Like Water For Chocolate Love Theme

In Like Water for Chocolate, one theme Esquivel examines is defining “true love.” Specifically, that true love can be found in many different forms, and this can be seen through the character’s relationships with one another. Throughout this novel, Tita is required to obey orders and family tradition which is to care for Mama Elena, and must not get married until she passes away. Now that Mama Elena has passed away, she sees this as an opportunity to marry John. Esquivel writes “During the funeral Tita really wept for her mother. Not for her castrating mother who had repressed Tita her entire life, but for the person who had lived a frustrated love. And she swore in front of Mama Elena’s tomb that come what may, she would never renounce love.

In the passage the word “love” has been expressed multiple times to demonstrate how Tita and Mama Elena had both loved somebody very much. Tita discovers the truth about Mama Elena, that she once loved someone dearly by the name of Josè Treviño. However, Mama Elena’s parents would not approve of this marriage because he has “Negro blood in his veins,” and she was forced to marry Tita’s father. Tita feels sympathy and realizes that Mama Elena has encountered the same struggles she is encountering now. Throughout the book, Tita has been deeply in love with Pedro. However, Tita is forbidden to marry Pedro because she has to follow the family traditions which is to care for the family matriarch (Mama Elena) until she dies. Eventually Pedro married Tita’s sister Rosaura. Pedro said earlier the only reason he married Rosaura is to get closer to the person he loves which is Tita. Later after Pedro, Rosaura, and their child Roberto, Tita fell in love with John when he took her away from Mama Elena to “asylum,” but really to go live with him because Tita is not capable of living with Mama Elena because she is rude and the ranch is a hostile