Summer Reading Blog Posting 2

[Mrs. Teresa Ballas]

You will have until 11:59 on Sunday, August 14, 2011, to respond to a peer's Like Water for Chocolate posting. You are to either affirm, refute, or qualify his/her response in a 250-word minimum response. Students whose last names end with A-K need to respond to a posting of someone whose last name ends with L-Z, and students whose last names end with L-Z need to respond to a posting of someone whose last name ends with A-K. Click on reply and change the subject line to read as your first and last name's response to the first and last name of the person who wrote the blog to which you are responding. EG: Pam Fischer's Response to Teresa Ballas's Blog Posting.

[donovanwilson94]

Kelly's blog post made many good points. There are points that I agree with Kelly about and there are points I disagree with her about, though.

When she made reference to the kitchen being sadness, I disagree with it. I find that the kitchen was there to give Tita a safe haven for whatever she was going through. She stayed in the kitchen and cooked no matter her mood. The kitchen is also the place to pour your soul out. When she cried in the icing of the cake, the feeling of her soul went into it causing people to cry uncontrollably . When Tita cooked the mole in an extremely blissful mood, everyone was happy because her soul was poured into the dish. It added the fact the cooking comes from the soul. Tita had her best moments in the kitchen as well in contrast to what Kelly said. Her spirit was reborn when she had an intense moment with Pedro. Tita also fed Roberto in the kitchen which was one of the best moment in her life. The kitchen was the place with her happiest moments.

I agree with Kelly in what she has said about uncontrolled destiny to a point. It is true that Tita's destiny wasn't controlled by her. The only one who was in control was Mama Elena. It is just like the Caste system Kelly brought up in her blog post. This was a great comparison until she was taken away by Dr. Brown. When she was at his home, she had the small taste of freedom. She was able to do whatever she wanted with herself. She was able to decide to not talk and do what she wants hands as well. She was able to break her predetermined destiny, if only for a while.

[adrianamccullough]

First of all, I love that Afton made a connection to teen "love" and Twilight. It was down right humorous. Any who, I don't entirely agree with you Afton.

I do understand that now-a-days this so called "love" is lust, and us teenagers throw around the term like its nothing. Well as I said I agree with that, but I am not quite sure that now is the time period for this novel. Logically speaking if this story is told by the daughter of Esperanza and Alex, then this story is set two generations ago. This had to be about 50 years ago, and it is in Mexico. That makes a huge difference because Mexico and the USA are completely different. If I recall correctly though, and I might not be, it was okay to "fall in love" early back then. The only thing holding Tita back was that ridiculous family tradition.

Backing up to this love thing though, if this story was perceived to be in this time period, I would have shut the book and put a piece of tape over the title saying "The NEW twilight." I mean those fans need another thing to follow anyways, Stephanie Meyer is over rated now. Might as well through Laura Esquirel in to the vampire frenzy. The worse that can happen is that they learn to cook from this novel. Or even increase their reading range to something slightly decent.

Like I said before, Afton's connections were simply entertaining, and almost my exact view point. I mean if teenagers today were to start saying "I lust you" it would make entirely more since than "I love you." Granted, they would sound absolutely funny, but it would be more accurate then what they are saying now.

[kellybenz]

Kourtney’s closing statement, “I believe a big part of growing up is not doing what others tell you is right, but deciding for yourself,” very accurately sums up the idea of the way in which Tita and other characters in Like Water for Chocolate grow as people.

When we are young, we don’t know ‘good’ from ‘bad’, ‘decent’ from ‘indecent’. The way we learn these things is by watching others. It’s all a matter of the copy and paste technique; we take what behaviors and views others have and apply them to ourselves. Think back to the 2004 presidential election between Bush and Kerry. Most of us were in the fifth grade, so we didn’t really have much of a knowledge of politics. However, when asked whether you were a democrat or republican, what did you answer? Probably whatever side your parents were on.

