How Does Acevedo Use Motifs In With The Fire On High

When life is going normally, something gets in the way. It might be a small pebble in the road, like a bad day, or it might be something life-changing, like getting pregnant as a teenager. In the novel, With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, the main character, Emoni, gets pregnant as an early teen, flipping her life upside down. Acevedo shows how growing up makes people rethink the world and find themselves through the use of motifs. Acevedo uses motifs relating to Emoni’s food helping others, Emoni’s cooking helping herself, and recipes to help others connect with their old memories and to show the importance of expressing and working through emotions and challenging experiences. This demonstrates that everyone has complex emotions

The motif of Emoni’s food is a way to help others reflect on their meaningful moments and memories. Julio comes to her house to show that he will help her when she needs it. When Emoni offers him her cooking, he says no at first but then he eats one. The text states, “My father watches me closely for a moment before he reaches over and breaks off a corner" (379). Julio eats a piece of her beer bread to show that he’ll stay for her, even through tough times. This means that Julio will be faced with a lot of memories, some harder to face than others. Secondly, Don Alberto, a patron at Chef Amadi’s restaurant, eats Emoni’s food. After eating, he says that he was having a bad day until he ate Emoni’s food. He says, “But from the first bite of your food... It reminded me of my favorite aunt. Sitting at her knee when she told me stories and shucked peas.” (294). When Don Alberto ate Emoni's hen, it brought back a powerful and emotional memory from his distant past. This reinforces the idea that despite people going through

Emoni came back home after having sex with Tyrone for a short period. When she came home, she made maduros to feel better. The text states, "To this day, whenever I've served someone maduros they end up crying, teardrops falling onto their plates for reasons they can't explain;" (45). Emoni uses food to help herself sometimes, and depending on what, she makes different things. The cooking process calms her down. This connects back to the topic sentence because she made maduros to understand her complex emotions, especially the emotions she experienced after having sex with Tyrone. She doesn’t know what to feel so to calm herself down, she makes some maduros. Another point to consider is on the night of graduation Emoni can’t sleep because of all the thoughts going through her head. To calm herself down, she makes some beer bread to think more clearly. The text states, “I tiptoe past ‘Buela’s bedroom and walk downstairs in the kitchen. Set the oven to 350 degrees. Grab flour. Butter. Salt. Dried oregano. A beer I planned to use to braise a steak” (376). Once again, Emoni makes food to understand her thoughts and emotions. In this instance, she makes beer bread to, as mentioned in the recipe section at the start of Bittersweet, give her strength in times of solitude so that she can power through whatever is going through her head. Last but not least, after the graduation ceremony, when Emoni, her family,