Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel Book Review

The need of cooking mixed with feelings and emotions. In Like Water for Chocolate Esquivel portrays Tita as devoted in the kitchen. Tita expresses her emotions throughout the novel during each month. Food and its preparation are a central motif in the novel, Like Water for Chocolate.  They represent tradition. Tita’s love for cooking draws others to her. She puts her time and dedication in the kitchen because of the relationship she shared with Nacha. 

The motif of food and its preparation adds to the theme of love in Like Water for Chocolate. The love story of Tita and Pedro is coming to an end. Tita. Pedro and Tita are both set on fire. In this moment everything is silent and Tita gets flooded with memories of her and Pedro right after she ate the candles. "The dark room was transformed into an erupting volcano" (Esquivel 118). We come to the realization that love can cause destruction and create problems. Although it is also nurturing such as Tita's love for food. Tita was driven by the love she was given by Pedro to peruse her passion.

The motif of food and its preparation demonstrates sorrow the mood of in Like Water for Chocolate. In Like Water for Chocolate Tita has a mixture of emotions and is hurt by Pedro being with someone else. The current events are happening to Tita and she had been throwing her feelings into the cake. "Then she cried without tears, which is said to hurt even more like dry labor but at least she wasn't making the cake batter soggy, so they could go on to the next step, which is making the filling." (Esquivel 11). Love is a powerful in the novel within the emotions Tita carries with herself this lump in her throat that she will not be able to be with Pedro. The motif of the novel is food which if in the wrong hands may be destructive.  

The motif of food and its preparation establishes the tone of nostalgic in Like Water for Chocolate. In the story the topic of Christmas rolls is significant. Mama Elena makes the Christmas rolls to make fer feel better and it also makes her feel relaxed and very. When there was a certain type of celebration the Christmas rolls were always there to calm Tita down. "The only time she was willing to take them apart was when the sausage was intended for the Christmas rolls, she loved so much." (Esquivel 118). When Tita was having her last moments in the novel the thought of Christmas rolls came up and she remembered her mother in this way. 

Food and the preparations are a core theme of the novel which demonstrates tradition. The tradition brings all these together because of the emotions and the multiple feelings they get from each other. The motif reoccurs with Tita’s thoughts and the way she prepares the food. In the novel Tita is putting her emotions in the food she is making which reveals how strong she is. The meaning of family is always being there for each other and depending on one another. Food brings memories and satisfaction.