Analyzing Structure In Like Water For Chocolate English Literature Essay

She couldn’t continue her reflections because the chickens were starting to make a huge ruckus on the patio. It seemed they’d gone mad or developed a taste for cock-fighting. They were giving little pecks at each other, trying to snatch away the last chunks of tortilla left on the ground. They hopped and flew wildly in every direction, launching violent attacks. 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 nappies were sprayed with blood. Tita, stunned, tried to break up the fight, throwing a bucket of water over them. That only enraged them the more, raising the battle to a higher pitch. They formed a circle, each one setting dizzily upon the next. Soon the chickens were inescapably trapped by the force they themselves were generating in their mad chase; they couldn’t break loose from that whirl of feathers, blood and dust that spun faster and faster, gathering force at every turn until it changed into a mighty tornado, destroying everything in its path, starting with the things that were the closest – in this case, Esperanza’s nappies, hanging on the patio clothes-line. Tita tried to save a few nappies, but when she went to get them, she found herself being swept away by the force of the incredible whirlwind, which lifted her several feet off the ground and took her on three hellish orbits within the fury of beaks before flinging her on the opposite end of the patio, where she landed like a sack of potatoes.

Tita stayed flat on the ground, terrified. She couldn’t move. If she was caught in the whirlwind again, the chickens could peck her eyes out. That hen hurricane was boring a hole in the dirt of the patio, a hole so deep that most of the chickens disappeared from the face of the earth. The earth swallowed them up. After that fight only three chickens remained, plucked bald and one-eyed. And no nappies.

In the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel presents the story of Tita; a young woman who is seeking independence, because she has always been oppressed in the De La Garza family especially by her mother, Mama Elena. Tita being the youngest daughter of the family is bound by family tradition to not marry, but instead, to look after her mother until her death. Tita is deeply saddened by this tradition because she is in love with Pedro and to further compound her misery, Mama Elena gets her other daughter, Rosaura, married to Pedro. Throughout the novel Tita therefore struggles as she fights for her love and freedom. During the course of the novel, though Rosaura marries Pedro, Tita has sexual relationships with Pedro, but Rosaura says nothing, until one day she confronts Tita. The hen fight described in the excerpt from the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, takes place immediately after this confrontation between the two sisters.

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Having read and thoroughly enjoyed this passage, I chose it because I found it to be a rich passage key to not only characterize Tita and Rosaura, but also an essential piece in bringing out the real nature of the relationship between the sisters.

The first paragraph makes a clear distinction between Tita and Rosaura’s characters and their relationship with Rosaura’s daughter, Esperanza. From the very first line of the passage, Esquivel says that it would be ‘hopeless’ for Tita to get Esperanza out of her mind. Even though Tita is not Esperanza’s mother, Esquivel’s vivid descriptions in this paragraph illustrate the strong bond that has been created between the two of them as well as Tita’s caring and loving nature. Tita paid very close attention to detail when it came to anything regarding Esperanza. For example, every single time Tita fed the child with the broth, she made sure ‘she sat on her knees, spread a huge napkin over her front, and gave her the broth with a little silver spoon.’ Furthermore, a mother is supposed to become extremely delighted when she sees her child progress in any manner, but in this case, it is actually the child’s aunt, Tita, who gets this joy when Esperanza’s teeth start coming through. Tita is extremely cautious as she feeds Esperanza, so as to not hurt the child’s teeth, and Tita ‘hoped that Rosaura would be, too. But how could she know, if she’d never done it before?’ The rhetorical question highlights Rosaura’s lack of care and love for her own daughter as she has never fed her before. This shows that Rosaura is rarely around Esperanza, which is why ‘she wouldn’t know how to dress her and kiss her and hug her and coo her like Tita did.’ This further elaborates on Rosaura’s lack of care and love for her daughter. She cannot even carry out the simplest of duties a mother should carry out, whereas Tita – who has never been a mother – even knows how to make the child’s bath in such a way that it does not only clean her, but it also allows the child to sleep peacefully at night. It is as though this motherhood comes to Tita naturally. This paragraph unmistakably exemplifies the vast amount of concern Tita has for Esperanza as opposed to the lack of concern Esperanza’s real mother, Rosaura, has for her very own daughter.

