A BOOK REVIEW ON LAURA ESQUIREL’S LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

by Alexi Erlyn Sta ana Carlos

IV- Sir Isaac Newton

I. Introduction

Like Water for Chocolate is a novel in Monthly installments with Recipes, romances and home remedies written by Laura Esquirel, who is originally a scriptwriter and was nominated for the Ariel Award for best screenplay by the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures for her screenplay Chido One. The film version of Like Water for Chocolate swept the Ariel Awards in 1992 and went on in 1993 to become the biggest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States. In 1994, Like Water for Chocolate is given annually by the American Booksellers Association to the book the members of the organization most enjoyed hand-selling.

With more than two million copies in print, Like Water for chocolate has taken its place alongside such beloved first novels as The Joy Lack Club and How to Make an American Quilt as a treasured part of America’s literary memory.

II. Summary of the Content

“A tall tale, fairy tale, soap- opera romance, Mexican cookbook, and home- remedy handbook rolled into one.”

Tita De La Garza is the main character. Pedro Muzquiz is Tita's lover, marries Rosaura to be closer to Tita. Mama Elena is Tita's cruel and controlling mother. Gertrudis De La Garza is Tita's older sister, illegitimate daughter, she runs away with a soldier. Rosaura De La Garza is Tita's oldest sister, marries Pedro. Dr. John Brown- the family doctor, falls in love with Tita, has a son from a previous marriage. Nacha is the family cook, like a mother to Tita. Chencha is the family maid. Roberto Muzquiz- son of Pedro and Rosaura, dies young. Esperanza Muzquiz- daughter of Pedro and Rosaura, marries Alex. Alex Brown- son of John Brown, marries Esperanza. Nicolas- the manager of the ranch. Juan Alejandrez is the captain who took Gertrudis. Jesus Martinez is Chencha's first love and husband.

Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Esquival, this internationally popular romantic fable from Mexico centers on a young woman who discovers that her cooking has magical effects. The tale's heroine, Tita, is the youngest of three daughters in a traditional Mexican family. Bound by tradition to remain unmarried while caring for her aging mother, Tita nevertheless falls in love with a handsome young man named Pedro. Pedro returns her affection, but he cannot overcome her family's disapproval, and he instead marries Tita's elder sister. The lovestruck young woman is brutally disappointed, and her sadness has such force that it infects her cooking: all who eat it her feel her heartbreak with the same intensity. This newly discovered power continues to manifest itself after the wedding, as Tita and Pedro, overcome by their denied love, embark on a secret affair. Director Alfonso Arau, Esquival's husband at the time, presents the acts of love and cooking with the same glossy, sensual sheen. Indeed, despite occasional digressions into a magical realist tone, the film often takes on the gloss of Hollywood romance. This combination of traditional melodrama and exotic fairy tale proved extremely popular with audiences, particularly in the United States, where it became one of the highest grossing foreign language films at the time.

Emotional Oppression It is evident, especially in the first few chapters, that Tita has been emotionally oppressed by her dictator-like mother. She is forced to hold in her emotions, thus creating a "dampness" within her that does not allow the matches within her soul to light. Tita has hot, earth-shaking sex with Pedro at the end of the story and, in reference to the story of inner matches Dr.Brown told her earlier, their lust and sexual needs were so strong that she lighted all of Pedro's "inner matches"; he died from the raw emotion of it all. In her agony, she swallowed some "matches" and lit them with memories of him. She sparked, causing the bed they were having sex on to be set on fire. In the end, everything on the ranch (except for the animals because they had all run away when they sensed what was coming, and Tita's recipe book) burned down, but the souls of Pedro and Tita were transported to a special place, a place before birth. There they could finally be together without anyone judging or stopping them.

Self Growth At the beginning of the novel, Tita was a generally submissive young lady. She feared her mother and her mother's actions, hardly ever daring to disobey for fear of another brutal beating. However, as time passes, Tita finds herself to have a voice that she must use. The climax of this theme could be said to be the part in chapter five (the month of May, if one isn't going by chapters) when Tita stands up to her mother and runs out of the house. By the end of the novel, though Tita is a humble woman, she certainly is not the submissive and fearful girl she once was.

Tradition Tita and Pedro are not allowed to love because of the De La Garza tradition that states that the youngest daughter (Tita) must take care of the mother until the day she dies. The book also lists out many tradition of the Mexican culture, such as traditional recipes.

III. Analysis of the Text

Beautifully executed in the Latin storytelling tradition of magic realism, Like Water for Chocolate is a romantic drama that ultimately falls back into a Cinderella myth. Director Alfonso Arau shows the domestic chores and duties of the ranch with a commonplace realism, occasionally lapsing into fantasy sequences for the surreal events that are being cooked up. In one instance, the long-suffering Tita (Lumi Cavazos) rides away with a mile-long blanket dragging behind her, a product of her lovesick nights spent knitting. The mother is appropriately wicked, as is the sister, and Tita views her prince charming, Pedro (Mario Leonardi), as the only escape from her lifelong servitude. Like the oven-warmed kitchen where most of the action is set, the photography is warm and glowing. The connection between food and sex is well developed, in several banquets and dinners proving both memorable and humorous. Filled with characters simmering with passion and jealousy, Like Water for Chocolate lives up to its title, which refers to a method of making hot cocoa by adding chocolate to boiling water. Although heavier topics such as death, ghosts, and revolutionary war arise, the story is overall lighthearted and adheres to Hollywood romantic sensibilities.

