Like Water For Chocolate

When the rebels come to Mama Elena's ranch, it is telling that the primary subject discussed is not politics, or revolution, or liberation, or oppression, but food. Mama Elena has heard bad things about these rebels, and she prepares herself with guns to protect herself and her own:

Mama Elena immediately picked up her shotgun. . . . No one had ever had anything good to say about these revolutionaries. . . . They had told her how the rebels entered houses, destroyed everything, and raped all the women in their path. She ordered Tita, Chencha, and the pig to stay hidden in the cellar (84-85).

It is telling that she hides the pig along with her daughters so that the revolutionaries would not rape the girls of eat the pig. Mama Elena, like the other major characters in the book, even a number of soldiers, is not much interested in the political issues of the day. It is also telling that her first fears, upon hearing that the rebels were on their way to her ranch, were not for the lives of her family, but for her possessions and her food supply. As she cleaned her shotgun, "she plotted how to

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social gathering one does not bring up the subject of personalities, sad topics or unfortunate facts, religion, or politics (151-152). Not only do we not hear the specific content of this political debate, it is summarily brought to an end by the intervention of Tita. The next subject to arise is, not unexpectedly, the asking of Tita's hand in matrimony by John, one of the participants just moments before in the impassioned political discussion. This novel, then, is thoroughly apolitical, portraying a passion not for ideas but for food and sex. One of the more important foods in Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate is the onion. Reference to the onion is made in both the opening and closing segments of the book. The tears which the onion brings are meant to symbolize the great overwhelming feelings which flood the lives and characters of the people in this novel. The character of Tita is so shaped by the onion-affected event of her birth---which occurred prematurely due to the copious weeping of her mother as she chopped that unique food---that in fact, as an adult, "for her laughing was a form of crying" (5). The novel is in the style known as magical realism, and the opening scene in which Mama Elena goes into labor
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Mama Elena, Mama Elena's, Water Chocolate, Pedro John, Tita Chencha, Laura Esquivel's, food seen, christmas rolls, mama elena, food sex, water chocolate, characters book, food sense, York Anchor, food sense viewed, major characters book, major characters, gertrudis' body, fire raging, red-hot fire raging, mama elena's ranch, fire raging inside,
Approximate Word count = 1555
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)