Like Water For Chocolate Mama Elena Quotes

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Mama Elena is the widow with three daughters: Rosaura, Gertrudis, and Tita, and she is also the main cause of Tita’s suffering in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Because of Mama Elena, Tita’s entire life is distorted and she has to spend her time with tears and despair. Especially, Mama Elena abuses the power of family tradition and misuses the power as the head of the household to decide her daughter’s marriage and life. First, Mama Elena abuses the power of family tradition. Tita’s family’s tradition is that the youngest daughter has to take care of her parents until they die and can’t marry during caring for her parents. Tita is the youngest, and that’s why Mama Elena said to Tita “You know perfectly well that being the youngest daughter means you have to take care of me until the day I die” (Ch.1). This tradition is really unjust because it’s only for the youngest and that person has to suffer all the hard works. Also, Mama Elena can’t force Tita to follow the family tradition because she doesn’t know how hard is for Tita to obey her mom every single time and can’t have Tita’s own opinions. …show more content…

Even though Mama Elena knows that Tita takes care of Roberto all the time, she says, “I think it would be best if Rosaura went to live with my cousin in San Antonio, with her husband and little boy” (Ch.4). Also, she doesn’t console Tita when Roberto died, rather, she slaps and abuses her daughter because Tita blames Mama Elena for Roberto’s death for the first time. Head of the family means a person who cares all family members, and encourages or console them when family members are having a hard time. However, what Mama Elena has done to Tita is not the right thing as a head of the

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