Like Water for Chocolate was a very beautifully written, emotional story by Laura Esquivel. I found many concepts to be very interesting. What I most enjoyed about the book is also a love of mine in life, food. Each Chapter began with a different recipe that would invoke memories for Tita. For Tita whether it be wedding cake, tamales, or dinner rolls, the recipe is the first step to triggering memories. These recipes, once created, have colors, smells and tastes that are unique to that dish. It creates memories and feelings for Tita, quite literally. Tita’s emotions were reflected in the food she cooked. I found this to be an extremely interesting concept because most dishes are better when people put their emotions into them. Tita creates a meal filled with lust, quail in rose petal sauce, after Pedro gives her a rose. This is one of the many fantastic examples of magical realism with Tita’s dishes. Gertrudis is swept away by a solider and stricken by love after eating Tita’s meal of lust. This has fantastical elements to it showing Tita’s meals can instill her emotions into others through food.
This reminded me of the Disney film, Ratatouille, when the main character, a rat named Remy, is experiencing food. He talks about how each flavor is totally unique, and combining one flavor with another something new is created. In these scenes, Remy visualizes what the food tastes like while symphonies of musical instruments and dazzling lights dance around him demonstrating how the food makes him feel. This is similar to Tita’s cooking. What ingredients you put into food and the passion behind it create a certain feel figuratively, and in Like Water for Chocolate, literally. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfV8NUiUz60&feature=related full scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXoJjgxMj9M&feature=related clearer version)
My mother always says her special ingredient is “love.” I found it funny, the entire time I was reading the novel I kept going back to that statement. When my mom makes a big fantastic feast while lighting candles in the kitchen and listening to her Celtic Woman CD, her meals taste so much better than when she comes home from a frustrating day at work to see a messy kitchen because no one has done the dishes from the night before!
Love was a theme I found throughout the novel and I must comment on the love story as I feel I am a bit of a romantic. I have heard people comparing the love of Tita and Pedro to that of Romeo and Juliet. I would say they are very different. While Tita and Pedro longed for each other, they did not have the obsessive lust Romeo and Juliet shared. Romeo and Juliet were willing to run away, even die, to be together. Tita and Pedro followed what they had to do and only had one major indiscretion. The only thing I found similar in the two couples passion was the fact it was forbidden and in the end they were together. This brings me to my next question; do I consider this a happy ending? Absolutely. I don’t know about what Hollywood thinks, but in the real world, in a situation like Tita’s, that’s as happy as it is going to get. I loved the ending although at some points I was hoping she would settle for a life with John. Tita got what her heart truly desired in the end, what more could you ask for?
Mama Elena was a very dreadful person. I was appalled by her “traditions” not letting Tita follow her heart. She was, however, a very demanding character who caught your attention. “Unquestionably,, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro. After she died, no one came close to accomplishing the same feats….” (97) She was a powerful character although a horrid one, and although Mama Elena was truly hated by Tita she was a fierce woman. Without Mama Elena, I do not believe Tita would have grown into such a strong, powerful character herself. The book did not have a sad ending to me. I thought it was perfect. Pedro and Tita could be "together for the lost Eden. Never again would they be apart." Tita deserved nothing more than a perfect ending for all she had gone though. Like Water for Chocolate was a beautiful novel, and inspires one to follow their heart, keep your head up, and know a happy ending is possible.
extra thought: Taste Visualization for Pixar's Ratatouille (Just thought it was neat!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xizttM_Cbuc&NR=1
I like how you weave your commentary of the film with your personal experiences of food at home and with the connection to Shakespeare and Ratatouille. You point out that Tita and Pedro were more practical than Romeo and Juliet, and that's just how it is in real life. Not so dramatic, but realistic. I agree very much that Ratatouille is all about the same idea, particularly in the dramatic climax of the film when the critique taste the ratatouille and is immediately transported into his childhood, and then utterly changed by that dish. Animated or not, it was a great movie.
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