Then we get older and our positions change a little. We gain intelligence on matters in the world and start to become more of our own people, making our own decisions. A good example of this is with making college decisions. Your parents may both be die-hard Purdue fans, but you not so much. A little girl I babysit thinks she wants to go to IU simply because it’s where her mom went; she doesn’t actually know anything about the school. At the age we are at now, however, we are able to evaluate colleges ourselves and decide whether they meet our expectations instead of having our parents tell us what to look for.

In Like Water for Chocolate, Tita experiences a big change in how she directs her life, first answering to whatever her mother said, but then coming to make her own decisions. Another character that showed this change was Mama Elena herself, though she took it to an extreme. As Kourtney reminded us, Mama Elena had her own forbidden lover, and she answered to the tradition as well. Later in her life, Mama Elena began to take charge and make her own decisions, but brought it up even another notch by making decisions for others and demanding control.

[brooketaylor]

Throughout literature we see the archetype of love and lust. There is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and, like Afton pointed out, Meyer’s Twilight. If this is taken into account then literature is riddled with stories of two young, innocent characters who fall head over heels in love with what appears to be based on nothing substantial or lasting. Bella and Edwards’ brief courtship with minimal verbal communication can be classified as a case of “unconditionally and irrevocably in love". However I would not characterize Like Water for Chocolate as a love or lust archetypical novel.

The novel doesn’t disclose to the reader when or exactly how Tita and Pedro meet. Readers are first introduced to Pedro while learning that Pedro was considering the idea of marrying Tita. Tita’s mother, Mama Elena, had informed her that she was not allowed to marry. She had to take care of her mother until she died. Right when Mama Elana hoped that she subdued her rebellious daughter she learns of this courtship. We find out that, “Unfortunately her hope was short-lived, for the next day Pedro Muzquiz appeared at the house, his esteemed father at his side, to ask for Tita’s hand in marriage.” So, if we do not know how exactly the two met then we cannot assume that their love is just lust.

Conversely, Rosaura and Pedro’s love is a complete sham. Rosaura and Pedro were essentially strangers navigating their way through a marriage of convenience for Pedro. Their only connection is that shared through Tita, Rosaura’s younger sister. From the book we learn that the only reason Pedro agreed to marry Rosaura was to be close to Tita. Pedro thought that this marriage would be the best thing for Tita and his relationship, but he was mistaken. It was the thought that counts and through this relationship we can see the love that Pedro felt toward Tita was greater than just lust; it was truly love.

[kourtneyyamafuji]

Miranda looked at her quote in a fairytale style approach, comparing Like Water For Chocolate to one our own beloved childhood stories, Cinderella. I think this outlook is a really well thought out one, considering this novel invokes elements of Mexican folklore. Plus, I like Miranda’s “The Twisted Cinderella Story” approach. The comparisons do make sense. Tita is Cinderella, meaning she doesn’t have much independence. Pedro is the Prince, the too good to be true guy who returns Tita’s lust. Mama Elena represents the Evil Stepmother, not allowing Tita to marry Pedro and ultimately becoming one of the anchors holding Tita back. Rosaura, near the exposition of the novel, wouldn’t exactly be considered “evil” or even mean, but as the novel progresses, I got that idea from her character, thus linking her to the “Evil Stepsister” in the story.

The one character comparison I can’t fully agree with is naming Dr. Brown as the Fairy Godmother. True, he did save Tita in her time of need, but he was already taken with the youngest De La Garza daughter before she needed real help. The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella doesn’t have an alternative motive for helping Cinderella. Though Dr. Brown, in my opinion, can’t be fully characterized with the Fairy Godmother, he is certainly the closest character that fits the description.

“She really proved that love is forever, even in the darkest and hardest of times.” I believe that Miranda’s ending sentence outlines the whole point the author was trying to make through this tragic love story. Tita and Pedro eventually get what they want, each other, despite every challenge that they encountered.