As mentioned earlier, the hen fight that is described in the passage occurs after Rosaura confronts Tita for having sexual relations with her husband, Pedro. The ‘huge ruckus’ the hens make is therefore a metaphor for the argument that takes place between the two sisters. At first, the hens ‘were giving little pecks at each other. The ‘little pecks’ can illustrate two things. It can first of all show the things Tita did behind Rosaura’s back; Rosaura always knew that Tita had something going on with Pedro, but she never brought it up in the hope that Tita would realize her mistake and stop. Tita however, did not stop, thus leading to this confrontation. In relation to the argument itself, the ‘little pecks’ show that initially the two sisters were calm and talked softly, but soon after, the hens ‘flew wildly in every direction, launching violent attacks’ at each other, depicting that Rosaura and Tita’s argument became more intense. Even though the sisters may not have been physically fighting, the words ‘wildly’ and ‘launching’ demonstrate that Tita and Rosaura began shouting at the top of their voices and constantly attacking each other by passing comments to hurt one another. Gradually, the hen fight got even more violent as it ‘changed to a mighty tornado.’ Tornadoes on their own are powerful whirlwinds, but this was a ‘mighty’ one. The ‘mighty tornado’ therefore reveals the great intensity of the argument between Tita and Rosaura. This is because as their argument continued, a great number of things were revealed face to face between them, thus it became uncontrollable, ‘destroying everything in its path.’ The fact that things were destroyed tells the readers that all the secrets between the two sisters were poured out and things would never be the same again between them. This can be proved by Tita’s reaction at the end whereby ‘Tita stayed flat on the ground, terrified. She couldn’t move.’ The short sentences emphasize on the immense impact this argument has had on Tita, since she has been confronted for sleeping with her sister’s husband. This was a tight secret shared between Tita and Pedro only, but Rosaura has brought it out in the open now, thus humiliating Tita.

Amidst this frenzy, Esperanza’s nappies are destroyed as well. The nappies are white and this colour symbolizes purity; it symbolizes Tita’s purity because Tita is the one who has looked after Esperanza since birth and she also sewed these nappies for the child. Additionally, the white colour is a symbol of her virginity. Thus, when Tita realizes that the ‘white nappies were sprayed with blood,’ she tries to break up the fight between the hens to save the nappies as a means to save her own purity. During the hen fight ‘there was one that was in the greatest frenzy’ and it was this hen that caused the blood stains on the nappies. This hen can be compared to Rosaura. This is because, Rosaura is the one who has come to confront Tita about her sexual relations with Pedro, and so in essence she wants to prove Tita to be guilty and impure. Hence, ‘Rosaura’ gets the nappies stained with the blood as it is these nappies that represent Tita’s purity. Tita does her best to save the nappies in order to save her purity, but to no avail. The ‘incredible whirlwind’ created by the hens is a metaphor for Rosaura’s argument. She provides such a strong argument, ‘flinging’ Tita ‘on the opposite side of the patio, where she landed like a sack of potatoes.’ The word ‘flinging’ and the simile used to describe Tita show that she was neither able to argue back against Rosaura nor save the nappies, and she therefore failed to save her purity, making her a sinner for what she did with Pedro.

At the end of the hen fight, ‘only three chickens remained, plucked bald and one-eyed. And no nappies.’ The fact that all the nappies were destroyed is a symbol for those who get caught between Tita and Rosaura’s fight over Pedro, such as Esperanza. She is really close to Tita, but the two of them will be pulled away from each other just as Rosaura’s first child, Roberto, was the victim of the forced separation between Pedro and Tita. The three remaining chickens at the end of the ‘hen hurricane’ represent Pedro, Tita and Esperanza.