Like Water for Chocolate

“…Tita felt her body fill with a wintry chill: in one sharp, quick blast she was so cold and dry her cheeks burned and turned red, red as the apples beside her.”

Humans experience grief in many ways. For Tita, her tears do not always imply sadness; they are sometimes a spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions. When Mama Elena denies her the opportunity to spend her life with her true love, Pedro, grief overpowers her in the form of a cold, dry wind. This is the opposite of tears, warm and wet. The frigid wind is barren and emotionless, whereas Tita’s tears are fertile with salt and passion.

“The whiteness of the granulated sugar frightened her. She felt powerless against it, feeling that at any moment the white color might seize her mind, dragging along those snow-white images from her childhood, May-time images of being taken all in white, to offer white flowers to the Virgin. She entered the church in a row of girls all dressed in white…”

Once Tita sees the preparation of Rosaura and Pedro’s marital sheet, she is plagued with images of white for days. As she mixes white icing for the wedding cake, she remembers her First Holy Communion (or confirmation). In this ceremony, adolescent girls dress in white—mimicking their wedding day—as a sign of their commitment to follow Christ. It is a symbolic moment serving as a metaphorical baptism. These images do not comfort Tita, and she is haunted by what she sees as a curse of perpetual virginity inflicted by Mama Elena.

“Only the pan knows how the boiling soup feels, but I know how you feel…”

Nacha has always shared a special bond with Tita. As she watches the young girl grieve over her lost love, she uses an idiom to express solidarity, having lost her love as well. Later, the narrator reveals Tita’s grandmother forbid Nacha from marrying her fiancé.

“That was the way she entered Pedro’s body, hot, voluptuous, perfumed, totally sensuous.”

Tita’s quail dish has a profound effect on everyone at Rosaura and Pedro’s wedding. Gertrudis’s reaction is purely physical lust; however, Tita and Pedro’s arousal is far more emotionally and spiritually stirring. The author subverts the traditional sexual experience of a male penetrating a female by describing Tita entering Pedro through her sumptuous food. In this way, their connection transcends lust and becomes metaphysical.

“…the star generates so much heat inside itself that is shatters the rays into a thousand pieces. Any look it receives is immediately repulsed, reflected back onto the earth, like a trick done with mirrors. That is the reason the stars shine so brightly at night.”

In this quote, the author incorporates myth into the narrative. Myths are traditional stories told by Indigenous peoples to explain elements of life and death, nature, and cosmic phenomena. The stories were told orally and passed down from generation to generation. This mythical explanation for why stars shine also holds symbolic meaning for Tita. Like a star, Tita holds the heat of her anger and fiery passion inside. However, Pedro’s absence has made her cold and she looks to the stars, hoping to revive herself with their heat.

“But as much as she exaggerated the events she had witnessed in the plaza, describing in bloody detail the violent battles that had taken place in the village, Tita showed no more than a flicker of interest.”

The Mexican Revolution becomes more important to the narrative as members of Tita’s family come into direct contact with the war. Like the novel’s own embellishments, Chencha exaggerates her tale from town to capture Tita’s attention. However, Tita has already experienced so much grief and trauma that she barely registers her friend.

“The baby’s cries filled all the empty spaces in Tita’s heart.”

Denied the privilege of marrying and becoming a mother, Tita has grown cold, both physically and emotionally. Preparing food has even ceased to bring her joy. However, the birth of Rosaura and Pedro’s son, Roberto, rekindles her zest for life, as she fully immerses herself in his care. Pretending the baby is hers brings her and Pedro even closer, but draws the unwanted attention of the controlling Mama Elena.

“From then on, her main interest lay in feeding that pathetic baby pigeon. Only then did life seem to make a little sense.”

Preparing food and feeding people are how Tita shows love. But when Mama Elena forcibly removes Roberto and his family, Tita loses her passion for cooking. The responsibility of feeding a baby dove is a poor substitute for the meaning she found in nourishing Roberto. She ends up pouring too much of her grief into the helpless bird and kills it. The moment symbolizes the way Tita’s grief becomes poisonous if she is not allowed to express herself. She unintentionally harms those around her with the power of her emotions.

“…when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro.”

In this quote, the author employs alliteration with the repetition of words starting with “d” to emphasize the calculated cruelty of Mama Elena. All the words describe violence in some way.

“Tita grabbed it so tightly that there was no choice but to let it drag behind the carriage like the huge train of a wedding gown…”

Tita’s bedspread symbolizes her hope to marry Pedro someday. It is also an outlet for her grief, as she spends her sleepless nights crocheting it. As Dr. John Brown whisks Tita away, the author employs foreshadowing by describing the blanket as a wedding train. John has romantic feelings for Tita, and the author hints that he may become more than a physician to her in the future.

“Afterward, John’s large, loving hands, had taken off her clothes and bathed her and carefully removed the pigeon droppings from her body, leaving her clean and sweet-smelling.”

The author juxtaposes this scene with one in the previous chapter where Tita bathed her mother, a task she loathes. John’s tender care is a contrast to Tita’s forced service to her ungrateful mother. Tita spends her life caring for the needs of others, neglecting her own physical and mental health in the process. John’s compassion reveals he is a caring, sensitive man, nurturing Tita in a way she has never experienced.

“From the first, they had established a communication that went far beyond words.”

