Like Water For Chocolate Conflict Essay

When self conflict arises in a character, two different beliefs are brawling within his mind; imagine the figurative devil and the angel standing on the shoulders of a beloved cartoon character, each feeding him information as to why one’s thoughts and ideas are better than the other’s. In literature, the devil and angel would symbolize the different cultures that a certain character interacts with. In Esquivel’s magical realism novel Like Water For Chocolate, she collides John’s national culture with the regional culture of Mexico to advocate ending oppressive traditions. In the novel, John struggles with how Mexico’s culture differs from the American culture he comes from, and through his reactions to this conflict, he helps to promote

the end of traditions that tyrannize people. Esquivel witnesses the new opportunities in the Mexican workforce while she wrote her novel; with these gains women have made, Esquivel advocates an end for oppressive traditions that not only Mexican women face, but people everywhere encounter on a daily basis.
John, coming from America, has a difficulty understanding the ideals of the Mexican culture he witnesses, thus leading to a cultural conflict.

He encounters a girl with whom he falls in love with. However, in the Mexican culture, the youngest born daughter may not marry; she must act as a servant to her mother until her mother passes on. Just by being born the last girl in her family, Tita’s destiny has already been decided for her. She cannot live her life the way she wants to live. Instead, Tita must live her life according to her mother’s demands. Additionally, Tita has lived a very difficult life: her one true love, Pedro, marries her sister, Rosaura, because Tita is not allowed to marry while her mother lives. Tita must watch as the love of her life loves another woman; Tita must suffer as she watches Pedro become the father of another woman’s child. In Mexican culture, people are expected to hide their emotions, especially women. Women are expected to mask their true emotions because even when their life is falling to pieces, they need to hide their true selves and pretend to be a proper women; women are expected to mask whatever emotional distress they face from the rest of society. Even though Tita does so much for her family, as soon as she experiences emotional difficulties, her family sends her to an insane asylum; as a reward for cooking for her family and taking care of her mother, Tita’s family calls in the doctor to take her away, even though she

so clearly is distressed, heartbroken, and upset.
Through his interaction with the Mexican culture, John spurned its ideals; these aspects of Mexican culture serve to deprive Tita from living the life she actually wants to life.

Being a doctor, John believes in healing the source of Tita’s pain; John wants to restore Tita back to her true self, and through his healing, she “felt better everyday” (109). John cannot comprehend how Tita’s family could send her away when she is experiencing a very traumatic event in her life. When presented with beliefs opposite to his own, John does not conform to the Mexican culture, and this allows Tita to recover and become the woman she once was. By using the beliefs he learned in America, he is able to provide Tita with a better quality of life. John not only helps to restore the happiness and joy Tita once contained, but John also helps Tita to realize she must live her life to her own accord; she must not let anyone else decide her

fate.
The cultural collision John experiences emphasizes the absurdity of traditions that harm the wellbeing of others. No one should have to suffer the way Tita does simply because his or her culture has restrictive rules and traditions. The tragedy that surrounds Tita’s life would never have occurred if these preposterous rules of Mexican culture never existed. Esquivel wants to highlight how ridiculous these types of oppressive traditions are. The atmosphere of Mexico when Esquivel is writing this novel is one of change; women are presented with new opportunities in the workforce; this event was seen as a huge victory for the equal rights movement in Mexico. Esquivel wants to highlight this progress by calling for an end to the oppressive traditions Mexican woman face; such traditions are unrealistic and impractical. She calls upon her readers to question who truly benefits from such a corrupt practice. These women cannot fully live their lives when such cruel traditions control and determine how they should actually live. Just as John aided Tita in realizing she should live the life she wants to live, Esquivel targets and calls upon an audience who faces similar injustice and oppression in their own lives; Esquivel demands an end to oppressive traditions.