Love portrayed as “Pure”

Overall, in this course we have studied several fundamental and very interesting books and works of literature, from Medieval times and Shakespearian plays to modern works by Margrett Atwood. What we have touched upon in this course has certainly changed my perspective/view of the way love/ family duty is in either in reality or fantasy or in Magic realism. 

At first, the way that love is looked upon in these texts seemed to be irrational. In reality, there are always situations where love occurs among first sight. However, the irrantionality takes a role when love at first sight immediately leads to the decisions of marriage, as some would consider being superficial. This overall idea can be seen in many, or rather most of the texts that we have covered. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, we see that Romeo enters the Capulet’s party and at first sight, he falls in love with Juliet, a shining light in the complete darkness. In comparison, in Like Water for Chocolate, there is still a love at first sight kind of themes when Pedro meets Tita at a party, and immediately falls in love with her to the extent that would bring marriage. Similarly, all the other love stories have covered this pattern.

As covered before, true love is a type of love that is pure and long endured, not something that happens at first sight. By the way the book is setting it,  it seems like they’ll marry the first person of the opposite sex they see. This point is what that exactly kept me thinking about the meaning of the authors intend to consider true love.      

   Eventually, I came to understand the topic more clearly when I thought of the situation of the times that the books were written and the present times. It was obvious that although these books were of a fanticised world that brought up unreal situations to the modern times, they had a somewhat sense in them. In esscence, it is a time period and irrelative factor that lead to this conclusion, more than anything else.     

Also, in my opinion, there are still similar family expectations/ duties in some parts of the world to the ones of Like water for chocolate. Things such morality, propriety, and social appearence are still intact to many families even today.

What do you guys think about this?   

 

Food and Magic

            Throughout this book there have been many instances of magic realism, most of which are associated with the food Tita creates. As Tita’s rebelliousness began to grow her strong emotions were reflected in the food she cooked. Before she had the courage to directly stand up to Mama Elena the food she cooked was the medium to express her feelings. This brings up the question: why food was subject to so much magic realism?

I think the reason why magic realism was applied to food is because of how universal it is. Whereas music and art only apply to some of us, food is in all of our lives. Since magic realism is all about mixing the magic with what’s real, food is the ideal choice. We’ve all heard of metaphors exaggerating the taste of food, but Laura Esquivel’s descriptions of the effects of food are much more elaborate. It’s so descriptive that sometimes we doubt our ideals of what’s real by reading the effects of the recipes. By using food as the medium the author was able to smoothly meld together the magical and real aspects of each chapter.

Apart from magic realism food is also used because it is very appealing to the senses. While music can only affect the ears food makes use of many senses. Mentions of sizzling oil and crumbling crusts (bad examples I know) are always able to light a few senses.

 

Apart from the reasons I said why else do you think the author chose food?

 

Is it real?

When you read Like Water for Chocolate for the first time, you get so drawn into the story that you don’t question some of the events that are presented. It is only after you finish reading that you start to really think. Could a wedding cake have caused everyone to throw up (pg. 39)? Could a mixture of blood and roses intensify a person’s sexual desire (pg. 51)?

However, when you read Tristan and Iseult or Gawain and the Green Knight, you automatically know that the story is unrealistic. There are several huge indications in both stories that remind us that the story is unrealistic. An example could be the magical philtre that excites sexual love in the drinker or the colossal green knight that still lived after his head was chopped off.

The events that happen in both Big Fish and Like Water for Chocolate are presented in a very subtle way. If you are not paying close attention, you can mistake the entire story as being entirely true. However, the events that occur in Tristan and Iseult and Gawain and the Green Knight are not subtle at all. In fact, in both these stories huge, impossible events are presented one after another.

One quality that makes Like Water for Chocolate such a captivating novel is the difficulty differentiating between truth and fiction. When you read a novel, you want to read something interesting, something different, something real, yet unreal. This is the fine art of magic realism.

 

Why the Use of Magic?

Throughout the book, we see the use of supernatural entities and events that seem clearly unbelievable. So I have been wondering why the author chose to use magic as a theme in the story.

