It’s yours for a few more days if you want…

Though I said I’d stop with marking stuff on the blog that’s posted after the exam (or comments in response), I’m happy to leave it active for a few days longer if you still have stuff to say to one another about the novel and connections. What a post- or comment-storm there’s been in the past few days!

I’ve quickly scanned ALL the exams (just to get a sense of what you did with the questions–remember, I wanted them to be interesting for you!) and I want you all to know that I’m pleased with what I saw.

Good luck with all your other exams. I’ll miss you!

 

Good Luck Everybody!

Alright. Well semester 1 is coming to an end, and, as such, this blog is slowing down. It has been great to be able to participate in such awesome dicussions. However, as we all know, the English exam is in about 2 hours. So quick before we all leave, I’d just like to wish everyone best of luck on the exam!

Good Luck!

 

A:He loves me! B: No he doesn’t. A: Okay. Let’s talk about how I don’t want to be humiliated instead, K? THX!

So…Rosaura. The character who takes the main male character (despite knowing that her sister loves him) in the story and is punished for doing so.

Why does Rosaura simply stand by and watch her husband flirt with her sister? Why does she not take action like the woman she plans to grow up to be (Mama Elena)? Does she lack the essential guts to stand up to her sister? Is this reflective of Mama Elena’s possible fear of Rosaura?

I just dumped a cold bucket of raw questions on your head…and only the first few will have to deal with my point. I apologize.

Anyways, continuing with my point…I do not understand why Rosaura is keeping PEdro…is it for her pride? She showed no signs of loving him, but rather simply wanting to possess what her sister(Tita) wanted to possess. Does she not feel flicked off by Pedro everytime he refuses to talk to her or have sex with her without the sheet? Is Rosaura so desperate to keep her pride and outdo her sister that she would put up with Pedro not loving her? I suspect that the high pride that Mama Elena keeps has influenced Rosaura to be the same. She feels favoured, compared to Tita, and wants to keep that image. Pride is something we all have to a certain degree, and I certainly have a huuuuge pride. However, if someone did not love me and I still pursued them, trying to convince others that I was still with this person, I think I would be destroying my pride more than keeping it. What do you think are the motives behind Rosaura’s actions?

 

Cook Book

Has anyone noticed that when most of De La Garza family died (Pedro, Tita, Elena, Rosaura, Nacha, Roberto), and the ranch burnt down, the cook book still survived?

I think that this cook book symbolizes that even when people die, the cooking of a family will survive. And somehow, when the recipes of a family passes on, so does the essence and history of the family. The author further backs this up by having Esperanza’s daughter tell the story of a huge family of people that she’s never met. And she through Tita’s stories, she connects herself to the De La Garza family. This is shown when Esperanza’s daughter says “…Or why my tears flow so freely when I prepare them – perhaps I am as sensitive to onions as Tita, my great-aunt, who will go on living as long as someone cooks her recipes” p246.

This connection to Tita is repeated on p1 when the narrator says “Mama used to say it was because I was especially sensitive to onions, like my great-aunt, Tita”. 

The last page emphasizes the fact that Esperanza’s daughter is very much like Tita and even points out that Tita lives in her recipes, which could be expanded to that Tita lives in Esperanza’s daughter who cooks her recipes. It specifically shows that food not only connects a family together physically; it also connects generations and ties in the history of a family.

 

Mama Elena, Tita, & Character Development

Throughout the blog and in in-class discussions, a very hot topic has been the debate about Mama Elena and her true intentions – if she was a cruel or good parent. However, let us disregard this argument for a while. In a way, Mama Elena may have actually positively helped Tita in her personal character development. Is it not because of Mama Elena’s strict and harsh treatment on Tita that Tita has such an angry and determined will? Or happenings such as Tita being forced to resew her stitches because she did not baste it (page 12)?. It is also reasonable to say that Tita’s mental and physical strength against suffering was improved with the beatings that she got. In addition, by “getting hit in the face with a wooden spoon”, as discussed in Kelvin’s earlier post, Tita suffered a lot but even resulted in a better place. Because of the torture inflicted on Tita, she developed an extremely strong spirit as an adult. Do you agree? Please understand, however, that I am not saying that I support Mama Elena’s actions. I am just saying that Mama Elena’s actions, which we mostly regard as cruel, may have had an indirect positive effect on Tita.

