Summer Reading Blog Posting 1

[EricKramer]

“Neither the fire nor the passage of time has been able to eliminate a strong smell of roses that lingers in the spot where the shower stood, which is now a parking lot for an apartment building.”

The symbol of the smell of roses represents the existence of Elena’s sister Gertrudis. Elena’s mother had tried to eliminate all evidence of her, but this last remaining scent has persisted through test and time to prove that her identity will not be forgotten. Gertrudis provided the child that Elena came to love, and this alone would have been ample to preserve her memory.

This is just one of many food-related symbols presented throughout the novel. Food and recipes are used as a vehicle in this story. Each month, a new recipe is introduced, pertaining to an event or ceremony that is to occur within that chapter. The recipes move the story along and allow an otherwise choppy story to be told smoothly. It is very difficult to find an effective vehicle, especially for a work of this length. When writing an essay, for example, a vehicle can make or break success. A forced vehicle tears it apart, making the work conform to an imperfect set of symbols. However, a natural vehicle can bring everything together, turning an unconnected set of ideas or instances into a flowing masterpiece. As if it is not obvious, the author, Laura Esquirel, chose a perfect vehicle. Elena is the head cook, so using recipes is a wonderfully natural vehicle. It allows each circumstance to be tied to a recipe that she will use.

There are many food-related lines in this novel, but there is a reason I chose this one. I dislike a certain aspect of this passage. Up until this point in the novel, everything has been relatively realistic and believable. Not being there at the time, I have no way of refuting anything that seems possible. I realize that the everlasting scent of roses is a symbol, but I wish Esquirel had chosen something that makes logical sense, such as a rose bush that has been there ever sense. I connect more with stories that I can wrap my real-world head around, rather than whimsical tales of everlasting scents. This is a very small complaint I have about a novel that I otherwise enjoyed.

[lanecreech]

“Tita always thanked God that her mother only bathed one a week, because otherwise her life would be a real cross to bear.”

This passage offers an almost comedic and optimistic view on Tita’s life. She is subjected to such miserable circumstances. One would assume that Tita’s life was already a cross to bear. She is essentially a servant in her own home. Being the youngest daughter she serves one sole purpose in the family: to take care of Mama Elena until her death. Mama Elena is a harsh woman with no compassion. She does not see why it should be an issue for Tita to serve as her caretaker. In order to fulfill this duty, Tita is not allowed to fall in love and marry. She must stay and devote her life to serving Mama Elena. But Tita does fall in love and the love is reciprocated. Pedro even comes to Mama Elena asking for Tita’s hand in marriage. Mama Elena, being the selfish woman that she is, instead offers Rosaura’s hand. Pedro accepts. Tita is forced to witness the man she loves spending his life with her sister. She is a prisoner in her own home. But thank God Mama Elena only bathes once a week, because if Tita had to assist in her bathing multiple times a week THEN Tita’s life would be unbearable. This passage does not only offer a laugh but really reveals Tita’s true character. Tita is a strong woman. She manages to grin and bear the grim hand that she has been dealt. The attitude of the sentence exposes Tita as the strong woman she has come to be. At this point, Rosaura and Pedro have had a child together. Tita found it inside of her to move past her animosity toward Rosaura and love the child as if it were her own. This sentence also displays Tita’s passionate hatred for Mama Elena. Tita has learned to handle the misfortunes that her life consists of, but if she were forced to spend more time caring for Mama Elena, her life would truly be unbearable.

[troberts]

"That is nonsense! I' m painfully aware of the role you put me in, when everybody on the ranch saw you weeping at Pedro's side, holding his hand so lovingly. Do you know what that role is? Laughingstock! You know, you really don't deserve God's mercy! As far as I am concerned, I couldn't care less if you and Pedro go to hell for sneaking around kissing in every corner. From now on, you can do it all you want. ... But here's the thing: in this house I intend to go on being his wife. And in the eyes of everyone else too..."

This quote, shows Rosaura for who she really is. She doesn't care that she has finally lost Pedro to her sister, Tita she just does not want anyone else to know about it. I believe this is the authors way of showing how similar to Mama Elena she really is. This line proves that she does not really have any love for Pedro as Tita does. All Rosaura cares about is her public image just as Mama Elena did. As far as both of them are concerned Tita does not matter in their little family anymore. Both of them disowned her and wanted her out of their sight without a second thought. Mama Elena also did the same thing when Gertrudis left the ranch with the solider. They do not want anything to disrupt the social image of the family so they cast out anyone who may hurt that. The author made them look like the villains of the story but they may not be the only wrong ones.