One reason that I came up with was to make the stories seem more authentic, to make the stories seem like it was being told by word of mouth. We know that these sorts of stories are told orally, and the author even decided to introduce to us a narrator to tell us this story (p. 1, 246). We all know how word of mouth is unreliable, and like the game Broken Telephone, the first person to hear the story usually adds a little extra or removes a little from the story due to memory or because they want to ’spice up’ the message or story. Thus, the magical occurrences could probably be some phony events that were added along the way while it was being passed down to each generation, to make the story more interesting or because they forgot part of the story.

Also, another reason why the author could have chosen to have unnatural events occur in the book could be for emphasis. At the wedding of Rosaura and Pedro, we saw everyone start crying and nauseating in sorrow for their unfulfilled love after they ate the cake that had contained Tita’s tears (p.39-41). We clearly know that it is impossible for something like this to occur, however, it makes us truly empathize with Tita’s despair for not being able to love Pedro.

I can think of a few more, but I think it would be more interesting to hear what you guys think, instead of me rambling like this. So why do you think the author creates such abnormal, supernatural events in what should be just a typical story about Mexican people and their life?

 

Extinguishing life by lighting the matches

Throughout Like Water for Chocolate, I think that everyone of us was able to observe the emotional status for each character. I believe that emotions are the only thing the author truly cares to depict.

Notice that every single time a character tastes something (for food is the theme of the book), it brings a memory or an emotion to the character and the author takes her time in describing the moment, allowing the reader to get lost in the character’s thoughts. Emotion is, after all, key to giving taste to a story and giving insight upon a character. Without emotion, a reader would never understand a character beyond his or her actions, which may seem inconsistent to their assumed characteristics, (as judged by the reader) should they not have expressed emotion.

However, what separates this author from the rest (or at least, this book) is the extent of which the emotions are expressed. Each taste or touch is so rich in the book, that the person who is sensing something or someone is taken beyond the mental aspect of senses and into a physical change. The wedding cake that Tita made that had a few of her tears were able to trigger an immense emotional impact upon all those who ate it. They cried, and even vomitted. the highlight would be Nacha’s death. It is known that emotional stress can cause death, but it is usually over a period of time in which the body starts to reject nutrients. This is not the case. The author makes it clear that this was a purely emotional death.

A box of matches, as John Brown later mentions in the book, is the life inside every person. Strong emotions ignites the matches. IF all of them are ignited, the person’s soul may leave its body, essentially killing the person. John Brown said to be careful…but why would someone want to be careful? Exiting their life before it is their time… It seemed as though he was warning Tita not to be impulsive and take the opportunity should it ever arise. Tita, however did and as did Pedro, who was most unaware of the box of matches being engulfed in flames inside him. With her, she took almost all the memories of the De la Garza family with her, as she had wanted to. She had already expressed her feelings about the mother-daughter tradition being a horrible way to continue the family chain, she probably wished to burn it all down with her spirit. Pedro and her body started to emit sparks as they died. The sparks set the bedspread and everything on the ranch on fire, leaving almost everything in ash form, including their bodies.

On the other hand, we find that the roosters who get incredibly angry create a tornado, which also creates destruction. The roosters themselves disappear, swallowed by the Earth, which is, in a way, returning to birth. After all, everything was created from the planet and returning to it would be going back into the planet. Pedro and Tita turn into ashes, while will also eventually return to the Earth.

These emotions return to us over and over in the books and sometimes they trigger destruction, other times they simply trigger strong memories and return to the character in a physical reaction. Every memory in the book creates a strong reaction.

I’d like all of your thoughts on the matches concept. Why do you think the author would have thought of something like that? What do you think the matches may represent? Can we truly die from an overdose of emotion? I’d also like to ask if anyone thinks that the destruction in the wake of the emotions are related to Mama Elena and her knack for destruction? Could they be related?

(And can I edit this blog once I’ve posted it…?)

 

Ghosts, or are They?