[jaredrobinson]

Not so fast Zach, I think your argument fails to consider a few of the finer points of the novel.

Firstly your rose analogy seems weak. Yes the rose is the universal symbol of love and their thorniness often a symbol of its struggles, however you fail to consider the fact that roses begin wilt as soon as there cut and/or with the seasons change, they are fragile and they are short lived much like the passionate love with which they are so often related.

This is a very different sort of love that what we see in the novel. What we have in terms of Tita and Pedro is, if it must be likened to a plant, more of a tulip tree. The tree may tarnish with the coming of the seasons and may be torn apart in storms, but much like their love--which weathers the storms of family strife and emotional turmoil--it always returns. Also, Tita's love (much like the tulip tree) blossoms when conditions are just so.

Analogies aside I think one must also question your use of the phrase "beaten down". You talk of how she must fight and how she is so oppressed and it sounds as though she was beaten and beaten until finally she was allowed her love. You've missed one of the major themes of the novel, the general under current of rebelliousness that is based in the fact that Tita resists everything her mother sets forth for her.

Tita is allowed nothing!

She fights back at first rather softly and with small actions but later with a regiment of insults and half crazed actions, a burst of rage that sends her spiraling into a state of mental unrest. She fights with her entire being until finally she has nothing more and has to recover.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, no, more that you need to look a little deeper before tacking on your basic love story archetype simply because this is not your average love story.

[kimyannarudolph]

I completely agree with Ashley when she says how, every time Tita gets a little joy, its always taken away from her.

Tita has had a very hard life, and, just like Ashley, I give her her props because I would have NOT been able to do it. In my eyes, Tita never did anything wrong, but Mama Elena was always punishing her for something... Life for her just wasn't fair. Everyone in the household that she ever cared for either died, ran away, betrayed her, or wasn’t allowed to be with her. It was truly sad how she had so much love for Pedro, that, it hurt her so much to see him with her sister. I couldn’t go through seeing my sister getting married to my true love. That’s not happening! Throughout the whole story, Tita never really spoke up for herself and truly declared what she wanted. She never put her foot down. If she had, the story would have gone in a totally different direction. Through it all, Mama Elena was her biggest struggle, obstacle, and accomplishment. I say accomplishment because of how she told Mama Elena off, which ended up making her disappear forever.
Even though Mama Elena had done so much destruction in Tita's life and as much as she tried to defeat her, Tita was able to finally stand up for herself.

Even after all that had been done to her, Tita still came back to take care of Mama Elena. The part that really gets me is.....Mama Elena never apologized........or even said.... Thankyou...

[sarahlittell]

I agree entirely with what Afton said and I especially loved the reference to Twilight because it does portray the absolute frivolity of this love interest between Tita and Pedro.
How can one possibly make firm decisions based on small whims, assumptions, and split-second heated events? Indeed, Tita and Pedro rarely shared a conversation, (or at least to our knowledge), only glances. A glance or a gaze into someone’s eyes is certainly not the way to define truthfulness in love.
But to be honest, who are we to judge the truthfulness of love or to what degree you must interrogate someone before you are certain you are in love with the individual? For instance, my parents had only been in a relationship for three months before my dad proposed to my mom. Apparently three months was enough time for them; for others it takes nine years to feel certain about love. Also how do you determine if a feeling is love or lust? To what ruler to we place someone’s feelings? We are all individuals, each with our own separate, individualized feelings. How could you possibly standardize love?
I also agree with the point that because Tita is forbidden to marry the idea of marrying or falling in love with someone will be much more appealing to her simply because it is something she is not allowed to do. Tita is the typical rebellious teenager. Anything forbidden will automatically become a special and secluded thought in her mind, where she then will ponder over it many times daily. Thus, this idea of love grows larger and larger in her head until she becomes completely obsessed with it. This is not love. This is the idea of love, like Afton said.

[annahooker]

While Adriana makes an interesting point, I have to say that I do not see Tita’s character the same way that she does.

