Like Water For Chocolate Metaphors

he food a chef cooks creates a gateway into their heart and mind. If a cook's normally equisite stew seems bland and dreary, this could indicate the cook may feel unlike themselves. Likewise, if the stew appears more delictable than ever before, this could indicate that the chefs mood allowed for them to create an excellent soup. When cooking a chef adheres to a recipe. This recipe can restrain the chef into one way of thinking and restrain them from truly expressing themselves. The same can be said about traditions in reality. Sever adherence to tradition can squish the out of the box thoughts and feelings of young people. In "Like Water for Chocolate", Esquivel relies on the symbols of food and Mama Elena to display that tradition can be

Esquivel utilizes these recipes to aid in creating an extended metaphor: Food displays the feelings of the chef. Many times in the book the reader views Tita's food having an effect on its observers. For example; At the start of the book, Mama Elena has broken the news to Tita that she will never get married and forces her to make Pedro and Rosaura's wedding cake. While making this cake, Titas feelings overwhelm her and she sheds a tear into the batter, which will ultimately lead to all of the wedding guests becoming overwhelmingly upset and filled with sorrow. Esquivel utilizes the cake as a symbol for how Tita truly feels about the marriage of Pedro and Rosaura. Furthermore, the cake could be seen as a symbol of what will happen further in the book, foreshadowing the sad and dreary nature that follows it. Moreover, another symbol when talking about the relationship between food and emotions appears when Tita serves rose quail. The rose quail means to represent Tita and Pedros growing lust and feelings for eachother. The quail overwhelms Titas sister, Gertrudis, with such lust that she ends up riding away with a random man. To further the purpose of the story both of these examples show how Mamas Elenas enforcement of rigid traditions and standards led to bottled up feelings coming out in absurd and extreme ways. If these