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Like Water For Chocolate Comparative Essay

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Similar plot lines are used. Different perspectives on the subject. How can books vary by who writes them? It's interesting to see two stories with similar plots appear very different because of their authors. Like Water for Chocolate, written by Laura Esquivel, navigates many problems that women would have faced in that period. The main conflict in this book is the internal battle the main character, Tita, faces. Within the book, we watch her struggle with truths about her life that she didn't choose. Over and over again, Tita is fighting with what is expected of her versus what she wants. Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, portrays characters with the same conflict. Both teenagers know who their loyalty should go to and just like …show more content…

Although Tita could have chosen to find a way to secretly be with Pedro, Esquivel chooses to write "From that night on she would love him forever. And now she had to give him up. It wasn't decent to desire your sister's future husband." (Esquivel, 18-19) Again, much emphasis on why Tita cannot be happy is due to the culture that she is surrounded by, she worries about how her reputation would change if people saw how she wanted her brother-in-law. Because Tita has never known anything other than her role in the family and culture, she never makes any secret plans to go against her family's wishes. Romeo and Juliet are in the same situation. Although they knew they couldn't be together for other reasons. Point stands that their families were rivals, and from a young age, they knew not to communicate with each other's families. Given that LWFC was written by a woman, much of the perspective has changed. The book doesn't just surround Tita's love life, it also provides a different perspective on things that were going on, such as the Mexican revolution. LWFC is a platform that Esquivel uses to talk about what would have happened from the point of view of a woman. Not only that, but it uses the lack of male authority to empower the female characters, this is shown through Mama Elena defending herself against male soldiers, "I'm not joking. I repeat: no one is setting foot in my house!" Esquivel, a.k.a. Esquivel, 90. Despite stepping out of the norm to protect her house, Mama Elena still upholds the gender roles that were expected of women. This shows us that although Mama Elena knows that she doesn't need to uphold out-dated traditions, she chooses to. She could be a powerful woman who never lets anybody decide what is going to be done to her, instead, she wants to continue holding women back. This could be

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