Intentional Irony?

I don’t know if anyone has posted or commented about what I am about to post; I haven’t been able to read all the posts yet…

From the beginning of the novel, we are informed that Tita was to care for Mama Elena until she died, according to De La Garza tradition. By having to do so, Tita would be withheld from marrying or having children. On the other hand, the story has several examples of Tita’s cunning ability to react to various fimilial situations. She took care of Roberto and Esperanza so well. She seemed to be a great housekeeper, cook, and perhaps even a perfect mother. Her ability to handle children bested those of the other female characters, Rosaura for example. Since Tita was characterized to be such a great mom, I found it ironic that she was forbidden from marrrying and having kids.

I don’t know if this irony was intended by the author. Did anyone else notice this? It took me quite a while to figure out, probably while reading the December installment.

 

Why the Narrator?

The story Like Water for Chocolate is told as a narration, from the first person and third person points of view. Based on the information given to us, we know that the narrator is a descendant of the De La Garza family. Also, the narrator is the daughter of Alex and Esperanza (p. 246). However, why did the author choose for this story to be told as such a narration?

Firstly, I believe that the author chose this story to be narrated by a person to give a more personal feel to it. As this is supposed to be an old family story, the events should feel close to the reader, and putting the reader in the place of a descendant is an excellent way to do so. By putting us in a character’s place, it also makes us more aware and understanding of the issues in the book. For example, if we were to see this from a completely outside point of view, we would see the tradition of the youngest daughter enslaved to the mother as ‘Tita’s own problem’. Furthermore, having a descendant of this family taking us through the harsh events of this story is like ‘Tita’s spirit living on’.

Next, the author uses narration in the story also so that the whole thing to work. Without a narrator, it would be hard to accomplish many things that are in this story. Firstly, the narrator helps organize this story into monthly installments, and in a way that lets us understand this otherwise complicated story. Next, the unique tone used – that is at different times quite funny, excited, or sarcastic – sounds like casual speech, compared to the literary classics of English. To use such a tone, the author needed a narrator, or it would have sounded slightly strange. In addition, notice the switch of tense at parts that dictate the steps of a recipe. It is by using a narrator that the author can change tenses so freely, as the narrator is allowed to reminisce upon thoughts of the past, and also come back into the present to think about a common procedure.

What do you think?