Comparing Society In Like Water For Chocolate And The Woman Warrior

A society can change an individual’s point of view on a certain group of people or things. In the books, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a pungent fiction novel that is about destiny and struggles of living as a Chinese female, and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is a fiction novel about a poignant love story between a couple. These books clearly show that society and an individual are closely related. Society can change an individual’s destiny through a community. In The Woman Warrior, society relates to the Chinese traditions and some stereotypes about Chinese people’s behaviors, and the individuals are Kingston, her aunt and Brave Orchid. In Like Water for Chocolate, society is the antagonist—Mama Elena, who passes down The De la Garza family’s own traditions, and the individual is Tita. Both of these books represent the same idea, individual and society are closely related since society can change an individual’s point of view through a community, it limits his or her behaviors and

“I can get into colleges… I could be a scientist or a mathematician if I want… ‘I don’t see why you need to go to college at all...everybody else is sending their girls to typing school.’”- (Kingston, 203) Since Kingston’s mother, Brave Orchid, is a traditional Chinese woman and she never thinks that women are capable of doing things men do. This eventually deprives Kingston’s basic right of fulfilling her dreams. “After Mama Elena’s threats, Tita tried to keep as much distance as she could between herself and Pedro.”- (Esquivel, 39) Mama Elena doesn’t only forbid Tita from getting married but also forbids her to approach Pedro, who is marrying her sister, Rosana. In other words, society has altered an individual’s perspective through the family community and this leads to suffering of other