IV. Evaluation of the Text

The book has left out a mystical story that definitely charmed the palate and the heart.

“Like Water for Chocolate is deceptively simply wonderful. It is a story of love, sex, war, and the sweep of Mexican history that belongs to human.”

In Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel extends the religious-mythical themes of magic realism to the everyday world of the domestic realm of a female-dominated household. Though not a story of the battles, great figures, and moral challenges generally associated with the epic form, Esquivel elevates this story of women, and one woman in particular, to such proportions. This strategy leads the reader to explore the feminist properties of Like Water For Chocolate, which are evident in the depictions of Tita's struggle to gain independence and develop her identity, and also in the fact that this struggle is depicted at all. In creating this female-centered cast of characters, Esquivel imagines a world in which men are physically present only occasionally, though the legacy of sexism and the confinement of women to the domestic sphere persist. Esquivel does not offer her readers the vision of a utopian sisterhood, but rather insight into the way women are restricted by standards of societal propriety perpetuated by other women.

[x.x] Conquering the Verge [x.x]

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Conquering the Verge

A Book Review: Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate

By Anna Sharmainne Abary Caoile

"Tita was literally `like water for chocolate' - she was on the verge of boiling over."

This novel was written by a magnificent author of the Mexican race, Laura Esquivel. She was the third of the four offsprings of Julio César Esquivel and Josefa Valdés. She was born as a native in Mexico on the 30th of the month of September in the year 1950.

The first book ever written by Laura Esquivel is Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate) and it was released in 1989. The story revolved around the world of a simple, attractive girl named Tita De La Garza. Tita De La Garza was fated to have a cursed erotic relationships to whomever she loved because of a family tradtion her mother, Mama Elena De La Garza, desperately follows.

This story reveals Laura Esquivel's talents and skills in writing. The book presented many mystical and transcendenting events that no ordinary writer could ever think of. Her great imagination and story telling skills are presented in an earlt twentieth century in Mexico when there was a revolution happening between rebels and the government. The book also displayed the significance of the kitchen to the writer, Laura Esquivel, that served her as the most important place to be and to have in building a house - even a home. For Laura, the kitchen brings you knowledge that no one and no experience will teach you except the kitchen. She takes the kitchen as a very important part of her life.

The title of her novel (and first book ever written) pertains to an old Spanish saying concerning the subject of anger, passion and sexuality which are greatly discussed, talked about, and presented in her novel: Like Water for Chocolate. The book was so great, that it had been the number one best selling book in Mexico for three consecutive years and was translated into twenty-three languages. In was sold internationally for its quality and tremendous story.

As years went on, her skills were still greatly considered by many people and her first book was turned into a film that turned the United States around for its great filmography in 1993. With the help of her book and the movie with its story line, Laura Esquivel was recognized to a great extent that she received the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award. Aside from that enormous acknowledgement, she also obtained eleven other accolades from Ariel Awards, an annaul event of recognition for excellence in motion picture making.

As Laura Esquivel's life pass, she had made it productive and have made a list of other six books namely La ley del amor (1995) (English: The Law of Love), Íntimas suculencias (1998), Estrellita marinera (1999), El libro de las emociones (2000), Tan veloz como el deseo (2001) (English: Swift as Desire) and the Malinche (2006).

During her fifty-eight year stay of living a very fulfilled life, Laura Esquivel marreid a director named Alfonso Arau.

Tita De La Garza is the main character of the story. She lives with her beloved mother, Mama Elena De La Garza, her sisters, Gertrudis and Rosaura, the family cook, Nacha, their maid, Chencha, and the other workers of the ranch Mama Elena owned from her husband.

Tita was born prematurely in the kitchen. She was extremely sensitive to onions and desperately weeps when cutting them as she prepares food with their cook, Nacha. She was exceptionally attached to the kitchen and it became her world. She grew up spending all her time inside the kitchen doors while hersisters grew up to be afraid and uninvovled to whatever activities were happening in the walls of their scullery.

The main story began in a social gathering where Tita met Pedro for the first time. They felt sparks inside of them at the instant each pf them met each others eyes and an urge of passion burst out from each of them. There came a point where Pedro was so determined to ask Mama Elena for Tita's hand and he came to the ranch with her father without due notice. Mama Elena was polite enough to them to accept them as visitors but when Pedro babbled out what he really intends, Mama Elena bursted and told them about the tradition they are dreadfully following - that the youngest daughter of a De La Garza should take care of her mother until her last days. Instead of marrying Tita, Mama Elena said that Pedro should marry Rosaura, Tita's sister, and said that she is one hundred percent available and ready to marry. Pedro agreed to the conditions thinking that it would be the only way to be closer to his only love - Tita.

