. New York: Transworld press, 2010. Glannotti, Janet. A comparison text for Like Water for Chocolate. London: University of Michigan, 2000. Moore, Elizabeth. Laura's Esquivel's Mexican Fictions: Like Water for Chocolate. Sussex Academic Press: Ontario, 2010. Willis, Jesse. "READALONG:Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel ." SSF audio podcast, The future forum sounded so good (2013). Read More