Summary Of Like Water For Chocolate By Laura Esquivel

"Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us, but we cannot strike them all by ourselves" This is a famous quote from Laura Esquivel in the novel Like water for chocolate. In twelve chapters, Laura Esquivel gives us the love life of Tita, the youngest daughter of a Mexican family. In this novel, we can contemplate Tita's sixth sense and her emotions in her cooking. Love seems to be one of the only things strong enough to light up the "matchbox" within these characters. Reading this book is like lighting up a match: it lights up for a while, but the fire has to die someday.

GOOD

Something that I love about this novel is that every chapter opens up with a recipe that later throughout the novel has a deeper meaning. Another notable

Tita is the youngest daughter from the De la Garza family. She accepts her mother's orders, even when it meant losing the love of her life. The way that Tita rebels against her mother are through her cooking, her emotions are express in it even when mama Elena asked her to throw away the flowers Pedro gave to her she obeys but not before she makes an exquisite sauce from the petals. Mama Elena is the "Antagonist" of this novel. Mama Elena de la Garza was a tyrant, the main authority of the ranch. She enforces a family tradition that states that the youngest child must take care of their mother until she dies, so Mama Elena prohibits Tita from marrying the love of her life and makes her prepare the wedding

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PLOT

Tita is the youngest daughter of the De la Garza family, and because every family has a tradition, due to this she was forbidden to marry her true love, Pedro. Her family's tradition demands Tita to take care of her Mother until her death. Pedro asks for her hand in marriage her mother denies it and he ends up marrying her older sister even though her true love is Tita. His situation causes tension between the family and Tita. Tita's emotions, feelings, anger, passion, love, started to manifest on her cooking. Many circumstances proved that no situation could come between true love.

SETTING/ VOICE

This novel takes place in Mexico during the twentieth century. In this time, Mexico was in between the revolution. The Mexican revolution was a period in Mexico of political, social and military conflict. It was a fight where they wanted to return the land to the common people. The Mexican Revolution has a deeper meaning In this book. It represents a fight for independence, which both Tita and Gertrudis fought for. Each chapter of this novel opens with a recipe, and it's followed by a narration. This book is narrated By Tita's Grandniece, and it starts in first person point of view in a conversation-like manner. She states, "to keep from crying when you chop [an onion] (which is so annoying.) I suggest you place a little bit on your head. (1, 1)" after that conversation-like manner point of view it switches