Tita is equally at fault in the decisions she made in the book. She did not do anything to the save the slowly crumbling family relationships she had. She continued to see Pedro even after she had a stable relationship with John. She wasn't content unless she had Pedro and had basically ruined her sister's marriage and family. So there are two different views of who could be the protagonist and antagonist in the book, Like Water for Chocolate. But sense the story is about Tita I believe the author meant for Mama Elena and Rosaura to be seen as the antagonists since they are the ones who stand in the way of Tita and her true happiness with Pedro. In the end no one ended up truly happy which just goes to show maybe family should be more important than being in love in some situations.

[daviddunn]

In pages 10-11 of Like Water for Chocolate, we, the collective audience, are given a taste of the bitterness that manifests itself in Mama Elena.
“If he intends to ask for your hand, tell him not to bother. He’ll be wasting his time and mine too. You know perfectly well that being the youngest daughter means you have to take care of me until the day I die.”
With that Mama Elena got slowly to her feet, put her glasses in her apron, and said in a tone of final command: “That’s it for today.”
Tita knew that discussion was not one of the forms of communication permitted in Mama Elena’s household, but even so, for the first time in her life, she intended to protest her mother’s ruling.
“But in my opinion…”
“You don’t have an opinion, and that’s all I want to hear about it.”
The contents of the passage go further then to simply establish the grounds of the primary conflict betwixt the protagonist Tita and Mama Elena. The quote also conveys Mama Elena’s motus operendi and how this oppressive demeanor goes on to affect the manner in which Tita exemplifies future emotions. On many occasions throughout the novel it is evident that Tita’s emotions are channeled through the food she prepares which causes those who eat the meals to share her sentiments. The wedding cake, for example, rich with Tita’s tears resulted in the whole congregation becoming not sick in general, but love sick. The dish prepared with the petals of Pedro’s roses aroused such a fever pitch in Gertrudis that her shower burst into flames before promptly being swept away by a soldier with whom she was in love.
In other words, because Mama Elena practically forbade Tita from displaying any signs of emotion, her feelings were expressed through her own medium: cooking. At the beginning of the book, it’s established that Tita lives in a world separate from her sisters; she lives in the kitchen and was even born in the kitchen. Unfortunately, as the quote clarifies, Mama Elena cannot be said to love Tita which is why Nacha acts as her mother. On that note, it is worth noting that neither of them was successful in relationships though Nacha’s situation was likely different from that of Tita.
Love is perhaps the strongest of all human emotions and by prohibiting Tita from even possessing said feeling, Mama Elena is in a position of complete control over Tita’s being. There is an interesting diction used in the passage that elaborates upon this notion. That it is Mama Elena’s house rather than their house exhibits Mama Elena’s dominance. In addition, discussion is said to be not permitted ruling Mama Elena as a complete dictator.

[candacebullock]

“Instead of eating, she would stare at her hands for hours on end. She would regard them like a baby, marveling that they belonged to her. She could move them howver she pleased, yet she didn’t know what to do with them, other than knitting.” (pg 108-9)

I believe the route Esquivel was trying to take with this novel is that of feminism and triumphs against tradition and society. With Mama Elena as a clear antagonist in the novel, one would believe Tita to be the protagonist; the one who faces adversities and ultimately triumphs and holds her own. However, my thoughts of Tita being this outrageously heroic woman were lost in the quote above.

This passage is pivotal for me in that it almost makes Tita sound childlike and innocent. She has been pushed over by Mama Elena so long that she marvels at hands not tied to her and doesn’t know what to do with them. In a way, it shows how human she is in a fantastical story where one would almost expect Tita to sprout wings and fly. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t fly, she is depressed and mopes about and then again finds comfort in the domestic life that had been forced upon her by Mama Elena. I will concede that her ideologies against the tradition were that of her own, and the affair with Pedro after this was rebellious but she never truly crossed the line, she just dabbled.
This is why I find Gertrudis to be an important character in the novel, if not only to serve as a direct foil to Tita. She gets a glimpse of freedom (ironically from the passion given to her through Tita’s cooking) and she leaves and finds passionate love and becomes an officer. She did what Tita could never do, and that was getting away. Tita returned when Mama Elena fell ill and took care of her until her death; she held onto the tradition. Although, I have much sympathy for Tita, I did not find her to be the true hero. If one were just to skim the surface of Tita they would find a strong woman but Esquivel made her a multi-faceted character and thus, more human.

