ipl-logo

Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles Essay

1025 Words5 Pages

Gender roles and expectations are challenged and brought to light in the novel Like water For Chocolate by Laurel Esquivel, exploring the way women are perceived in the things they enjoy doing, the deep concentrated feelings women experience, and the societal expectations women face. When answering the question of whether or not stereotypes are being enforced and followed, I was aware that just because a woman is doing something that is seen as a stereotype doesn't mean she is being forced to participate in it, or falling into a gender role. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be different. I enjoyed a lot of things that boys liked and tried very hard to turn away from feminine things. I would say my favorite color was blue, and I …show more content…

Tita loves cooking. This is first explored at the very beginning of her story. ¨Tita felt a deep love for the kitchen, where she spent most of her life from the day she was born¨ (Esquivel, 6). Tita cooks the majority of the meals for her family, but it was written to be something that brought her great emotion and a way to express herself. Cooking was a way for Tita to give a part of herself to the people she loves, especially when there was a lack of options as to how she could express her love. Just because Tita provided food for others and spent a lot of time doing household duties similar to the stereotypical “housewife” does not mean she was serving a gender role. She simply has a passion for cooking and taking care of …show more content…

“She felt sure that her fatness, her flatulence, and her foul breath were driving Pedro farther away every day, and she couldn’t see a solution” “Every day the situation grew more serious. She didn’t know how she would react to what “they” would say if Pedro left her, she couldn't stand it” (170/171). The pressure women face to stay attractive, especially in the eyes of men, is very prevalent and Esquivel putting the word “they” in quotes to me, was showing that Rosaura had been overthinking her appearance for a while. She did not name anyone specifically because she is so insecure and paranoid about how anyone and everyone would perceive her that she could only describe it as ¨they¨. She was embarrassed to exist because she did have the appearance she ¨should¨ have. The idea of Pedro leaving her as an effect of her physical changes was the most humiliating outcome she could think of. This was one of the first times in the book I felt sorry for Rosaura. She is aware of her beautiful sister's love for her husband but was still desperate to stay beautiful or appealing whatsoever in his eyes because that is where she found her

Show More
Related

  • Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles Essay

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water for Chocolate, subverts many of her important characters' traditional gender roles, while other characters embrace them and continue the destructive cycle. In particular, Rosaura and Pedro alike accept their role through manipulation and fear from Mama Elena and her outdated traditions. Pedro is the romantic interest of Tita, sister of Rosaura, in the story. Traditionally the youngest daughter, Tita, is never allowed to marry and assume the caretaker role of their mother until death. Pedro wants more than anything to marry Tita, but he does not resist Mama Elena’s objection, and rather takes Titas sister's hand in marriage to remain closer to her.

    Read More

  • Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles

    1274 Words  | 6 Pages

    Traditionally society sets up a norm of how a person should handle their duties creating gender identities and it comes to play with the aspect of how females should conform to these identities. Even in modern households, society habitually views women doing domestic work in the kitchen such as making food, cleaning, and taking care of people. This notion of following to the norms is set by a person’s core values and it becomes an obstacle for females to express her own opinions limiting them from creating their own sense of identity. However, the novel Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel views the kitchen as an individual source of self-expression that liberates feminine terrain as well. Even though, many of the female characters

    Read More

  • Like Water For Chocolate Gender Analysis

    1644 Words  | 7 Pages

    She did that knowing that it would hurt Tita terribly, all just because she will do anything to maintain her social status and appearance. That means having children with Pedro and giving off the impression that she has a husband and a happy family. Regardless if that means ridiculing herself for a man. She had no choice in using the nuptial white sheet to only expose the parts of her that are most “useful” to him. However, Rosaura never thinks to even challenge her mother’s traditions, or what claims society has placed on her, she is perfectly fine with Mama Elena dictating every aspect of her life for her.

    Read More

  • Breaking Gender Expectations In Like Water For Chocolate

    996 Words  | 4 Pages

    On page seven Laura Esquivel writes “...for Tita the joy of living was wrapped up in food…through the door leading to the patio and the kitchen and herb gardens was completely hers - it was Tita’s realm” ( Esquivel 7) Tita loves being in the kitchen, she was born in the kitchen and cooking is how she expresses herself. Tita also has a very motherly instinct because she loves taking care of her nephew. Laura Esquivel writes “As Rosaura was still weak sometimes, no one was surprised that Tita took over her nephew’s feeding…”(77-78) Both of these instances are times when Tita is conforming to gender roles because she is in the kitchen and taking care of children, but because most of the characters are women, Tita not only does women’s jobs, she has to do men’s jobs as well.

    Read More

  • The Stolen Party By Liliana Heker

    1083 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rosaura sees Luciana as a friend and Herminia reassures Rosaura that they are not friends. This story is a good example of social classes being unable to blend. Although Senora Ines believes that Rosaura is her servant or almost a waitress,

    Read More

  • Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles

    1314 Words  | 6 Pages

    This is linked to an anti-feminist view of submissiveness and obedience in women regularly presented in the novel. As the oldest daughter of the De la Garza family, Rosaura was offered up to marry Pedro after his proposal to Tita was declined by Mama Elena. After the suggestion had been made for Rosaura and Pedro to marry, Esquivel writes “Mama Elena came into the kitchen and informed them that she had agreed to Pedro’s marriage – to Rosaura '' (Pg. 14). Mama Elena agreed to the marriage without the confirmation from Rosaura, giving her no say in her future or life.

