Student Question
How does "Like Water for Chocolate" symbolize relationship problems with food?
Quick answer:
In "Like Water for Chocolate," food symbolizes the characters' relationships and emotional conflicts. Tita and Gertrudis express their passion through their enjoyment of food, highlighting their differing approaches to love and duty. Tita, constrained by her mother's expectations, suppresses her desires, while Gertrudis freely embraces them. John Brown's bland food preferences symbolize his lack of jealousy and passion compared to Pedro. Thus, food acts as a metaphor for expressing and understanding love and passion.
There is clearly an obvious link between love and food. What is interesting about this novel is the way in which both Tita and her sister, Gertrudis, express their passionate selves through the way in which they enjoy food. Both clearly relish and savour good food.
Gertrudis at one stage invites the revolutionary army to the De la Garza ranch to sample her sister's cream fritters and hot chocolate. Food is important too for the love that John Brown has for Tita. He has no jealousy about her relationship with Pedro, as he enacts the characteristics of the food that he is used to from his home, which is "bland and didn't appeal."
Food then is a vehicle for expressing the passionate conflict that Tita faces. She, unlike her sister, wants to be a dutiful daughter and to obey her mother, but finds that to do this she has to...
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deny her passionate side. Gertrudis by contrast feels no such compunction to obey her mother and runs off with Juan and works in a brothel. Food gives both sisters the chance to express their sensual and passionate natures, but only Gertrudis initially feels able to put her feelings into action.
In *Like Water for Chocolate*, how are romantic relationship problems symbolized through food?
Unfortunately this site does not have any sample essay outlines for this topic. However, what we can do is talk about this theme and hopefully you will be able to use our pointers to construct your own essay outline and then complete your task.
In this novel, it is clear that food is something that is inextricably intertwined with love and passion. You might want to think about how food and its enjoyment relates to the passionate intensity of characters. For example, both Tita and Gertrudis are characters whose passion and sensuality is shown through their appreciation of food. Even though Tita never acts on her passions and sensuality in the same way that Gertrudis does because of the influence of her mother over her, at the same time their level of passion and sensuality is shown through the way in which they enjoy their food.
This is true for other characters as well. You might find it useful to look into how other characters relate to food and what this says about their ability to love. John Brown, for example, surprisingly feels no jealousy over her clear admiration and love for Pedro. He is entranced by her, but his lack of sensual love seems to be linked to his eating practices. Where he comes from, the food is "bland and didn't appeal." Food therefore becomes a kind of barometer that tells us a lot about the capacity of individuals to love and be loved.