[maggiecrawford]

p. 115 “Each person has to discover what will set of these explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul.”

Laura Esquivel used the metaphor of igniting to soul the passion that people have about things. I really like this quotation because it says that you have to do what you love. Otherwise, you will not be quite right. I do not agree that there has to be only one thing that will light up your soul. There are many things out in the world. She also used hyperbole in the word combustion. It is somewhat strong in that it can also start up slowly and then grow. What might ignite your soul now will not make you happy in two to three years. You need many things or you can become too dependent on one object. The thing you are obsessed with could be taken away in a second, like Pedro and Tita. After he was taken away, Tita was never the same. If Tita had found at least one other thing that allowed her to function normally then she would not have been so distraught when Pedro was given to her sister. I suppose food was a type of crutch but a poor one. She easily altered the food completely with whatever emotion she was feeling. It did not even keep her completely stable. She still ended up in a dove coup, naked and mute. It was not until John found her that she began to become whole again. It was not until her mother died that she was totally well and even then, she still saw the ghost of her mother. Food became her only means of communication, with it she made people sick, sad, and lusty. She talked to Pedro through food. The food should have set her soul on fire but it did not. I do not believe that a person should make anyone’s soul on fire. The reason is that people die or will leave, like Pedro. This led to Tita to killing herself. It is wrong because one person should not be responsible for another person’s happiness. Another problem is it may take a long time to find out what lights up your soul. That is why I believe it is not good to have one thing ignite your soul.

[jellefsen]

"Tita had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged; maybe that was because she knew then that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage. The way Nacha told it, Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor.” (pg. 6)

This particular passage is a great analogy to Tita's entire life under the reign of Mama Elena. In the book, Tita is forced into a lifestyle that limits her to cooking and assisting Mama Elena, denying her of Pedro, her one true love. Instead of living the life that any girl would dream of, she was locked into an uncontrollable destiny; she had to carry on the tradition of caring for her cruel mother until the day she died solely because she is the youngest daughter. This passage shows how even from birth she was destined to grief and sadness, being denied what she truly desired. This idea of having a destiny from birth is apparent throughout history in many ways such as in primogeniture or ultimogeniture, where the oldest and youngest sons, respectively, obtain the wealth of their families solely because of when they were born. This tradition was started centuries ago and continued up until the 17th and 18th centuries Europe, and gives preference to either the youngest or oldest son in the opposite way that "Like Water for Chocolate" does.

As seen in the passages before, Tita's early birth was not a result of a sickness or some trauma, but simply onions. A simple cooking ingredient commenced Tita's early birth; the intense sobbing that chopping onions caused her while she was in the womb caused premature labor. This passage shows just how much cooking meant for her; it shows that cooking was instilled her even from birth, and it was not some mindless task but an art form, an outlet for her emotions. Throughout the book Tita uses cooking as a concrete medium for her emotions. Whether it be her grief and tears in the "Chabela wedding cake" that made everyone (except Tita) horribly sick to his stomach, or Tita's intense passion in the "quail in rose petal sauce" that burned brightly inside of Gertrudis and inspired her to run away with a rebel soldier. All throughout the book, it is clear that cooking is a physical link to Tita's emotions.

[erinbecker]

“She had been walking to the table carrying a tray of egg-yolk candies when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned her head and her eyes met Pedro's. It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body was so real she was afraid she would start to bubble – her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts – like batter...”

Does anyone really believe in love at first sight? Does the burning gaze of a rubbernecking gentleman insinuate the passion and devotion required to be considered “love”? I think not. But then again, what is love? Today, love appears to be as simple as a word, and when that word has been worn out, it can quickly be replaced with the word divorce. In the setting of “Like water for Chocolate”, the definition of love seems to be extremely different. Lust is grandly mistaken for love by nearly all characters of the novel, especially Tita.