I don’t think that Tita really had a strong control over her life in any part of the novel. Adriana says that Tita “spent her whole life building up this independence,” but Tita never had any independence. She spent the majority of her life doing everything that her mother asked of her, and was only able to leave the house when she went mental and was found in the pigeon coop. Tita then went to live with John, who loved her and did his best to take care of her. Even though she was no longer on the ranch, she still wasn’t free or independent. She was in a very delicate state, not talking to anyone or showing interest in anything. John watched over her, she did not take care of herself.

I also did not see Pedro as a controlling character. I do think that he is the cause of many of Tita’s mental issues, but he in no way meant to hurt her, or anyone else. Pedro truly did think that he loved Tita, and, although it was a stupid thing to do, did the only thing he could think of to be close to her. Marry Rosaura to get closer to Tita was a cruel thing to do to Rosaura, but Pedro did not do it with malicious intent. Pedro did not try to control Tita, he only tried to give her the happiness that fate would not allow her to have.

[calvinmendel]

I questioned whether Mama Elena is really Tita’s killer as this phrase alluded to. I agree with Mackenzie that Tita is not the most obedient child and she suffers more because of that. I also concur that Tita cares about how other people think of her. However, it is not only Mama Elena’s opinion that Tita cares about. Tita is no different from her sisters- her upbringing demands her life to be bound by traditions and moral obligations. Tita is being killed a little at a time not necessarily by her mother but the consequences of one act – Pedro marrying Rosaura. With this marriage, the hope of “legitimizing” the love between her and Pedro is gone. Furthermore, loving her sister’s husband is something her moral compass absolutely cannot accept. I would argue that the feeling of guilt is slowly killing her. When Tita is getting set to marry John, she sees Pedro outside the bathroom. “Damn Pedro’s eyes! Damn the carpenter who rebuilt the bathroom so it was just like the previous one, with spaces between each and every board. When Tita saw that Pedro was approaching her, with lust in his eyes, she went running out of the bathroom, throwing her clothes on every which way. As fast as she could, she ran to her room and shut the door.” Tita’s feelings of guilt lead her to shun Pedro, as John is about to ask for her hand. Her guilt causes her to bolt out of the bathroom and avoid Pedro at all costs.

At the beginning of the book, I can see how unreasonable this tradition of Mama Elena’s is. Upon Pedro’s consent to marry Rosaura, everything changes. Mama Elena also has to protect her eldest daughter’s happiness and prevent any illicit affair between her youngest daughter and her son-in-law. Destiny does not determine how lives play out; People’s choices determine how their lives play out. The one choice Pedro made has a domino effect on everybody’s lives especially on Tita’s. I sincerely think that Pedro is the one slowly tormenting Tita to death and eventually causes her death along with his own.

(The title was too long for the forum formatting).

[aftongoins]

Jared was completely correct in his assessment of the fantasy-realistic style displayed in the novel Like Water For Chocolate, but I find I feel quite differently about his ideas on the purpose of the fire at the end of the novel. He maintains that it represents an intense love connection, but I believe it may in fact be disapproval towards one of lust instead. In my first blog posting, I hinted that the foolish, childish, lust-based attraction passed off as "romance" in the novel is made so intentionally by Esquivel: a person for whom a woman has a lust-fuelled attraction may certainly light her matches, so to speak, but that does not mean that said person is the right one for her.

I believe the same holds true for Tita--her "love" for Pedro has not been shown to have any real depth to it. Rarely are the two mentioned to have a meaningful conversation, and Tita has had far stronger relationships with other characters. To be fair, the novel is set in a different time and place than that in which we live, but some parallels do hold true: every day choices are made that lead two people who had decided time and time again that a fulfilling romantic relationship would not work between them back into each other's arms for a quick game of "Light My Match". Sexual compatibility is not at all equal to relationship compatibility.