Tita was the one to prepare the food for Pedro and Rosaura's wedding. The night they were being married, Nacha died and this even made her heart weigh more. Pedro and Rosaura bore a child and it was a boy named Roberto. Roberto grew up to be close to Tita for she was the one to take care of him. But after some time, Mama Elena sent Pedro, Roberto and Rosaura to San Antonio for she suspiced that there were still something special happening between Tita and Pedro.

But when they returned to the ranch, Tita again prepared the food and all her sexual urge she fet for Pedro was transferred to the food she cooked and onto Gertrudis who nearly burnt herself because of the heat she feels inside. With her urge passed onto Gertrudis, Gertrudis ran away with Juan Alejandrez nd she ended up in brothels just to kill the urge and the fire inside of her.

Eventually, Roberto died and Mama Elena blamed it to Tita. that made Tita went a bit crazy and Dr. John Brown was the one to take her in and give her a very good care. This made Tita fell for Dr. John but not entirely in love with him for her heart only belonged to Pedro. Still, she had agreed to marry Dr. Brown. Overfilled with joy, Dr. Brown decided to fetch her only living aunt for her to attend their wedding.

When Dr. Brown arrived, with her aunt, to the ranch for Tita to formally be introduced to her, Tita had second thoughts about marrying Dr. Brown for she had an affair with Pedro while Dr. Brown was on his trip. She confessed to Dr. Brown yet Dr. Brown, as gentle as he is, still accepted her and said that nothing will change his love for her.

Dr. Brown and Tita got married. Some time after. Rosaura has given birth to a girl, Esperanza and with her misscarriage to that baby, she is never to get pregnant again. Tita was very pitiful to the baby for she was afraid that Esperanza will suffer what she suffered with Mama Elena before she died - having served her mother until her mother died without anyone to help you, alone and helpless, hopeless from you only love - just because of a astupid tradition. Tita was right, Rosaura planned to contnue the tradition. But Esperanza fell in love with Ale Brown, Dr. John Brown's son from his first wife. Tita did everything she could to fight for the right of Esperanza to be happy with Alex and she was triumphant in doing so for Rosaura died from some unexplainable reason.

On the night of Esperanza and Alex's marriage, Pedro and Tita became too vulnerable to the lust they felt that evening and they made love in the dark room they had visited for several times already and unfortunately, Pedro dies the instant they were on the climax of having each other's spirit. Tita followed him and sparks were seen from the ranch. The other people to saw it thought it was fireworks celebrating Esperanza and Alex's wedding but it went on for too long. When Ezperanza and Alex went home, all they saw was ashes covering the whole land area of the ranch and a cookbook containing all Tita and the De La Garza's family.

The writer blossomed though out the novel. She expressed her style as being mysterious and numinous. The writer used simply words that struck her readers intimately as they read the novel Like Water for Chocolate. The story line was controlled by the author all through out and was very, very organized. The events didn't confuse the readers and the author used conversational words that made her readers stick to the novel and read to the end of it.

Generally, the story was captivating. Themes of passion, love, growing up, tradition and emotions were showed.

Between overflowing emotions from the characters, every bit of a page teaches every reader how to grow up as the protagonist of the story grows and learns to stand for her own good and for what she truly believed in.

Tradition was also showed by the iron-fisted mother of Tita. Forcefully enforcing what she wants for her youngest daughter, blocking the passion and love Tita feels for Pedro. Mama Elena didn't care for whatever Tita felt and her emotions were blocked by her fear of her mother.

The novel made the readers believe of tru love, destiny and fate.

What made the novel more interesting was the use of Mexican recipes on the intoduction of each chapter which, for me, are used as symbols that are matched with the settings, events and the characters invovled in a particular chapter. For me, the prime symbolism used in the novel was the onion symbolizing love that made Tita suffer and cry ever painfully.

For me, the novel was generally great but at some points, I got a little bit irritated by the recipes that would enter every chapter that at first did not seem to make sense to me but in the end, I appreciated the significance and the role each recipe played for every chapter. Maybe, the author should be more considerable about all the types of readers that would want to enjoy her book.

The book marked me as I was reading it. In the part where Tita suffered so much pain seeing her only love marry her sister made my eyes teary for I kind of experienced the same thing before but it was with a friend.

Also, it seemed to me that literal sparks and fire would come out of a human's body because of the urge he or she feels for sexual desires. To me, that was not very convincing and it was very hard for me to believe.

The book also made me realize that no matter how all the factors around you stop you from being happy and obtaining your own nirvana, if you are brave and strong enough, you can overcome any obstacle that would be on your way. Just believe in yourself and stand for you principle and what you believe in and if you succeed or fail, at least you fought for what you want and learned from what you have experienced.

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