Like Water For Chocolate Magical Realism

Like Water for Chocolate is a novel that offers recipes as monthly segments while narrating the life of De La Garza family. Each recipe is unique from the others, but it’s not only the mere fact that it’s a different dish but rather the spectrum of emotions it sparks for the characters. Here we can witness how magical realism, a type of fiction that integrates elements of fantasy and otherwise realistic settings becomes intertwined with the culinary focus of the story. The recipes not only serve their conventional purpose but because them we learn the true motives and aspirations of the major characters along the storyline.

“Likewise for Tita the joy of living was wrapped up in the delights of food.’’ (Esquivel 7) Tita is the character with

the most evident connection to the food; she was a nurturing and caring nature for those around her and this is reflected in her recipes. We can witness her character change from a very traditional female to a more defiant role; which serves as a parallel to the story’ background where women decided to leave the household domain and join the revolution.

Christmas Rolls, the book’s first chapter confirms Tita’s biggest concern; she must remain unwed due to family tradition.

This alone was cause of distress for her but then, her mother decides to arrange a marriage between her sister Rosaura and the man she loved. “Nacha, with all her experience, knew that for Tita there was no pain that wouldn’t disappear if she ate a delicious Christmas Roll. But this time it didn’t work. She felt no relief from the hollow sensation in her stomach. Just the opposite, a wave of nausea flowed over her. She realized that the hollow sensation was not hunger but an icy feeling of grief.” (Esquivel 19) Furthermore, food plays its part of becoming Tita’s voice; since she is constantly abused emotionally and physically by her mother. "...she had been killing her a little at a time since she was a child, and she still hadn't quite finished her off." (Esquivel 49) The kitchen is under Tita’s dominion and this allows her to take ownership and resist the oppression she faces

daily.

As the novel moves onward, in Chabela’s Wedding Cake, Tita has the task or making all the arrangements for the wedding.

The preparation for the wedding cake is critical to the story; due to the fact that Tita mourns as she makes the cake, the outcome brings out several responses to the guests. “The moment they took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing…Mama Elena, who hadn’t shed a single tear over her husband’s death, was sobbing silently.” (Esquivel 39) This is an important insight for the Mama Elena character; she who became the matriarch of De La Garza family and had to manage their estate all on her own shows a glimpse of weakness. Considering the historical background of the novel and the male – dominated Latin American culture; men have always been in charge and were responsible for providing for their families while women cared for the household and children. The traditional gender roles have been established in Hispanic countries for a long time so, the mere fact that Mama Elena holds so much power in a patriarchal society is an empowering idea. However, having experienced herself oppression from being a female as Esquivel herself said in an interview “Mama Elena transforms herself into a repressor because she herself was repressed, they did not let her follow her heart” (Loewenstein); her attitude toward her daughters would be different. Instead, she turns into a tyrannical character that no one is able to please and that

adopts several male traits. For instance, she associates cooking with serfdom and therefore, Tita becomes her subordinate. “In Mama Elena’s opinion, both her bath and her meals were the same story: no matter how hard Tita tried she always got an infinite number of things wrong.” (Esquivel 94) Also, she has the tendency to be aggressive and abrupt, especially towards Tita since in several occasions she decides the proper method of punishment is through physical violence; “The night of the wedding reception she had gotten a tremendous hiding from Mama Elena, like no beating before or since. She spent two weeks recovering from her bruises.’’ (Esquivel 41). As the recipes change, Mama Elena is not affected by them anymore, we can conclude this is part of what you would expect from the strong man-like figure in the story.

Quail in Rose Petal Sauce casts an unexplainable spell on Gertrudis that exposes her life-long desires. ‘’Gertrudis on the other hand always found this game enticing, and she threw herself into it with the enthusiasm she always showed where rhythm, movement, or music were involved.” (Esquivel 8) This exert helps illustrate Gertrudis as the sister with great passion, fire and inability to fit in; this originates from the fact that she is the result of her mother’s affair with a mulatto which was a forbidden love that no one approved of. The author emphasizes Gertrudis’s lustful thoughts and as a result she becomes overpowered by them on that March evening. After having the quail, she felt as if a fire was consuming her inside out; magic realism becomes present once again when Gertrudis began to emit pink sweat and a rose aroma. (Esquivel 53) As Gertrudis finds herself desperate to find a solution she decides to shower with cold water hoping it will overpower the heat; but instead, before the water even touches her body it evaporates. Meanwhile, the resilient rose aroma reaches the town and Juan, a member of the rebel forces has the intense longing to follow the aroma which leads him to Mama Elena’s ranch. The fire that had taken over Gertrudis reaches its peak and results in the bathroom turning into flames, “Gertrudis stopped running when she saw him riding toward her. Naked as she was, with her loosened hair falling to her waist, luminous, glowing with energy, she might have been an angel and devil in one woman. The delicacy of her face, the perfection of her pure virginal body contrasted with the passion, lust, that leapt from her eyes, from her every pore.’’ (Esquivel 55)

This event is the depiction of female sexual desire in the story; again the author is thinking ahead of the time where the novel is set. Women were not supposed to shown they had any sexual desires yet, Gertrudis is taken away by Juan while she is naked and they make love right on that moment as if they knew it was meant to happen. Unlike Tita, Gertrudis is able to materialize her desires and realizes she will not be able to fulfill them in the ranch where she is under the oppressive rule of Mama Elena. Defying her role as a woman in the current society, she decides it is possible for her to take ownership in her life and do what it takes to satisfy her needs.
From the start, Rosaura seems to have a troubled relationship with food; given that she is described as a picky eater but also, can’t seem to find her place in the kitchen. She makes attempts to cook in hopes that it will make Pedro fall in love with her; however, her cooking is terrible and will never be stand against Tita’s food. “As the first meal that Rosaura has cooked it isn’t too bad. Don’t you agree Pedro? Making a real effort not to insult his wife, Pedro replied: “No, for her first time, it’s not too bad.” (Esquivel 51) Rosaura is of course insecure about her relationship with Pedro so she attempts to do whatever it takes to win his affection. However, he constantly praises Tita’s food which cause her to feel jealous; “It’s a dish for the gods” (Esquivel 51) was Pedro’s response to Tita’s quail recipe. Immediately after trying the food, Rosaura feels sick and nauseous; her body is literally rejecting the fact that her husband loves her sister far more than her. By the end of the book; Rosaura dies from indigestion which can symbolize that somehow food was what stood between her and the love of Pedro.

The novel can be contemplated as a feminist work where all the female characters change conventional roles from the given period; situated in a Hispanic culture, each gender had specifically stablished what was their place in society but each of De La Garza women redefined this in their own way. Each of the recipes on the book plays the role of allowing the characters to enter a journey of self - discovery which eventually leads them to become whom they wish to be.