It is for this reason that I feel the true purpose of the overwhelming and unforgettable fire at the conclusion of the novel is to show that mere attraction is rarely enough to keep two people together in the long run--Esquivel uses their burning deaths as a moral to prove that the way Tita goes about choosing her partner is wrong, and that marrying for love rather than lust is preferable when possible. Why else would the pair spontaneously burst into flames after waiting twenty years for "love"?

[kellyhebenstreit]

I agree with many of the points Michael made in his blog. Honestly, while reading the novel I never once felt bad for Rosaura or thought of her as a victim. After Michael’s blog though, I definitely had to rethink that.

Rosaura was portrayed through out the entire book as a bad person but she never had any wrong intentions. It was not even Rosaura’s choice to marry Pedro; Mama Elena was the one that forced the marriage. I completely agree with Michael too when he said, “towards the end of the book I really wanted Tita to give up on Pedro and for a moment it appeared like she had, and be with John.” I was hoping Tita would just let her sister have the man and her to be happy with John, but I guess that would be too simple of an ending to a complicated love triangle. In the end, it was not surprising to me at all that Tita ends up with her dream lover.

I do disagree with Michael when he states that the real victim of the story was Rosaura. Yes, Rosaura’s husband did leave her for her own blood sister, but Tita was the real victim of the story. Tita was never allowed any privileges and was forced to care for her mother her whole life. After all, Tita was in love with Pedro before Rosaura ever even knew him. Sorry Michael, you have some true points but I am still without a doubt Team Tita.

[emilyrogers]

I completely agree with Derrian Smith’s response to the quote “Because this love is one of the truest loves I've ever seen." From having read of Pedro and Tita’s supposed “love” and their “intense moments” I felt it to be nothing but infatuation inflamed. There was obviously an attraction between the two but I felt their relationship was entirely physical lust and they acted only on impulse of feeling. If the love between Tita and Pedro was true he wouldn’t have settled for anything less than having her to himself, not her sister. And Tita would’ve stood up to her mother and her tradition to run away with the “man of her dreams”.
If there’s one thing I know about love it’s sacrificing your needs for others. Neither of the two had been willing to do that. I use quotations throughout this response because I believe all of these to be figments of their imaginations. These two people know nothing of love and they have only themselves to blame for the way their lives turned out. John may have not knocked her socks off but he was a good man. Their relationship could’ve have been filled with happiness, and they had the potential to live a successful yet healthy life together. Tita did love John, maybe not in the intense and heated way people think love is supposed to be, but just in a good and clear way. I liked Derrian’s logic of Tita and Pedro’s relationship. They really didn’t understand what “true” love was.

[Rachel Taylor]

What Anna wrote in her post and what my thoughts were while reading Like Water for Chocolate were very similar. Firstly, I kept thinking that Tita was more of a slave to Mama Elena than a daughter, especially since all Tita ever did was cook, bathe Mama Elena, and live in misery. The only time I recall Tita and Mama Elena have some sort of relationship is when Mama Elena smiled at Tita for correctly calling her Mami. From day one, Mama Elena saw and treated Tita as a slave rather than a daughter, so it makes sense that one of the themes of this novel is freedom.

Secondly, there isn’t a better analogy of Mama Elena being a noose and Tita the victim slowly dying. Throughout the novel, we see that the noose getting tighter and tighter each month until Tita finally escapes from Mama Elena to John Brown.

Thirdly, I kept hoping that Mama Elena would eventually give in to Tita’s love for Pedro and allow the marriage. It seemed strange that Mama Elena would even allow the marriage between Pedro and Rosaura because the attraction between Pedro and Tita was obvious. Unfortunately, that didn’t occur because she was forced to “never shed a tear or have a long face” about the wedding and was forced to cook the food for the wedding. At this point in the book I really empathize for Tita; she’s not only attending the wedding between her lover and her sister, but must put her hobby to use so there can be a wedding. However, I totally give props for Tita for not sabotaging her sisters day like so many others would if they had the chance.