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Like Water For Chocolate Magical Realism

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Food is a prominent symbol that appears constantly throughout Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. It is used as a mean for Tita’s emotions to be transferred to others. Each chapter is introduced with a recipe. Food is also used in the conveyance of the De la Garza family history, many important events occur in and around the kitchen. It is also used as a vessel for magical realism. It is the importance of magical realism and the use of food as a medium to impart this magical realism on the readers that will be explored in this essay.
Very early in the story we learn that the kitchen is quite significant in the De la Garza family, Tita was born in the kitchen and spent most of her childhood there with Nacha. The story is set in an ordinary Mexican city and a traditional Mexican family. Every chapter starts with a recipe, the majority, but not all, …show more content…

She imbues all of her emotion and feelings into the dishes she prepares. A reoccurring use of magical realism is food being used as a method for the reader to understand what Tita is feeling. When Tita’s food is served to others, the emotions she feels are bestowed upon the consumers of the meal. Not only are the feelings passed on to these people, but they are amplified exponentially. Some examples of this include; the wedding cake in chapter 2, Tita is distraught by the marriage of Pedro (her true love) and Rosaura (her sister). Tita is forced by her dictating mother to prepare a cake for the wedding. She cries into the batter for the cake and when the guests eat it they are overcome with sickness and start to vomit, essentially ruining the wedding. This shows the reader how Tita really feels about Rosaura

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