The review on the novel “Like Water For Chocolate” describes a unique mixture of reality and spiritual world unveiling family relations and life struggle. The author clearly states that Laura Esquivel possesses a unique opportunity to observe and record human’s behavior and actions, through the lens of her world perception, which reflected in her work. I agree with the review that this novel is a vivid example of Laura Esquivel’s unique style of writing and extraordinary talent that becomes apparent through the choice of settings and objects, irony and symbolism. From the very beginning, readers are faced with specific structure of the book divided into 12 Chapters named after the months of the year.
It is possible to say that this structure is a symbolic one aimed to attract readers’ attention to specific message of the book. Twelve months represent four seasons which correspond with life experience of the main character, Tita De La Garza. For instance, spring symbolizes love with Pedro, summer means adult life and maturity while autumn implies wisdom. 12 months and four seasons is a life cycle which every person runs through.
The January begins with a story about Tita: “when she was only two days old, Tita’s father dies because of a heart attack” (Esquivel, 1994). The novel ends with the death of Tita. Another peculiarity of this novel is that every chapter contains a receipt and, plot development is dependent on these recipes. In every chapter, one of the episodes depicts the preparation of the dishes. Probably, these extraordinary devices help the author to underline the important of food in our life and close relations between food and memories. For instance, the petals of a rose symbolize love, and when Gertrudis tastes the dish with the petals of a rose she falls in love with revolutionary soldier.
The author of the review skillfully perceives true reality of the novel and its structure. The author analyses the role and importance of magical realism and political allegory as the core of the novel. From the very beginning, Laura Esquivel examines emotional and sexual forces, physical and spiritual needs and creates outstanding characters. Tita De La Garza is the protagonist of the novel who fights for freedom and independence from her mother.
She falls in love with Pedro, but her mother does not approve this marriage because Tita is the youngest daughter and according to family traditions she cannot marry a man till her elder sister will find a spouse. To be closer to Tita, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura. In a time, Rosaura gives birth to a child, Roberto. Tita treats her nephew as a son and takes much care about him. Although, her mother thinks that these relations can ruin her sister’s marriage and sends Rosaura to San Antonio.
In a while, the family receives bad news that Roberto has died. This event is a watershed of the novel resulted in deep psychological trauma for Tita. In order to avoid undeniable consequences, Tita’s mother sends her to asylum where Tita meets Dr Brown who falls in love with her. The doctor takes care of Tita, and trying to “safe” he brings Tita to live in his house. When Tita is nearly well she receives news from the ranch about her mother’s injury and decides to come back in order to take care about her. When she arrives her mother is afraid of Tita and refuses to eat her cooking. In a time, her mother dies because of an overdose of a medicine she takes for fear of poisoning.
The review is based on close reading of the novel and detailed analysis of the min events and themes. Like “chow mein” where the balance between grains and vegetables are crucial, the balance between culture and traditions is important for this family.