Many times the word “love” is used to describe the emotions stirring within Tita and Pedro, but those emotions were usually caused by a physical attraction. For example, in chapter four, Pedro catches a glimpse of Tita's breast while she is nursing his son Roberto, and “a succession of conflicting emotions took hold of them.” Many emotions were named, but the first to be mentioned was, of course, love. Later in the novel, Pedro “threw himself upon her and caused her to lose her virginity and learn of true love.” Once again, this was a physical act that was supposed to symbolize love.

Tita's relationship with Dr. Brown was closer to true love than she had ever found with Pedro. John Brown respected Tita and did all he could to help her recover to her natural state. He limited his physical relationship with Tita, which also supports the notion that whatever love John had for Tita was true and not blurred by sexual urges. In the end, Tita didn't recognize this kind of love and maintained her relationship with Pedro.

I suppose happiness is what is most important. In the end, Tita was happiest sneaking around with Pedro and because of this decision, managed to dramatically alter the outcome of her beloved niece’s life. If Tita had married John Brown, she might not have ever had the opportunity to make sure that Esperanza didn't suffer the same fate that she did. I guess everything happens for a reason!

[kaylabecnel]

"Tita didn't distinguish between tears of laughter and tears of sorrow. For her laughing was a form of crying." (page 7)

This quote was almost a foreshadowing for Tita’s character, as well as a character trait. Everything she did to try to make herself happy throughout the book ended up hurting her in the long run. Whenever she was happy, something was always behind the curtains, or even her happiness was behind the curtains. Her entire relationship with Pedro was a form of this "laughter". She'd tease herself with glances, flirtations, memories, and even the intercourse, when she only creating a deeper hole, and hurting herself by giving herself piece by piece of what she "could never really have" because he had been her sister's husband at the time, and the family tradition was holding her down. Then, when she died (killed herself) at the end, that only proved that what she thought would be her only happiness, resulted in the ultimate downfall. Although it may have been a "romantic death" as if it were in between the suicides of Romeo and Juliet, or the simultaneous passing away of the main characters of The Notebook, the audience can't help but feel the emotions associated with Tita's lack of fulfillment for happiness, rather than the small piece of happiness that she did get, because her small fraction of happiness was ended with such a tragedy. However, her suicide, in my opinion, was almost a "victory" sacrifice, because her life was only complete when she had Pedro all to herself. So, with him gone, she'd had what she needed, and she then, killed herself, seeing no need to live anymore.
Her relationship with Pedro is somewhat like that of the relationships in the film, "The Duchess", where the Duchess was forced to live with her husband and his mistress in the same house. Tita and the Duchess were both attempting to find happiness in a home made of destructive bricks constantly being piled upon another. They were each only imposing pain upon themselves by staying with the man who they thought to be the love of their life, and the woman who shouldn't be with him. Neither the Duchess, nor Tita, ended their story with real happiness. So, there is the "sad laughter", she's being with this man and his wife (her sister), because she believes that would be the closest entity to her ultimate happiness, while she's only really causing herself the agony of seeing him with another woman.
Her cooking was also a form of this "laughter." Cooking, and her peers' reactions to her cooking, were what made Tita content. However, she'd continuously been upset and depressed as she was cooking. Countless tears were shed into the meals she'd prepared, due to her cooking being a reflection of her expressions, feelings, and life. She had to use her cooking as a reproduction, imitation, and metaphor for what she truly wanted to say and feel in her actual life.
Looking at the "Every kiss begins with Kay" commercials on television, you see the woman crying because she just received the love of her life's confirmation of his love for her. Tita only received the confirmation, but she never received the pure and real moments that she longed to have. A normal person could easily cry because they're sad, or because their rapture and jubilance are pouring out at the seams. However, Tita's tears of joy and tears of pain were one in the same, because it seems as though her happiness only created an outlet for her true feelings, the sadness that had been buried by her various attempts at exhilaration. While her happiness was performing it's number on stage, her aching torture was behind the curtains ready to be let out, allowing Tita to only have scripted moments of happiness; false moments of joy, and mere simulations of the life that she truly wanted.

[jbachra12]

“How nice the child looks with such a beautiful aunt holding him!”
“Thank you doctor”
“He isn’t even your own son. Imagine how pretty you will look with one of your own.”
A look of sorrow crossed Tita’s face.

