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Like Water For Chocolate Research Paper

1015 Words5 Pages

Like Water for Chocolate
If you cannot take the heat, get the heck out of the kitchen! Like Water for Chocolate is Mexican, romantic folktale written by Laura Esquivel. This novel tells a story of Tita De La Garza (and her family), whose life is centered around the kitchen, heartache, pain, disappointment and forbidden love as a result of family traditions. Symbolism plays a key role in the development of this magical plot in the novel. Food, colors, and sexual heat all work together to depict how they negatively and positively affect the lives of the characters.
The presence of the food throughout the novel helps to progress the story, it depicts how all family traditions and stories are passed down; the mood of the person preparing the meals …show more content…

Gertrudis, the oldest sister of Tita, is the first to become succumb to the power of sexual heat and desires which leads to her departure of her family home to fulfill those desires. After eating a meal prepared by Tita, "something strange was happening to Gertrudis...she began to feel an intense heat pulsing through her limbs...poor Gertrudis the medium, the conducting body through which the singular sexual message was passed" (51-52). Gertrudis is subject to the love and passion that established by the forbidden love of her sister and brother-in-law. Pedro and Tita too became overwhelmed with lustful desires which caused them to behave salaciously in the presence of Mama Elena’s spirit. Unable to control his desire for Tita, upon return to the ranch he takes advantage of her in the pantry. Now in the shower Tita becomes warmed by the passionate peering of Pedro, "Tita striped off her clothes, got into the shower and let the cold water fall on her...what she did see on the other side of the planks but Pedro, watching her intently" (153). Pedro’s apparent uncontrollable feelings for Tita ultimately cause him to forcefully have his way with her. The characters of the novel yearn to satisfy the heat and passion they feel for another which causes them to act on those feelings; those flames of lust cannot be flame without being fulfilled sexual

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