    Read More

  • Hills Like White Elephants Gender Roles Essay

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oday Alyatim Gender Studies Prof Qualls Hills Like White Elephants In the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, the characters Jig and the man are out on vacation traveling from Barcelona to Madrid through train. While at the train station, they experience began talking about an operation, how they discuss getting this operation shows the strong gender roles between Jig and the man.

    Read More

  • The Marxist Lens In Liliana Heker's 'The Stolen Party'

    635 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within the text there are 5 moments of foreshadowing throughout the story before it’s revealed that Luciana doesn’t see Rosara as a friend & that Rosaura isn’t at the party as a guest. But this ain’t about that. This is about when Rosaura was leaving & Senora Ines “rummaged in her purse [& held out] two bills” to Rosaura (Heker 63). Senora Ines paying Rosaura for coming instead of giving her a bracelet or yoyo like other party guests had gotten was the plot twist that revealed Senora Ines used a child as a servant. Senora Ines invited Rosaura to Luciana’s party, let her participate in the activities, & had her set- & clean-up to then give Rosaura $2.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Connie In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    590 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connie's mother looked at her daughter with disgust as she talked down to her about her looks. This was because Connie could not live up to what her sister was. Connie’s family just wants her to be like her sister so much so that Connie was always compared to June; “June did this, June did that” (324). When Connie’s family leaves, she “sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love” in this way she feels as her family leaves her she dreams of what it would feel like to be loved (326). Connie feels this way because she has yet to feel love in such this way leaving her vulnerable.

    Read More

  • West And Zimmerman Analysis

    495 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Doing Gender” by West and Zimmerman is similar to Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” However, West and Zimmerman build upon the ideas that Butler puts forth. Butler focuses on gender as performance and how gender is made up by specific actions. While West and Zimmerman take the concept of performance and constitution and applies it to a new concept, the sex category and how sex categories and gender are intertwined in society. Sex categories and gender, according to West and Zimmerman, are different and interconnected.

    Read More

  • Rosaura Quotes In The Stolen Party

    758 Words  | 4 Pages

    Her action of moving closer to her mother shows that she desires protection from her mother immensely after being severely insulted as a pet. She could not withstand the reality that she was treated as someone from a lower class, or the working class. In addition, Rosaura’s silence and cold eyes reflect that she had understand the social classism that separates her from befriending Luciana. Previously, she reacted strongly to the accusations from both her mother and Luciana’s cousin because she thought that they are from the same class as her. Now that she realizes Senora Ines is from a higher class, she keeps silent.

    Read More

  • A Raisin In The Sun Gender Roles Essay

    848 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gender roles play an important role in A Raisin in the Sun. During the time A Raisin in the Sun was written the idea of set in stone positions in a household and society were common. Women were supposed to do house jobs, keep their mouths shut, and support their husbands’ decisions and men were seen as the headman or boss. A Raisin in the Sun shows readers a window into the world where those gender roles have a twist on them. Women in the time of A Raisin in the Sun were supposed to be subservient to men.

    Read More

  • Like Water For Chocolate Tradition Analysis

    969 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine being married to someone who you barely know and don’t love. Rosaura never wished to be married, and never wanted to be like this. She had to live with someone she didn’t love and had kids with him. She had the resentful eyes from her little sister who she loved dearly. Tita doesn’t realize that Rosaura has doe everything she could to make her happy, but Tita won’t accept what she is trying to do.

    Read More

  • Calderon De La Barca's Life Is A Dream

    1821 Words  | 8 Pages

    After all, to have a character confined to the private space places limits on where the writer can set scenes. Far easier to have her dress as a man and then she can traverse the masculine public space. Yet the complete lack of men cross-dressing as women (even for comedic scenes) and the popularity of the mujer de la hombre device with the audience (more specifically the mosqueteros; more on that later) and in a country with such stong patriarchal ideals rather suggests it was used for titillation. This is also evident in the text of Life is a Dream where Rosaura is still sexually attractive to Segismundo though he believes she is a man, "I am so bewitched I can no longer think" (Act I, 174), strongly hinting that the actress would play this role with a wink to the audience, playing up on her sexual appeal. It is unlikely that Calderon was writing the first quasi-homesexual romance of the Golden

    Read More

  • Feminine Stereotypes In Tara Westover's 'Educated'

    1149 Words  | 5 Pages

    How Feminine Stereotypes and Values Enforced During Childhood Affect Perception Women are often expected to demonstrate traits that are specific to their gender, such as modesty and submission. The belief of these stereotypes is more likely to occur in religious or conservative households. This sentiment is explored in the memoir Educated by Tara Westover in which Tara is raised in a pious household that adheres to Mormon teachings. Tara is subjected to several of the family's beliefs which are difficult to grasp at a young age.

    Read More

More about Like Water For Chocolate Gender Roles Essay

Open Document