Several other people, especially Kelly, have skirted around this one, but it’s a big topic, so I think it deserves it’s own thread.

If you have ever watched a Warner Bros. cartoon, it is very likely that you have encountered that little angel and devil that stand atop characters’ shoulders. Maybe not in that exact form, but if you watch TV, you’ve probably seen this used before. The shoulder angel and shoulder devil, are somewhat of a convention that are used to represent the concious of the character in question. You often hear arguments or other dialogue that represent what the character is thinking. Basically, it’s just another way of letting the audience know what people are thnking. In Like Water For Chocolate, the use of ghost is representative of the characters thoughts. (yes, that’s right, it’s in essay format)

We see this for the first time when Tita is at Dr. Brown’s house. When Tita is in the kitchen, she sees a Native woman, with a long black braid. This woman is cooking various dishes, which remind Tita of home. Later, we find out that this woman is, indeed, a ghost. We know from the context of the story, that Tita is troubled about leaving the ranch, and that she misses the food back home. The author is using this ghost to show us how, while Tita does not want to go back to Mama Elena, she misses the home that she left behind. This could be done through simple explanation, but the use of the paranormal makes the story much more interesting.

More importantly, you see this with Mama Elena’s ‘ghost’, when she curses Tita. Again, we know from the story that Tita is feeling very guity about her affair with Pedro. When the ghos of Mama Elena appears, it shames Tita for what she has done, and curses her baby. This feeling of shame, is probably what Tita is feeling at that moment; after all, she is an engaged woman, who just had sex with her sister’s husband. Again, the author is using a ghost to convey a message, instead of just telling us what’s goig on.

The point I’m trying to get across, is that I don’t believe that the ghosts are actually ‘ghosts’, but a way of representing something else. I say they represent the characters inner thoughts, but that’s just my opinion. What I want to know is, what do you think the ghosts in this story represent. Remember, this is one of those open ended questions; there are no whong answers, so have at it!

 

Ghosts and Light

In “Like Water for Chocolate” the ghosts of people help move the story forward, and adds problems or gives solutions to other characters. John’s Grandmother came to Tita as a ghost. She helped Tita heal from her broken heart and soul by being a silent friend who appeared to understand what Tita needed. She also “looked a lot like Nacha” (p.110) which must have brought even more comfort to Tita.

It wasn’t Nacha’s ghost (p.243) nor the grandmother’s ghost that had real importance. It was mama Elena’s ghost which really had a lot of influence on the events of the book. She was the only ghost in the book that knew how to talk. Her first visit as a ghost on p.173 confirms for us Tita’s pregnancy. She curses the baby, but that wasn’t important; it was the fact that she came and created more worry for Tita by confirming for Tita that she’s pregnant with Pedro’s child.  Then on p.199, when Pedro was singing a love song under Tita’s window, Mama Elena came again to critisize her daughter. This time, Tita had already found out about Gertrudis’ father, and told Elena as much. In her fiery and anger at being told that she was hated by her own daughter, she became a light and tried to kill Pedro. In some sense, she also killed Tita’s unborn child (maybe?).

The light is another thing. It seems to be connected to ghosts in  the story. When Chencha saw lights in the dark room which was caused by Tita and Pedro, she had thought it was Mama Elena’s ghost. This light represented happiness and joy. (p.158-9)
Then, when mama Elena’s ghost disappeared, she became a tinny “speck of light”(p.199). That light had been an angery light.
When Nacha’s ghost appeared at the end of the book, she was lighting candles, and disappeared after she lit all of them (p.243). It was a light of support.
John’s grandmother, as we find on p.111 is called Morning Light. In this case I think that the light meant hope and a new begining; like the first sign of light in a morning after a night of rain and storms.
On p.54 Gertrudis gave off so much heat that she lit the wooden walls of the bath on fire. Fire is another imager of light, and this time, it represents the heat of passion.

The light is a recurring imagery, but it represents many things. The only thing that is constant is that whenever there is mention of light, we know that something is going to happen or that change is comming. The ghosts as well bring a different mood when they come, and change seem to follow in  their wake.