How Does Laura Esquivel Use Magical Realism In Like Water For Chocolate

Tension (Noun): Tension is a mental or emotional strain caused by something or someone that typically induces anxiety, stress, or pressure. Oftentimes, throughout one’s life, one finds that when one is in a specific situation, tension occurs internally, and sometimes even externally between two people. Similarly, in Diana Lopez’s novel, Confetti Girl and Jennifer Cervantes’ novel, Tortilla Sun, the narrators have different points of view than that of their parents, causing tension. For example, in Diana Lopez’s Confetti Girl, the narrator does not like English at all, but because her Father does, she finds that at home, her Father is always asking her about her English class and how she is doing in the class; since her Father is so involved in the subject that he seems to disregard the narrator’s view on it, an internal tension forms within the narrator between her and her Father.

The Color of Water, by James McBride, is about his journey to find who his mother is and who he is. It talked about problems between different races and between jews and society. Many of the events that the characters went through are relatable and heart breaking. The Color of Water is a heart-touching story.

Have you ever wondered how it feels to be misunderstood or to not understand? In the short stories “Confetti Girl” and “Tortilla Sun” they have the same thoughts and i’m here to explain them. Both of the stories have feelings of being misunderstood and to not understand.

Victor Villasenor was born on May 11th, 1940 in Carlsbad, California where his parents had settled down after immigrating from Mexico. He grew up on a ranch with his four siblings in Oceanside where they only spoke spanish until they went to school. Because Victor only spoke spanish he was bullied by teachers and students alike for his heritage and inability to do well in school. Being bullied and ridiculed when he was a child is why Villasenor was insecure about where he came from and who he was, and inevitably shaped him into who he was in and out of school.

Discuss and analyze how and to what ends fantasy and reality are intertwined in stories you have studied.

In Laura Esquivel’s like water for chocolate she uses many themes and one of the most common themes would be food and cooking. The platform that like water for chocolate stands on revolves around food and how Tita’s emotions are distributed through the food she creates. Cooking and food are constantly used throughout the book to resemble our main character Tita de la garzas emotional state and is also her way of communicating with her emotions. Tita is an introvert, her whole life she has been silenced by her mother, she was told that she had no opinion and she could never show her emotions, poker face 24/7. There are approximately 12 chapters in like water for chocolate each one is labeled a month and each month comes with it's own recipe,

Parents. What are they for? They help you choose the right path as well as help you whenever needed in life. They work as hard as hard as possible to lead you, but sometimes they may need time for themselves. Maybe a break or some time to follow their interests. Characters in both stories, “Confetti Girl,” and “Tortilla Sun” are living with one parent who takes care of them. This makes room very tight for the parents,

The novel Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel describes the life of Tita and her two sisters Rosaura and Gertrudis, her mother Mama Elena and her chef-friend Checha. Tita falls in love with Pedro, but her mother does not allow her to marry him because, as it is tradition in the De La Garza family, the youngest daughter has to care about her mother until she dies. Since their true love to each other, Pedro and Tita still have contact to each other, even when Pedro marries Tita's sister Rosaura, what makes their life more complicated. In Like Water for Chocolate food is an important part, so it is in any human's life. In this novel the deeper meaning of food is life, but also death. Characters live and and die because of food considering of different reasons.

In this novel Like Water for Chocolate well written by Laura Esquivel she writes about a family of women, three extraordinary, strong female characters that portray honor, courage, and dedication. Gertrudis, Strong yet silent, watching and, absorbing everything like a sponge in her environment; things she will need later in life. Tita who has lived in both worlds, born to an aristocrat and raised by the family cook, she will exhibit exemplary control, and endurance all the while burning and yearning to be herself, free from being controlled and dominated by Mama Elena, whose position, status and behavior will epitomize what extensive and unimaginable measures a mother will take to ensure the family traditions are enforced

Within the novels, Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini the two protagonists face many challenging hardships. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns the main character, Miriam who grew up in a broken and loveless home faces the harrowing experience of losing a mother to suicide at the young age of 15. Soon after, she has married off to Rasheed a widowed shoemaker and a rather conservative man who makes it quite clear on the specific roles a wife has, including being obedient and bearing children. When Miriam is unable to have children after countless miscarriages Rasheed’s true colors are shown.

Como agua para chocolate is about Tita De la Garza, the youngest daughter in the family, who is forbidden to marry the love of her life Pedro. Her mother, Mama Elena, is a strict, abusive and psychopath whose main goal in life is to keep Tita as a slave and forced her older sister, Rosaura to wed Pedro instead. To make the situation worse, her other sister, Gertrudis, is kidnapped by a general in the revolutionary army and ends up working in a brothel. Additionally, her mother figure, and culinary guru, Nacha, passes away. After Nacha dies, she keeps her close by cooking and continuing on the family recipes. Cooking, for Tita, is a form of therapy especially chicken enchiladas that are good for the soul. It helps her through physical and mental

About 35% of children grew up in a single-parent family home. Similarly, Lopez and Cervantes both tell a story about two girls who suffer living with only one parent. Both girls have many conflicts in their personal lives, which creates tension in the stories. In Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, the narrator's different points of view create tension in both stories because the characters have trouble connecting with their remaining parent, the parent acts in a way that neglects the narrator’s interests, and the narrator has trouble regaining a sense of closeness with the parent.

Like Water for Chocolate opens with a bit of wisdom from one of its central settings, the kitchen: to avoid tears when chopping onions, one must simply place a slice of onion on one's head.

In the story Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, cooking is a key element for the De La Garza family. Food impacted the lives of Tita and her family as each month they would come together to enjoy a meal cooked with various emotions. Most meals were beneficial to Tita because they help her suppress her love for Pedro without it being obvious that she was in love with him. By eating the food Pedro and Tita could connect with each other since they were not allowed to communicate with Mama Elena around. Food was a source of connection, emotions, and survival.

Relating the food to the black outspoken songs where she mentions how they “connect to the culture of the people they live with, whether they like them or not, or even if they’ve never seen one of them: they know James Brown” (Cognard-Black et al. 137) how music and dancing connects souls that haven’t even seen each other all hungry for life. Linking the connection between their hunger for life and her “very sexy little dish” of turtle eggs and spices, a light dish that helps set a romantic mood, how the “huevos de tortugas” which means turtle eggs in English is used as a term of endearment. Giving the thrive of dancing and romance a taste by adding a dish to stir up the emotions, a lot can happen with spices and ingredients which is an evident factor in Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate where food helps Tita proclaim her love for Pedro. The description shows the extreme delicacy and exoticism of the dish by its ingredients and presentation to the guests, trying to cover the war scars by gathering and enjoying a good meal and music. Even if their houses are brought down, still the fact that they are together makes them hold their heads