 

When “God” Smashes You In The Face With A Wooden Spoon

There is absolutely no doubt that the collapse of Tita’s domestic life is marked by the moment that her face crumpled under the force of Mama Elena’s wooden spoon. Everthing she cared for was taken away (Baby, Lover, Pigeons), and she was clearly on the verge of losing her sanity. Many people have gone to great lengthes to explain how such Mama Elena’s cruelty is reprimandable, But is it possible that perhaps Mama Elena’s actions were some miracle of “God”?

Let me elaborate, Tita and Mama Elena went through remarkably similar dilemmas as both were denied their “True Love” by their parent(s). But then why did Mama Elena turn out so differently? The answer is, of course, that her lover went belly up. So she, for one reason or another, adopted the “last girl” tradition which consequently enslaved Tita. Although the reader is probably fed to the teeth with sympathizing with Mama Elena, imagine for a moment that the one person you “loved” most in this world died( A parent maybe? Humour me). Doesn’t it feel cold? Don’t you feel your chest implode? And doesn’t this sound a whole lot like what Tita was feeling for roughly half the book(perhaps to a lesser extent than Mama Elena). What would have happened, pray tell, if Mama Elena had reacted differently, not to the point of crushing Tita’s face? Would she still be on the ranch? What kind of person would she have ended up as? Can a person really bear that much emotional tension without going absolutely nuts?

I ask you: is it possible that Mama Elena’s actions may actually have saved Tita by sending her into Doctor Brown’s caring arms?

- Kelvin

Disagreements and critical rebuttals are welcome

 

Parenting in 3 easy lessons

People have talked quite a bit about how and why Mama Elena was so cruel. But what I want to know is, was she a bad parent and why?

To decide whether or not she was a good parent, we must first define what success is; the problem is, how do you define a ’successful’ child? The easiest way to define it would be someone who is a functioning part of society. That includes education, social skills, life skills, etc. That model is rather general, but does it apply to all parents? I think not. The problem with this question is that success is relative.

So it seems that we must define Mama Elena’s terms of success. What Mama wanted is a daughter that would care for her until she died. She wanted a daughter that could cook, clean, and do laundry. She also wanted someone who could keep the ranch going when she was unable to. According to this model, Mama Elena succeeded.

But – and this is a big but – we must consider that parents always have their childrens’ best interest at heart (that point is not up for discussion, it’s true, end of story: ask any parent). Because of this, it is very likely that Mama Elena wanted Tita to be happy. This is where we encounter somewhat of a circle: Mama Elena imposes strict limits on Tita which make her want to break those limits, in this case by seeing Pedro, which cause Mama Elena to impose stricter limits. Parenting is about balance; Mama Elena has yet to find this balance. Children want limitations but they need freedom. I could go on for pages, but let’s just say that, in this area, she failed.

Another area we must consider is that she ended up having an affair with her sister’s husband. It is very clear that this is not what Mama Elena wanted her child to grow up to do, yet at the same time, it was her shortcomings as a parent that caused this. Mama Elena is the reason that Tita and Pedro couldn’t be together, and she’s the reason that Pedro married Rosura instead of Pedro. Once again, a failure.

I think it’s fair to say that Mama Elena is a bad parent, bt not for the reasons that you might think. In the end, she turned Tita into what she wanted, but at the cost of Tita’s happyness. She also failed in controlling her daughter. In her defense, her other 2 daughters turned out a lot better, however she definately failed Tita as a parent.

What I want to know is, do you think that Mama Elena was a bad perent? But more importantly, did she do the right thing?

 

The Movie

I’m sure you can all tell what this post will be about.
After seeing the movie adaptation of ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ last week, I’m curious what you guys thought of it.

