Like Water for Chocolate (Spanish: Como agua para chocolate) is a popular novel published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel.[1]
The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life for her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her domineering mother's traditional belief that the youngest daughter must not marry but take care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita is only able to express her passions and feelings through her cooking, which causes the people who taste it to experience what she feels.[2] The novel was originally published in Spanish as Como agua para chocolate and has been translated into 30 languages;[3] there are over three million copies in print worldwide.[1] The novel makes heavy use of magical realism. The novel was made into a film in 1992.[4] It earned all 11 Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, including the Ariel Award for Best Picture, and became the highest grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the United States at the time.[5][6]
Plot summary
The book is divided into twelve sections named after the months of the year. Each section begins with a recipe of some sort, involving Mexican foods. The chapters outline the preparation of the dish and ties it to an event in the protagonist's life.[7]
Young Tita de la Garza, the novel's protagonist, is fifteen at the start of the events in the story, which take place in the era of the Mexican Revolution. She lives with her iron-fisted mother, Mama Elena, and her older sisters Gertrudis and Rosaura, on a ranch near the Mexico-US border.
Tita's admirer, Pedro, comes to ask for her hand in marriage, but Mama Elena forbids it on the grounds of the De la Garza family tradition, which demands that the youngest daughter (in this case Tita) must remain unmarried and take care of her mother until death. Pedro then reluctantly marries Tita's older sister Rosaura instead, and a distraught Tita can hardly keep from being grieved, even though Pedro maintains it is Tita he loves and not Rosaura, and that he only married Rosaura to be closer to Tita.
Tita has a love of the kitchen and a sharp connection with food of any sort, a skill her sisters lack. Tita unconsciously begins to use the power of food to draw Pedro away from Rosaura, with the rest of the family and hired help becoming pawns in the scheme.
As the story unfolds, Pedro begins to fall under the developing spell of romance caused by Tita's kitchen skills. It is also important to note that Rosaura's cooking skills are poor, and this makes Pedro even more unattracted to her, as he barely wanted to consummate their marriage to begin with. But side effects do result, as when Rosaura and Pedro are forced to leave for San Antonio, Texas, at the urging of Mama Elena, who is firmly against a relationship between Tita and Pedro, and Rosaura loses her son Roberto and is later made sterile after complications with the birth of daughter Esperanza. Meanwhile, Tita's elder sister Gertrudis accidentally becomes affected by Tita's culinary delights and leaves the ranch naked with a revolutionary soldier (though she returns as the head of a revolutionary army).
Upon learning the news of her nephew's death, whom she cared for herself, Tita blames her mother; Mama Elena responds by beating Tita furiously with a wooden spoon. Tita, not wanting to cope with her mother's controlling ways, secludes herself in a dovecote until the sympathetic Dr. John Brown reasons her to come down. Mama Elena clearly states that there is no place for "lunatics" like Tita on the farm, and wants her to be institutionalized. However, the Doctor decides to take care of Tita at his home instead. Tita eventually enters into a relationship with Dr. Brown, even planning to marry him at one point, but she cannot shake her feelings for Pedro.
After the removal of all obstacles to the relationship between Tita and Pedro, the lovers finally share a night of bliss that is so heated and passionate that Pedro actually dies while making love to Tita. Upset that Pedro dies while she lives, leaving her alone in the world, Tita proceeds to consume kitchen matches whilst thinking of his face. The matches are sparked by the heat of his memory, creating a fire that engulfs them both, leading to their deaths in union and the total destruction of the ranch. The narrator of the story is the daughter of Esperanza. Esperanza is Tita's niece and Rosaura and Pedro's daughter, and Dr. Brown's son, Alex, will marry her at the conclusion of the story. The narrator then says that all that was found under the smoldering rubble of the ranch was Tita's cookbook, which contained all the recipes described in the preceding chapters.[8]
Characters
- Josefita (Tita) De La Garza – main character
- Pedro Muzquiz – Tita's lover, marries Rosaura to be closer to Tita
- Elena de la Garza (Mama Elena) – Tita's cruel and controlling mother
- Gertrudis De La Garza – Tita's oldest sister, illegitimate daughter, she runs away with a soldier
- Rosaura De La Garza – Tita's older sister, marries Pedro
- Dr. John Brown – the family doctor, falls in love with Tita, has a son from a previous marriage
- Nacha – the family cook, like a mother to Tita
- Chencha – the family maid
- Roberto Muzquiz – son of Pedro and Rosaura, dies young
- Esperanza Muzquiz – daughter of Pedro and Rosaura, marries Alex
- Alex Brown – son of John Brown, marries Esperanza
- Nicolas – the manager of the ranch
- Juan Alejandrez – the captain who took Gertrudis
- Jesus Martinez – Chencha's first love and husband.
Themes and issues
- Emotional Oppression
It is evident, especially in the first few chapters, that Tita has been emotionally oppressed by her dictator-like mother. Her mother, enforcing a family tradition, decrees that Tita is not allowed to marry because she is obligated to care for her mother until she dies. Deprived of the love of her life, Tita is forced to repress her feelings and transmute them into her cooking. The feeling she pours into her cooking then affects the people who eat it, contributing to the magical realism evident throughout the novel, as her repressed emotions have tangible, magical consequences.
- Self Growth
At the beginning of the novel, Tita was a generally submissive young lady. As the novel progresses, Tita learns to disobey the injustice of her mother, and gradually becomes more and more adept at expressing her inner fire through various means. At first, cooking was her only outlet, but through self-discovery she learned to verbalize and actualize her feelings, and stand up to her despotic mother.
- Tradition
The romantic love that is so exalted throughout the novel is forbidden by Tita's mother in order to blindly enforce the tradition that the youngest daughter be her mother's chaste guardian. However, the traditional etiquette enforced by Mama Elena is defied more and more throughout the novel. This parallels the setting of the Mexican Revolution growing in intensity.
Double meaning of title
Like Water for Chocolate's full title is: Like Water for Hot Chocolate: A novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances and home remedies.
The phrase "like water for chocolate" comes from the Spanish como agua para chocolate. This phrase is a common expression in some Spanish-speaking countries and was the inspiration for Laura Esquivel's novel title (the name has a double meaning). In some Latin American countries, such as Mexico, hot chocolate is made not with milk, but with water instead. Chocolate will only melt to create hot chocolate when the water reaches boiling point. The saying 'like water for chocolate' alludes to this fact. It can be used as a metaphor for describing a state of passion or – sometimes – sexual arousal. It may also be used to refer to anger, such as being 'boiling mad'. Tita, the main character, actually uses the expression in the book when she says 'estoy como agua para chocolate' (I am like water for chocolate) meaning that she is boiling mad.
The Title could also mean that Tita is becoming bitter because chocolate is sweet and water has no taste, so it is literally like water for chocolate.
Instead of something sweet she substitutes water for it.[3]
References
External links
