Like Water For Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate was a very interesting book. There were a lot of characters too keep track of but they all had very unique personalities so it was easy to remember who was who.  I didn’t like Tita’s mother, Pedro, and Rosaura. I liked Tita, Gertrudis, Nacha, Chencha, and John.

The book was full of passion, love, and of course food. In everyday life I see all of these things in relationships. I love my friends and family like Tita loved her friends and family in the book. Even when her mom treats her bad she still loves her. Nacha and Chencha are her friends and she loves them. I see the passion people have for each other just like Tita and Pedro had in the book. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. This is so true in this book and in real life.

I liked in the story that Mama Elena was a very strong women. A lot of times women especially in Mexican stories aren’t very strong. Even though Mama Elena was a bad person she was a very strong willed lady. Tita and Nacha, however, were shown as kind of weak. This kind of goes back to the stereotyping that women in Mexico are weak. John, Tita’s fiancée, was from North America and he was seen as a weak, not very passionate or emotional man.  Even though Pedro was a jerk, Tita ended up with Pedro in the end instead of John. This is because the book was showing that Pedro was passionate like Tita, and John was not. I didn’t like this about the book.  I really wanted Tita to end up with John, but I do see why she ends up with Pedro instead.

Mama Elena in the story represented authority. During the time of the book the Mexican Revolution was going on. The story as a whole kind of represents what was happening in the revolution during this time. Mama Elena was in charge of the house (the old government) and Tita was rebelling (the revolutionaries). I thought this critique was very interesting.

I really enjoyed reading this book. To me it was a very quick read. I liked half of the characters and the cultural critique. I thought the ideas in the book were interesting. I would tell anyone and everyone to read this story. It ended up being one of my favorite books!