Fate the Puppeteer

We’ve done a lot of work and looked into numerous materials this year. With Mrs. White’s careful planning, all of the loose ends of the french braid are starting to come together. We are beginning to see how the four texts and two movies (“Like Water for Chocolate” doesn’t count as a movie because I regard it as one of the texts) relate to one another. A motif that occurs frequently in some of the materials we looked at throughout this course is Fate the Puppeteer. Its constant influence brings the star-crossed lovers to their impending doom.

In Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Iseult, and Like Water For Chocolate, the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Iseult and Tita and Pedro are forbidden to be together. Yet, somehow, Fate made them fall in love. The fight for their love and the feeling of helplessness is long-term. In the end, the ill-fated couples die, making their struggle and pain a form of entertainment for Fate the Puppeteer. They are nothing but puppets. Fate’s playthings.

This motif is something that is used a lot by writers. The reason? I guess writers feel that their audience can relate to this as well as enjoying the story. From the media, everyday experience and those around you, it’s clear that people tend to fall in love with the wrong person. Relationships rarely work out and it’s so hard to find Ms. or Mr. Right. On some level, these tragedies are also a great form of entertainment. The love that lasts through storms and disasters is something beautiful and something that people long for in their own lives.

So dear people, what do you think? What are your thoughts on why the writers use this motif?

 

Sicknesses

We see that throughout the novel, almost all the characters become sick of some strange illness. Tita becomes slightly insane when she hides herself in the dovecote. Mama Elena dies from all those spasms and convulsions. Rosaura gets that foul stench and becomes gaseous. As well, in Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding, all the guests get sick except for Tita. However, Mama Elena and Rosaura later die of their illness, but Tita heals from her mental breakdown and becomes well again, just days after her isolation.

It doesn’t seem that Tita is the only one that heals because she is the main character and it is destined that she must somehow be with Pedro, but because Tita seems to embrace life more than Rosaura and Mama Elena. Rosaura keeps sulking about her husband cheating on her and seems like she would commit suicide any time the book tells us that she goes to her room. Mama Elena is always cold and brings misery to everyone because of her lost love and she caused her own death by her mistrust of Tita. However, Tita seems to look at the bright side and continues to wait for the best time to get what she always wanted, Pedro — just like how Gertrudis talked about the truth is also that Rosaura knowingly took her lover. As Tita was the only one not to get sick from the wedding cake, it shows she is stronger than most people, in life and in character.

So, these illnesses seem to portray the characters as who they are—whether they try or easily give up. Do you think the illnesses say anything else?

 

The Name “Mama Elena”

I got back home this week, and this is first opportunity for me to post on this blog, so I hope that no one else has posted on this subject, as I haven’t had time to read everything single post or comment. I apologize in advance for any clashes in subject.

When I first started the book, I found it confusing that the author (the great-niece or nephew of Tita) called her real mother Mama, and called her great-grandmother Mama Elena, and yet her great-grandfather “Tita’s father”. I got quite confused, as I thought the previous mentioned Mama (p. 1) was the same person as Mama Elena.

As I kept on reading, I realized that they’re completely different people. Then I started to wonder why everyone called Elena “Mama”. Her name is never seen without that title, even when called by people who are not her children at all (a good example is that even the child of Esperanza calls her Mama Elena). It almost seems to be a regular title of respect or fear, like that of King Mark’s. But if it’s a title of respect, why would people call her Mama? The book said that Elena preferred to be called Mami, so shouldn’t Elena be called Mami Elena instead?

Another possibility is that Tita, the only one who called Elena “Mama”, called Elena with such a title, and her name for Elena just got passed down through the generations, and that’s why the author (who probably only knew Esperanza, who in turn probably only knew Tita well) calls her Mama Elena.

Any thoughts?

 

Efficient Use Of Words

  The use of words in Romeo and Juliet can be compared to a similar usage in Like water for chocolate. When Juliet was “buttering” or basically sucking up to her mother prior to the Capulet’s party at the beginning of the play, she says “yes mom, I will do as you wish, and look out for Paris, and only love at your desire.”

  This act can be used to compare with Tita when she uses the  phrase “Mami” rather than Mama. It is said in the novel that Mama Elena prefers to be called Mami, as Mama is a sign of disrespect and she had informed this to her daughters when they were of a very young age. Although it is not of extreme importance, this sort of word choice was used for a similar purpose. That is to avoid trouble from their parents.

  Also, I have noticed that there’s a good usage of adjectives followed by detailed description for that sentence within each section of the novel. For example, phrases such as excessive bulk, extraordinarily swollen, large earthenware pan, supernatural act…   (pgs. 70 – 76) As you can see, not only is the word expressed, but there’s also brief and indepth passages on the phrases. {Which I have not covered here} 

  Finally, as I was reading the novel for the first time, I noticed that there was a lot of drastic changes just within one paragraph and it all seemed like it didn’t make sense. Though , when I got around to reading for the second time, each change has a connecting phrase or two that somewhat leads to the following sentence. For example, in December it seems that Tita having a sexual relationship with Pedro in the dark room, and just within a couple of sentences, Pedro’s already dead from unapparent reason. Though, the book implies that fate has decided to play a crucial role in Tita’s life. It was the conditions that Tita was experiencing that created this type of sentence and paragraph formating.   Therefore, the sudden condition of death for Pedro would have been a result she being too shocked to respond to the parts that have lead up to it. {as Sophia stated}