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Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles Essay

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Gender roles and expectations are challenged and brought to light in the novel Like water For Chocolate by Laurel Esquivel, exploring the way women are perceived in the things they enjoy doing, the deep concentrated feelings women experience, and the societal expectations women face. When answering the question of whether or not stereotypes are being enforced and followed, I was aware that just because a woman is doing something that is seen as a stereotype doesn't mean she is being forced to participate in it, or falling into a gender role. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be different. I enjoyed a lot of things that boys liked and tried very hard to turn away from feminine things. I would say my favorite color was blue, and I …show more content…

Tita loves cooking. This is first explored at the very beginning of her story. ¨Tita felt a deep love for the kitchen, where she spent most of her life from the day she was born¨ (Esquivel, 6). Tita cooks the majority of the meals for her family, but it was written to be something that brought her great emotion and a way to express herself. Cooking was a way for Tita to give a part of herself to the people she loves, especially when there was a lack of options as to how she could express her love. Just because Tita provided food for others and spent a lot of time doing household duties similar to the stereotypical “housewife” does not mean she was serving a gender role. She simply has a passion for cooking and taking care of …show more content…

“She felt sure that her fatness, her flatulence, and her foul breath were driving Pedro farther away every day, and she couldn’t see a solution” “Every day the situation grew more serious. She didn’t know how she would react to what “they” would say if Pedro left her, she couldn't stand it” (170/171). The pressure women face to stay attractive, especially in the eyes of men, is very prevalent and Esquivel putting the word “they” in quotes to me, was showing that Rosaura had been overthinking her appearance for a while. She did not name anyone specifically because she is so insecure and paranoid about how anyone and everyone would perceive her that she could only describe it as ¨they¨. She was embarrassed to exist because she did have the appearance she ¨should¨ have. The idea of Pedro leaving her as an effect of her physical changes was the most humiliating outcome she could think of. This was one of the first times in the book I felt sorry for Rosaura. She is aware of her beautiful sister's love for her husband but was still desperate to stay beautiful or appealing whatsoever in his eyes because that is where she found her

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Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water for Chocolate, subverts many of her important characters' traditional gender roles, while other characters embrace them and continue the destructive cycle. In particular, Rosaura and Pedro alike accept their role through manipulation and fear from Mama Elena and her outdated traditions. Pedro is the romantic interest of Tita, sister of Rosaura, in the story. Traditionally the youngest daughter, Tita, is never allowed to marry and assume the caretaker role of their mother until death. Pedro wants more than anything to marry Tita, but he does not resist Mama Elena’s objection, and rather takes Titas sister's hand in marriage to remain closer to her.

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Traditionally society sets up a norm of how a person should handle their duties creating gender identities and it comes to play with the aspect of how females should conform to these identities. Even in modern households, society habitually views women doing domestic work in the kitchen such as making food, cleaning, and taking care of people. This notion of following to the norms is set by a person’s core values and it becomes an obstacle for females to express her own opinions limiting them from creating their own sense of identity. However, the novel Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel views the kitchen as an individual source of self-expression that liberates feminine terrain as well. Even though, many of the female characters

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