Summary Of Like Water For Chocolate By Laura Esquivel

Hispanic Culture Portrayed Through Food in "Like Water for Chocolate"

"Like Water for Chocolate" is a novel written by Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. Subtitled "A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies," the novel is written in the form of monthly entries that utilize recipes, stories of romance, and emotions of the characters to portray a story of Mexican or (more widely) Hispanic tradition. Most of the events of "Like Water for Chocolate" that take place are centered around the kitchen, which focuses in on a major cultural aspect of Hispanic people; That is their unique and distinct cuisine. Many other societal aspects of Hispanic culture are addressed throughout the story as well, such as women's roles,

The phrase "like water for chocolate" or "como agua para chocolate" is a Hispanic idiom that is the equivalent to the English idiom "hot as fire", which refers to the emotional state of being angry or extremely agitated. This particular idiom references the Hispanic cacao drink in which water is brought to a boil and mixed with cacao powder in order to create a hot drink (Jaffe); The boiling water is similar to the image of anger and agitation. The idiom "like water for chocolate" illustrates Tita's, the protagonist, anger towards her fate since the beginning of the story. This fate is what creates the plot for "Like Water for

Tita had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged; maybe that was because she knew then that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage." (Esquivel, 5). At the beginning of the novel, Tita is born into the inevitable role of being like a servant to her mother and sisters while being subjected to her role in the kitchen at the same time. She is not put into this role because of her skills or due to her being essiential to it, but because her mother, Mama Elena is loyal to an oppressive family tradition. In an interview with Claudia Loewenstein, Esquivel says that Elena is "equal to the masculine world and masculine repression, not feminine ... She is also a victim of repression but with all her strength she was unable to rebel against tradition" (Lowenstein). Tita's role can be seen as social conditioning from her mother (Segovia). Tita is subdued to the common cultural oppression of many other Hispanic women. In Hispanic family tradition, the role of the youngest daughter is to remain unwed in order to care for and look after her mother until her unfortunate death. Due to this tradition, Tita is forbidden to marry which keeps her from the love of her life, Pedro. When Pedro speaks with Tita's mother, he fails at his