This conversation between the doctor, John Brown, and Tita explain much about Tita’s circumstances. The exchange of thoughts quickly became awkward as Tita began to think of life with a child and being married. Tita loved and cared for Pedro and Rosaura’s son, Roberto, as if it were her own. She enjoyed the connection and did not want to disown such an innocent child just because the problems that had raised. This is one of the first times that Doctor John Brown had spoke to Tita on such general terms. The times before it had been about Roberto and how he was very impressed with how Tita handled the dangerous delivery with her sister, Rosaura’s.

After John Brown had heard about Tita’s assistance with the delivery he noticed that this was the first woman he was attracted to since his wife had died five years ago. John Brown made conversation and then realized that the situation was more than what was apparent. Tita shared with John Brown that she could not get married or even have children because she had to take care of her mother until she died. John Brown was in aw after hearing such wishes. This came to Tita as a bit of a surprise because many people have not openly talked about Tita and her mother’s tangled relationship. John Brown expressed that he did not agree with Mama Elena, Tita’s mom. Tita couldn’t find words to continue the conversation and walked away. This shows that Tita is still in much disagreement with her mom, but does not know what to do about the situation.

As the book continues Tita grows closer to the Doctor, mostly because he disagrees with Mama Elena and feels that he will always be there for her. Later, after Mama Elena dies, Tita and the Doctor plan to get married. Though in the end, they do not follow through with these plans because Tita and Pedro grew in their relationship as well.

[Olivia Horan]

“Tita remembered that Nacha had always said that when people argue while preparing tamales, the tamales won’t get cooked. They can be heated day after day and still stay raw, because the tamales are angry. In a case like that, you have to sing to them, which makes them happy, then they’ll cook. Tita supposed the same thing had happened with the beans, which had witnessed her fight with Rosaura. That meant all she could do was to try to improve their mood, to sing them a song full of love: she didn’t have much time to finish preparing the meal for her guests.”

Writers and architects, artists and chefs, thinkers and doers: they all have one thing in common. When they are doing what they do, they do it with a passion that’s inexplicable to anyone else. They take a bit of their own feelings, their own emotions, and weave them into their work flawlessly. Esquivel demonstrates this phenomenon most chimerically through the protagonist, Tita, and her cooking.

Tita had a passion for cooking that started when she was a young girl, playing in the kitchen with Nacha, and continued all through her life. Being the only one in the house that was capable of making many of the traditional recipes, she spent most of her life in the kitchen. This spawned her ability to pour out whatever she was feeling into the meal. The passage demonstrates this phenomenon on the day that John’s aunt was joining them for dinner. Tita and Rosaura had earlier had a fight about Pedro in the kitchen, so the beans, absorbing these feelings, were angry. The personification of the beans in this way made me think of the beans as Tita’s own kin. Like a baby, she had to soothe them back into a good mood. She had to think of a moment when her emotions were so joyous that she would be able to share this happiness with the beans through song. Rosaura’s children often seemed to be more Tita’s than Rosaura’s, but in the end, her only true children were in the kitchen, where everything was solely hers. She was able to incorporate her own happiness into the beans, making them happily continue their cooking on the stove.

In my reading, I found the recipes to be an important theme through the entire novel. It was the source of all of the metaphorical conceits, hyperbolic expressions of feelings, and fantastical experiences in the story. The fact that, through all of the death and confusion on the ranch, the cookbook and its secrets survive proves this theory true. The cookbook, a hardy cockroach, withstands all of its owners dying, and even the ranch burning down without deciding to disappear with it all. The recipes are, presumably, yet again passed on to Tita’s niece, and the traditions will continue.

Tita feels love and ecstasy through the course of her story as well as anger and hurt, and each emotion in turn integrates itself into her food. By displaying these feelings in a mythical way, the story becomes more of a tall tale than an account of events. Through this, Esquivel creates the unique style in which Like Water for Chocolate is written.

[Karl Simmons]

"Something strange was going on. Tita remembered that Nacha had always said that when people argue while preparing tamales, the tamales won't get cooked. They can be heated day after day and still stay raw, because the tamales are angry. In a case like that, you have to sing to them, which makes them happy; then they'll cook."

