Magic Realism- Like Water 4 Chocolate

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Ingy Salem Ms. Lori Armstrong (H.English) Course 7 3 May 2009 Magic Realism The Mexican novel, Like Water for Chocolate is a beautiful book in the world of magic realism. Many scenes in the Novel contain themes, symbols, and similes to present magical realist details. Especially chapter two is a section where strong emotions are described. The main themes in which Laura Esquivel uses such as tradition, clarity, and hopeless love are mentioned which further connects to previous and further chapters throughout the novel. The chapter starts off with the conflicts between Tita and Mother Elena. As Tita is preparing in the kitchen for a weeding cake for Rosaura’s marriage to Pedro, Tita keeps beating eggs and her hands starts to shake. Tita’s strong emotion has been described in this scene when the narrator said, “Her hands were shaking and she was dripping sweat and her stomach was swooping like a kite on the wind.”(27) Tita is shown in this scene as a very emotional sad person. This is because she couldn’t no longer hide her indignation at her sister marrying Tita’s true love who is Pedro. The author, Laura Esquirel emphasizes Tita’s anger by using a simile here, describing the pain of her heart as if a kite struck into her stomach. Of course, Mama Elena didn’t accept her disrespectful way towards herself so she slaps her face from the outburst of rage. This describes how Mama Elena is a strict unemotional character who doesn’t care about Tita's feelings. Mama Elena once again warns Tita to behave and there is no second chance for her. Finally Tita couldn’t bear her strong feelings and shouts out loudly, “there’s a chicken inside the egg!” she said furiously (28). Here, we see an important theme and a motif. Tradition and power is being described here. The dictator-like mother is enforcing the
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