“Like Water for Chocolate” is Laura Esquivel’s first novel yet it has been a great success for being awarded as a best-seller when it was first published in 1989. It has been translated into 30 different languages around the world and one of these is its translation to English which made the novel a best-seller. It gave the readers the exact excitement as the original Spanish version.
“Como agua para chocolate” is a common expression in Spanish-speaking countries which is “Like water to chocolate” when translated in English. This was the inspiration for Esquivel’s novel title. Like Water for Chocolate’s full title is Like Water for Hot Chocolate. In Latin American countries like Mexico, they use water instead of milk in making hot chocolate. At the boiling point of water, chocolate melts and that will be the hot chocolate. It is associated in the extremity of emotion in this novel such as anger, madness and passion. The book is composed of twelve chapters representing each month of a year which each month starts with a recipe. This novel showed Esquivel’s love for the kitchen and she believes that it is the most important part of a house because it is the source of knowledge and undertakings that brings pleasure.
The novel tells us about Tita De La Garza, the youngest in her family that long lived in Mexico and her suspense love story with Pedro Muzquiz. Due to a tradition which says that the youngest daughter must not marry and take care of the parents, she was not allowed to marry. This brought Pedro into a decision of marrying Rosaura, Tita’s older sister, just so he can be closer to Tita.
Tita has always loved the kitchen and as their family cook, Nacha, died, Tita replaced her position. She was not allowed to weep in front of her mother so she cries whenever she cooks. And whatever she was feeling while cooking, the people that will eat what she had cooked will feel the same way as she did.
As the story goes, Pedro fell into a spell of romance in Tita’s cooking. Rosaura has no skills in cooking and so it made Pedro unattracted to her more. Mama Elena noticed that Roberto, Rosaura and pedro’s son kind of make Tita and Pedro closer and so she asked the Pedro and Rosaura together with their son to go to a trip. Roberto died in the journey and when Tita found out about it, she blamed her mother for everything and that’s when Tita started disobeying her mother.
Tita continued living far from her mother and when she received a news that the ranch was attacked and that her mother died, she moved in back together with his fiancée Dr. john Brown. They lived there with Pedro and Rosaura. Rosaura gave birth to a baby girl and she was named Esperanza.
After the all obstacles to the relationship between Tita and Pedro are gone, the lovers finally share a night of bliss that is so heated and passionate that Pedro actually dies while making love to Tita. Upset that Pedro dies while she lives, leaving her alone in the world, Tita proceeds to consume matches whilst thinking of his face. The matches are sparked by the heat of his memory, creating a fire that engulfs them both, leading to their deaths in union and the total destruction of the ranch.
The narrator of this novel is the daughter of Esperanza. The narrator then says that all that was found under the smoldering rubble of the ranch was Tita's cookbook, which contained all the recipes described in the preceding chapters
This novel was full of symbolisms that made it more beautiful. It may not be realistic because of some magical and unexplainable events and it needed some logical thinking to understand some symbolism. It has it’s simplicity as its strength too. The story took place in Mexico and Spanish was its original language so people from other part of the world will not understand some of it if it was written in a more complicated way. The novel may not be realistic and it needed some logical thinking to understand some symbolism.
The book itself is perfectly capable of staying as it and changes are not needed anymore. It is a great book which is easy and fast to read and comprehensible book.
~Kimberly Saraza Felix
~IV-Albert Einstein
“Como agua para chocolate” is a common expression in Spanish-speaking countries which is “Like water to chocolate” when translated in English. This was the inspiration for Esquivel’s novel title. Like Water for Chocolate’s full title is Like Water for Hot Chocolate. In Latin American countries like Mexico, they use water instead of milk in making hot chocolate. At the boiling point of water, chocolate melts and that will be the hot chocolate. It is associated in the extremity of emotion in this novel such as anger, madness and passion. The book is composed of twelve chapters representing each month of a year which each month starts with a recipe. This novel showed Esquivel’s love for the kitchen and she believes that it is the most important part of a house because it is the source of knowledge and undertakings that brings pleasure.
The novel tells us about Tita De La Garza, the youngest in her family that long lived in Mexico and her suspense love story with Pedro Muzquiz. Due to a tradition which says that the youngest daughter must not marry and take care of the parents, she was not allowed to marry. This brought Pedro into a decision of marrying Rosaura, Tita’s older sister, just so he can be closer to Tita.
Tita has always loved the kitchen and as their family cook, Nacha, died, Tita replaced her position. She was not allowed to weep in front of her mother so she cries whenever she cooks. And whatever she was feeling while cooking, the people that will eat what she had cooked will feel the same way as she did.
As the story goes, Pedro fell into a spell of romance in Tita’s cooking. Rosaura has no skills in cooking and so it made Pedro unattracted to her more. Mama Elena noticed that Roberto, Rosaura and pedro’s son kind of make Tita and Pedro closer and so she asked the Pedro and Rosaura together with their son to go to a trip. Roberto died in the journey and when Tita found out about it, she blamed her mother for everything and that’s when Tita started disobeying her mother.
Tita continued living far from her mother and when she received a news that the ranch was attacked and that her mother died, she moved in back together with his fiancée Dr. john Brown. They lived there with Pedro and Rosaura. Rosaura gave birth to a baby girl and she was named Esperanza.
After the all obstacles to the relationship between Tita and Pedro are gone, the lovers finally share a night of bliss that is so heated and passionate that Pedro actually dies while making love to Tita. Upset that Pedro dies while she lives, leaving her alone in the world, Tita proceeds to consume matches whilst thinking of his face. The matches are sparked by the heat of his memory, creating a fire that engulfs them both, leading to their deaths in union and the total destruction of the ranch.
The narrator of this novel is the daughter of Esperanza. The narrator then says that all that was found under the smoldering rubble of the ranch was Tita's cookbook, which contained all the recipes described in the preceding chapters
This novel was full of symbolisms that made it more beautiful. It may not be realistic because of some magical and unexplainable events and it needed some logical thinking to understand some symbolism. It has it’s simplicity as its strength too. The story took place in Mexico and Spanish was its original language so people from other part of the world will not understand some of it if it was written in a more complicated way. The novel may not be realistic and it needed some logical thinking to understand some symbolism.
The book itself is perfectly capable of staying as it and changes are not needed anymore. It is a great book which is easy and fast to read and comprehensible book.
~Kimberly Saraza Felix
~IV-Albert Einstein
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