The back of my copy of Like Water for Chocolate includes a blurb referring to the books as "A tall tale, fairy tale, soap-opera romance, Mexican cookbook, and home-remedy handbook all rolled into one." That description hits the nail right on the head, and several of these themes are visible in the passage I have quoted.

One of the most notable themes through the book is food. A recipe is central to the plot of all but one of the chapters, the kitchen is a reoccurring setting, and at one point, Tita even uses food as an emotional postman to reach Pedro. This passage is one of many that highlights the love Tita puts into her cooking.

Another theme relevant to this passage is the romance. The argument that caused the tamales to refuse cooking was over Tita’s love for Pedro, and the embarrassment it causes Rosauria. While Tita inevitably ends up with Pedro, their romance is the central conflict of the story. In this passage, the romance even finds a way to interfere with Tita’s wonderful cooking.

Possibly the most interesting thing about the book was magical realism. This is a literary technique that describes a fairy-tale situation literally, but contrasts with realistic tones through the rest of the book. For instance, many of the characters and problems they face are incredibly realistic, but then we have this passage, where tamales are made angry and refuse to cook until they are sung to.

Like Water for Chocolate is a very unique book for it’s combination of many different styles of writing and genres. Somehow, Laura Esquivel managed to fuse all of these elements into a single cohesive novel. It’s not for everybody, but if you’re the small sliver on the literary Venn-diagram that enjoys romance, food, and magic, this is the book for you.

[Adriana Seni]

“But what is decent? To deny everything that you really want?” pg 175

At this point in the novel Tita has been denied many of her rights by
Mama Elena. She can’t marry, interact with Pedro, be creative with recipes, cry, or have an opinion. She reflects on what she would have changed about her situation if she could: “She wished she had never grown up, never known Pedro, never had to flee from him. She wished her mother would stop tormenting her…She wished Esperanza could marry…she wished Gertrudis would come home, to lend Tita the support and strength she needed so much now!” These wishes are the things she realizes she is not able to wish for. Tita knows it’s inappropriate to wish for these things.

When people grow up they realize how things have changed from when they were children. As children you believe you can get whatever you want if you wish on a shooting star, on 11:11, or in Tita’s case a porcelain doll in the Three Kings’ Day bread. Then when one grows up, he realizes how you can’t just wish upon a star anymore. You have to face reality and work to make things happen that you want to happen.

Tita knows this, but she is sick of being told what is “decent” or what is socially acceptable. So she regresses to her childhood mentality and wishes for what is indecent to wish for. Tita’s situation is relatable to people in every time period. There are times when people wish their situation was different and therefore realize that they have to work to make that happen, and cannot just wish it to be different. I wish I didn’t have to write this blog, but I know that wishing for it won’t change the fact that I still have to do it.

[austingalm]

"Take care to chop the onion fine. To keep from crying when you chop it (which is so annoying!), I suggest you place a little bit on your head. The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can't stop" -Page 5

After reading a novel, many people attempt to find a single word that describes the entire novel or just a certain aspect of the novel. Obviously, many people would try to describe the life struggles and ultimate victory of Tita in this novel. Normally one would try to find an adjective that encompasses everything that Tita went through such "inspiring" or "overwhelming," but neither of these words can fully capture the journey that Tita experienced in her household; thus, i present you with the first lines of the book and take from it a single word: onion.

What was Esquivel trying to tell the reader when she gave this part of the Christmas Rolls Recipe? What is an onion supposed to represent? Love, the onion is love. Wrapping such a beautiful theme in such an obscure and rather ugly vegetable perfectly captures the love that Tita experienced.

Love is a difficult concept to grasp and trying to handle it can make tears flow and bring much pain but once you have grasped it, it is sweet, savory, and satisfying; like an onion. "Take care to chop the onion fine" because if you take it in all at once it will be ruined, by taking your time and being patient with the onion, it can be perfectly utilized for ultimate pleasure--much like the killer love of Tita and Pedro. "To keep from crying... place a little bit on your head" because by having that bit of onion, it can lessen the blow of the odor it gives off--similar to Tita’s knowing of Pedro's love for her thus helping her to cope with not having him. "The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can't stop" and Tita never stopped worrying about fully having the love of Pedro, she was characterized by her ability to cry streams, and even in her last moments she was near crying over the possible loss of her one true love. Through the use of symbolism and euphemism, Laura Esquivel made love into an onion.