Often, when adapting a novel for the big screen, they change the plot dramatically, and completely alter the script. In this case however, I was impressed by how true it stayed to the text in-terms of the narration and the dialogue. Much of the script was picked right out of the book. The plot itself was also very similar to the book. There were times when i thought that some adaptation would have been better as video is a completely different medium and must be treated as such, but overall, it worked.

I don’t know about you, but I had imagined certain characters appearances differently than they appeared in the movie. Although, of course, that kind of description is up to individual imagination, I personally had imagined Mama Elena to be slightly older, and dark haired. Tita, I had pictured as having a rounder, smoother face and thicker hair. Gertrudis, i had imagined as being of a darker complexion, particularly as her father turned out to be a ‘mulatto’. I had also imagined many of the scenes to be less formal and extravagant. I am not very knowledgeable about the society, etc at this time and place but I had imagined some scenes, like the wedding, to be less fancy.

Finally, I have to comment on the dubbing. It was appalling. In my opinion, dubbing almost always ruins a movie. When possible, subtitles should be used. The people who dubbed this movie could hardly act. Particularly unbearable were the performances of Chencha and of Dr. John. Chencha’s voice alternated rapidly between a low mumbling and a squealing whine. The doctors voice was this soft monotone that remained void of any expression other than a strange shocked euphoria. The movie would have been far more enjoyable had they left the original spanish speech (which would have added considerably to the atmosphere and the level of acting proficiency) and subtitled it for comprehensibility.

What did you guys think of it?

 

Is it unconditional love?

Have you ever noticed how the women in some of the romances we have read always reconsider (at some point or other) if they really love the other person?Of course we all know that there is nothing to reconsider; they love this person eternally. I was concentrating again on connections between all the romances, and found this to be recurring.

In ‘Tristan and Iseult’ , there is a little misunderstanding between the two lovers.On p.172, Iseult believes that Tristan has betrayed her and that his feelings have passed on to another Iseult because of false information communicated unintentionally. She decides to never again see Tristan and shuns him any time he tries to get near, like when he comes disguised as a leper to the church door, or when he comes as a Madman to court. Afterwards, of course, Iseult finds that she cannot live without Tristan and then is forced to admit that she’ll love him eternally.

This happens also in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, though over a span of a few minutes. Starting on line 79, Juliet will insult Romeo, driven by her grief for the death of Tybalt. She talks about how he has deceived her, using many powerful metaphors. However, just a few lines after on line 99, when she has heard these insults coming from the nurse, her opinion changes drastically, and again she admits to herself that she cannot live without Romeo.

This connection also holds true for the most recent romance. In ‘ Like Water for Chocolate ‘, Tita is in love with Pedro since the day she set eyes on him, but when he agrees to marry Rosaura, she reconsiders her love for him. She tries to put him off her mind and move on , but when she learns of his true intentions, that spark that had dimmed, fired back up. A similar thing occurs when Pedro leaves for San Antonio. She establishes a relationship with John and then is not sure who she loves. When he comes back though, we know too well that Tita can only truly love Pedro.

So as you can see this happens in many of the romances. This might be a way the author has to reinforce the strength of the love between the couples. If their love can be broken easily, then there was no real love in the first place. On the other hand, if both lovers cannot forget each other no matter how much time passes or what circumstances change, then that love was always there. Could there be other reasons? Also, did you find this in any of the other stories?

 

Tita’s choice

Tita comes to a fork in the road when she has to choose between Pedro and John. From reading some of the comments that have been posted, it sounds like alot of you disagree with Tita’s choice. Then i also read someone mentioning cartoons and how there is the angel and the devil that represents teh characters thoughts and choices. Usually it’s the right side with teh angela nd the left side with devil. So we would all want Tita, and ourslves to follow the right side, to do the right thing…right?

Okay, so then what about our hearts? Aren’t we always told to follow our hearts? Isn’t it so ironic that our heart happens to be on the left side?  So I was wondering what you guys thought about that. Since obvioulsy Tita chose Pedro, because her heart told her too. Do you think she did the right thing by following her heart?