Reaction on Like Water for Chocolate

“Reaction on Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate” In every culture there is always tradition present. Tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group of society with symbolic meaning. 1 It is necessary structure for reducing the cost of interacting in life, business and marketplace. 2 Society needs it but what if there is a need to change or stop this tradition. In the novel of Laura Esquivel, “Like Water for Chocolate” 3, the tradition existing is almost unbreakable. The story revolves on the tradition that the youngest female in the De la Garza family should not marry and is assigned to take care of her mother. This is a kind of an inhibiting tradition. All of the main characters are affected by this. Tita and Pedro are restrained to show their love for each other. The tradition is so unjust for the both of them. In order to be near to his love, Pedro marries Rosaura, which is so heart-aching for Tita. Everything is a mess. The tradition Mama Elena imposed is a perfect one to ruin the life of Tita. She can’t have her own free will. Due to this, she started to be rebellious and questions her mother. Even Gertrudis, doesn’t want to be choked by the dictatorship. We need to avoid an inhibiting tradition, because it can affect us no good. By following a cruel tradition is like a bird in a cage, it is depicted in these lines. “Even birds that are free to fly, cage them and they shall cry!” 4 It is good that this tradition is not passed to Esperanza. The only thing passed to her is the good tradition of cooking which symbolizes life. The three De la Garza sisters, react on the tradition imposed by Mama Elena in different ways. Their reaction enables them to embody a female stereotype. Gertrudis is the rebellious one. Rosaura is the one who follows the rules, the one who just conforms. Tita is just a woman. In my opinion, Gertrudis is a woman of dignity. She is a woman with free will. It is seen in her act of going away from the ranch. She also becomes a General. Today, I salute those women like Gertrudis, who fight for their rights. I think those women with free will are the matured ones like Gertrudis. For me, Rosaura is the opposite of her elder sister. She portrays a woman with no free will. It is seen when she didn’t object the decision of Mama Elena to arrange a marriage for her and Pedro. She also wants to pass the tradition to her daughter Esperanza. This is a 1..

Ken Faw, “Effects of Tradition on Possible Solutions,” Toolbox, 7 July 2006, 18 Mar. 2013 . 2 “Tradition,” Wikipedia, 18 Mar. 2013 . 3 Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate. (New York: Anchor Books, 1995). 4 “Bayan Ko,” Wikipedia, 18 Mar. 2013 .

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sign that Rosaura has no authority of her own. She is incapable to do skills which are necessary for a woman to master. Some of these are cooking, sewing, and caring for her child. She is just a woman of dependency. In our days, women tend to be Rosaura. Because of the inequality imposed by the society, women tend to be dependent on men. Every one of us needs to have exercised our own free will and not to be slave of the ideas of others. If we want equality, we must do it. Lastly, Tita is a good reference of a woman. She always struggles for her own happiness, just like the present women. They tend to do everything to make a comfortable life. But Tita is entrapped to her situation. Being a female, she has her own sense of duty to care for her mother. She is a daughter first before a lover. But in the end, these things didn’t stop her to attain happiness with Pedro, the love of her life.3 Pedro and John Brown are different from each other. Pedro is somewhat a conformist, but he tends to obey for his own good. To make an advantage to the tradition of Mama Elena, he conforms to marry Rosaura in able to be near to Tita. This is so selfish because, in able to be with Tita, he used Rosaura as a mere thing, as an instrument. He only possesses personal ambitions. He conforms to the prevailing system because he didn’t think of alternatives. That is why he breaks the tradition secretly. I think his love for Tita is not pure love, because it is governed by his lust and jealousy. Also, he didn’t prove anything yet. He is just an ordinary citizen, unlike John who is composed of everything good in human beings. By being a doctor, he is not selfish like Pedro. He didn’t demand for anything. He enables Tita to be happy even it will destroy his dreams. He didn’t put a grudge on his enemies; instead he loves them, just like a doctor to his patient. All of the things I admire are in him, but he is not perfect. He didn’t fulfill his dreams with Tita. Both Pedro and John are portraits of a man in love. They will do everything to make Tita happy. The only difference is on how they do it. 3 The fire is used all throughout the novel. It is somehow a symbol for an intense feeling of love. In one of the conversations with Tita, John Brown tells about that every one of us is born with a box of matches. He explains that, we need to discover the thing that will make our matches ignited which nourishes the soul. In this context, the fire serves as a food for the soul. Tita follows the advice of John. She finds her fire in the

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person of Pedro. In the last chapter, Tita and Pedro make love for each other. After some events, a fire is ignited. This fire symbolizes the intense feelings that burst from Pedro and Tita for each other, locked up for almost a lifetime. Another encounter with fire showing an intense feeling is the event when Gertrudis gives off heat that makes her shower room in fire. Fire is also seen as a source of life. In the novel, we need fire to cook the food that will satisfy our stomach. We can’t also avoid the fact that the fire of the Sun nourishes all life in this planet. The novel extracted greatly the significance of fire in our lives.3 There are two events that show instances of sensual love that I want to emphasize. One of this is the sensual thing that Gertrudis feels when she ate the quail in rose petal sauce. She becomes the transmitter of the two lovers, Tita and Pedro. She also wants to be in love with somebody, a man of her dreams. In our context, the love that Gertrudis feels over Juan is “love at first sight”. Some of our generations believed on this matter. But I think the love felt by Gertrudis when she first sees Juan is just a form of admiration. But later on her love become deep as they unite together. Another one is when Tita and Pedro make love for each other for the first time. Tita will sacrifice everything just for her love, even her virginity. In our social situation, the one done by Tita is not good for the eyes of others. I think, the women in our generation need to protect their purity because not all men are loyal and some are driven only by sexual desires and not by love.3 In my opinion, Tita is a strong female figure, even though she experienced a break down. Every one of us can have a break down. In case of Tita, she recovers with it for a short period of time. She is also strong for me because she is able to withstand the metal fist of Mama Elena, and to accept that her sister marries the one that she loves. I think if a modern woman of my age will be on the shoes of Tita, maybe she will not endure the sacrifices that Tita gives. Also, as every challenge that Tita encountered and passed, she becomes stronger and stronger. She also possesses a strong feminist character. She can cook, sew, nurse and do things for the benefit of others. I see her as my mother that is caring and a woman that you can be dependent on. 3

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The novel of Esquivel also revolves around women. In the novel, women are in charge of the household and the family. Mama Elena possesses power over the ranch. It depicts that, not only man can rule a household. There is one instance where the soldiers arrived to ask Mama Elena and her ranch to volunteer to help them in revolution. Mama Elena lays down her conditions, but one soldier tried to break it. She firmly rejected it by shooting the chicken carried by the soldier. Even Mama Elena is an old woman, she successfully protected her ranch. Also they are strict of their tasks to be finished on time. Women are characterized of being disciplined. They care for others as they care for their own. Tita always gives all her effort, time and love to prepare meals that will be eaten gladly by the people around her. 3 The house is their territory. Also, we can’t avoid the fact that women are not just for houses. They can excel in anything. Truly, after I read the novel, my vision about women changed. Lastly, we need to remember that mankind is useless without women.

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