[kcrites21]

A Quote from Pedro, Page eighteen, "No, no, I can't ! I need an answer now: you don't have to think about love, you either feel it or you don't. I am a man of few words, but my words is my pledge. I swear that my love for you will last forever. What about you? Do you feel the same way about me?"

The quote I have chosen speaks to me on a different level of love, serenity, and complacency than any other in the short, love novel. I felt with the leaves of the book being entirely filled with an endless notion of the expectations and advances of love that it was only proper to put a quote that fits accordingly. Not one thing in this novel contradicts Pedro's never ending love for Tita that is confessed in my quote. The begining of a life being longed to live by both, but in no way accepted, even shunned, by the rest of the family is formulated here in these words Pedro speaks so eloquently into the ears of his true love. Throughout the course Pedro expresses his love for Tita in many ways, although designed to be inconspicuous, they are usually discovered by Mama Elena.

The way this text is carried on is very simillar to that of "Jane Eyre". I know this might sound a little odd with how they are set half a world apart and many decades differ the years, but after you put all this aside you can truly see the passion in both. In the story written by Charlette Bronte, Jane is forbidden to fall in love with Mr. Rochester even though she feels herself more apart of him as each day drags on. While Jane is not permitted this love due to social class and e being her master, Tita is refused the love she yearns for because of her mother. Love is an all binding power and when two people love eachother not one thing is able to defeat the feelings harboured by both sides. In both cases the pairs of lovebirds are able to consummate their relations, although for Pedro and Tita it turns out to be a nightmare, not like the heavenly bliss they expected. Well, the nightmare isn't so much the love making, it's the life ending suffering Pedro experiences because his love has been bottled up for so long. This is the same as in Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester is waiting for his love to return and his love can not stop thinking about him as well.

I begin to giggle when I see in the guidlines that we may use our own life experiences for this response. Much of the book is about the want and need of love, expressing love, ad the hurt for when you can't be with the one you love. As seniors in high scho, I can't help to think how foolish it be to think someone able to relate to such a blissful experience, but then I begin to think this love does not have to be for a person, it can be for a game, or a belief, or an object. This is when I discover that my own life ties into the novel of loving something that is not accepted by my family. My family is a very accepting group of people, but one thing they will not tolerate a variance in is religion. We are a Catholic family and while I believe there is a God I can not help but think that there is more to it all. So, instead of being strictly Catholic I have opened my mind to studying new religions and have found a serene pleasure in doing so. My family hates to see this. They believe only one religion should be examined. This leads me into a sense of knowing what Pedro and Tita go through to finally be with what it is they truly want.

Lastly, I am goin to go through this quote and disect it. Pedro says, "you don't have to think about love, you either feel it or you don't." That piece of this quote makes me think that "love at first sight" is possible. While for some that may be true, and I will never understand how, the two unquestionably feel as if love has swept over them in the first instant their eyes meet. My beliefs contradict this part of the quote, love is something that must be given careful examination and thought, if not you might end up with someone whom you don't really love. You must think through it and spend time with the person so you can determine if their values match up with yours and they believe in some of the same things you do. While love at first sight can pertain to the physical aspects of love, it will never be able to work the deep investigation into the person's soul. This takes ardent studying of the person to see if they are one you can see yourself with. In the same quote Pedro says, "I am a man of few words, but my word is my pledge," I can actually relate to these words. A of many words is a man who does not know. If you know it you don't speak it, you let others learn by watching and their own experiences. People are not as smart as their words depict. This book and Jane Eyre do a great job of expressing that. In both novels we have people who clearly act as if they know more than others, but it is clear that the ones more reserved are keen on learning and knowledge for they know this is the key to wisdom. "My words are my pledge," is in simple a liar is not me and I keep my word. An honest, wise man is Pedro. and he shows this thoroughly with marrying Rosaura to gain access to Tita. Pedro obeys Mama Elena because he knows through examination that if he doens't she will keep him permantely away from Tita, his love. The quote I have analysed is very meaningful to me, part of it I agree with and part I don't. this is very strange for a passage of its length. The quote expresses real, passionate, deep love and it is very hard to come by words so beautiful.