Tita often communicates with others through eye contact or body language alone. She and Pedro express emotions to each other through prolonged gazes and Tita’s food. When Tita meets the spirit of Morning Light, she experiences a profound nonverbal connection to the grandmotherly image who reminds her of Nacha. Because she and Morning Light share a passion for food, they do not need words to express their admiration for each other.

“Elena had a little heart-shaped locket hung around her neck, and inside it a tiny key caught Tita’s attention.”

Mama Elena holds the keys to all the ranch’s doors and maintains strict control over them. This symbolizes her control over Tita’s life. By preventing Tita from marrying, she keeps her “locked away” from love and a family of her own. The locket also symbolizes Mama Elena’s control over her secrets; once Tita unlocks her mother’s secret box and learns about her past, she unlocks new understanding of her cruelty. With Mama Elena’s death, Tita now holds the keys to her own future.

“…hot chocolate made with water is more digestible than that made with milk.”

The author incorporates recipes in the novel for several reasons. Their inclusion provides a rich education on traditional Latin American cuisine and engages the reader’s sense of taste as the story progresses. The recipes also carry symbolic meaning. The recipe for hot chocolate has instructions crucial to its taste. One wrong move and the creamy, detectible treat turns bitter. Just as Tita must meticulously monitor her cooking, she must also regulate her emotions for fear of disrupting the delicate balance of life on the ranch. Dairy in hot chocolate can cause digestive distress, and raw, unfiltered emotions can cause strife in the family.

“She lightly hitched her skirt up to her knee, quite uninhibited.”

Gertrudis is unashamed of her body. She is comfortable expressing her sexuality through dance and hikes her skirt for more ease on the dancefloor, unconcerned about this act being seen as inappropriate or lewd. This moment mirrors an earlier scene where Tita collects apricots in her skirt and is embarrassed by Pedro seeing her bare legs. Mama Elena raised her to believe her body should be covered lest it stir desire in a man. Conversely, Gertrudis freely exposes her body, relishing in its beauty.

“Rosaura was weak, it was important to her how society say her…”

The author exposes Rosaura’s fatal flaw: She fixates on others’ opinions of her, failing to recognize her own value. If she were stronger in spirit, she could leave Pedro and find her own path to freedom and independence. However, Mama Elena impressed upon her the importance of following a strict moral code; leaving her marriage would disgrace her and the family.

“The truth! The truth! Look, Tita, the simple truth is that the truth does not exist; it all depends on a person’s point of view.”

Gertrudis is a moral relativist. She does not believe in absolute truth and instead asserts truth is based off an individual’s experience. She counters Tita’s concern for Rosaura’s feelings with a command, telling her to stop searching for the approval of others.

“Tita would love to be a simple seed, not to have to explain to anyone what was growing inside her, to show her fertile belly to the world without laying herself open to society’s disapproval.”

Tita’s concern over her (false) pregnancy speaks to the double standard for women who find themselves pregnant and unmarried. While society applauds men for impregnating women, pregnant and unmarried women are considered “ruined” and are locked away for the duration of their pregnancy. Tita longs for people to view her fertility as a gift, not a sin. The author uses the metaphor of a seed growing inside Tita to represent her fertility. While Tita is in fact not pregnant, her seed will take the form of the family recipes and traditions, to be passed on to the next generation.

“I know who I am! A person who has a perfect right to live her life as she pleases. Once and for all, leave me alone…”

Tita finally stands up to Mama Elena, specifically her ghost. Her powerful words banish the ghost for good, but not before the latter smashes a lantern—sparking a fire that severely burns Pedro. Tita’s words signify a shift in her character, as she finally acknowledges her self-worth as a human being.

“Gertrudis thanked her sister for the happy moments she had spent with her, advised her not to give up the battle for Pedro, and before departing gave her the recipe the prostitutes use so they don’t get pregnant.”

Gertrudis imparts wisdom to Tita as she leaves for battle. She first ministers to Tita’s heart, admonishing her to follow her passion and pursue a relationship with Pedro. Then, sealing her position as a true feminist, she speaks to Tita’s bodily health and gives her the recipe for birth control. Gertrudis pushes Tita to take control of her entire being—body, mind, and spirit.

“…all she has to do was come back to the ranch and she got fat again!”

Rosaura’s sudden weight gain and weight loss appear to be connected to her eating Tita’s food. The implication is that Tita is unknowingly infusing her contempt for Rosaura into her meals, causing the latter to become physically detestable to Pedro. This insidious pattern raises questions about the true nature of Tita’s magical cooking.

“Among the whole group, there was one that was in the greatest frenzy, using her beak to peck out the eyes of every hen she could, so that Esperanza’s white diapers were sprayed with blood.”

Tita’s ire for Rosaura transfers from her tortilla scraps to a chicken, which goes on to incite a violent tumult. The hens ferociously attack each other, a symbol of female-on-female aggression. The white diapers flapping in the wind call back to Tita’s fear of the color white earlier in the novel (Important Quote #3). Here, white represents Esperanza’s innocence; the blood symbolizes the child as the undeserving victim of her mother and aunt’s hatred for each other.

“She drove up in a model T Ford coupe, one of the first to be produced with multiple gears.”

The author’s mention of the Ford Model T firmly places this part of the story in the 1920s. The proliferation of the automobile marks a shift in society, as machinery and technology become parts of everyday life. Gertrudis represents the future, as she has shed the yoke of her traditional upbringing and embraced a life of independence. Significantly, she drives the vehicle, not her husband, symbolizing her authorial rule in the relationship—a subversion of traditional gender roles.