Friday, March 26, 2010

Like Water for Chocolate & Magical Realism


Assignment: By Monday, 3/29, at 5:00 p.m., please post a reply to this blog entry that will serve as your commentary for next week. Your commentary should address the film Like Water for Chocolate, in particular the work it does through novelist Esquival's and director Arau's uses of magical realism. Your commentary must either quote the film or describe a visual element as per the usual commentary assignment. Your commentary may either advance an original idea or respond to one previously posted here.

65 comments:

  1. The magical realism element of this film that struck me the most was the way Tita's emotions come through in the food she prepares. When she is sad while making Pedro's wedding cake, the people who eat the cake suddenly feel the same heartbreak. When she feels lust for Pedro, the rose petal dish causes Gertrudis to feel the same passion. When someone asks Tita about her food, she says "The most important part is to make it with lots of love". The dishes she makes with love are the ones everyone enjoys the most.

    -Alicia Patricca

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  2. In the film Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) the main character of Tita is the focus of many magical events that could fit under the title of magical realism. They all deal with food and emotion from the time she cried into the wedding cake and made everyone sick to the time she created a domino effect of seduction with rose sauce. These moments of magical realism are similar to moments of magical realism from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother.” Erendira, like Tita, is ruled by a family member (Grandmother for Erendira and mother for Tita). They both are surrounded in magical realism moments that help them escape from the pains of their world until they are ultimately free.

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  3. Tita's mother is an element of magical realism in Como agua para Chocolate. She appears to Tita as a ghost and haunts her. "See what you have caused. Pedro and you have no shame." She is judgemental and hypocritical. Tita finally drives her away by telling her she will do what she pleases.

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  4. In the movie Como agua para Chocolate, Tita's mother is what I would consider to be the magical realist element. She represents so many aspects of an element that is overly exaggerated. This movie relates back to the collected short stories that we read of by Marquez. Marquez focused a lot of his stories with elders taking advantage of the younger ones power wise. This movie does a great example of that as well. Tita and Pedro end up together by dying together but together at least. The movies also focuses on emotion from family to relationships as well.

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  5. Delaney Tomczak

    I agree that the mother, and actually the other deceased characters, is indeed one significant magic realist element present in the film. The aspect of a being continuing to control, or help peoples present lives is surreal in a sense. Additionally, the idea of family/community, not just obeying elders, but having a duty, or strong attachment to family seems to be a common thing in the writings previously read (The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother, Big Mama's Funeral, and many of the earlier African literature's such as Death and the Kings Horsemen, Anowa), just as in this film,"Like Water for Chocolate."

    However, I thought the most significant magic realist element had to be the power of cooking and the ability of Tita to emit emotions into her food. Whether it was the wedding of Rosaura and Pedros causing her sorrow and pain which crept into the bodily systems of the guests, or when Pedro brought her the flowers and she made the magnificent quail dinner with the petals of the rose, causing a sexual chemistry to emit from the food, her emotions clearly secreted into the food thus effecting all who ate it. This power was put in action by transmitting emotions to the food. Although this element is fantasy based in a sense, it can also connect to the real world...often times I hear people saying they can tell when something was done with love, and it is merely the intention behind the act that matters. This emotional element sort of connects with the idea of modern day intuition, almost in a sense making what is magical become real, at least for those who wish it to be.

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  6. Rabab Hashmi
    GENG 239
    Dr. Michelle Brown
    March 29, 2010

    "Like Water for Chocolate", directed by Arau and written by Laura Esquivel, depicts the genre of magical realism. The magical realist element is the cooking which mirrors emotions. While Tita cooks, her current emotions flow into the food and the people eating the food start experiencing the same emotions. There is a magical aspect which enables the food to transfer spiritual and emotional elements. When Tita prepares the quail rose sauce with the roses Pedro gave her, she feels immense passion and desire for him. As a result, her sister Gertrudis begins feeling a thirst for sexual desire and passion, and she runs off naked with a soldier on a horse. Her escape can be seen as a triumph, as she was able to cross the boundaries set by Mama Elena’s household and society. Another example of magical realism is seen when Tita is asked the secret of making her chili. She responds that “the secret is to prepare them with love.” She repeats this again on Esperanza’s wedding, as when she makes them with love the guests experience love for their partners and have to escape to fulfill their desires. Food is used as an effective magical realist element, as it is a part of everyone’s daily lives.

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  7. Kayla Hirschmugl
    GENG 239 12:20-1:10

    In the movie "Like Water for Chocolate", there were two major occurrences that depicted the magical realist element in this movie. My first one, which has already been mentioned above, is seen throughout the entire movie. Tita's remarkable ability to incorporate her current emotion into whatever dish she is currently preparing. The wedding cake example and the quail rose petal sauce dinner are two great examples of two entirely different emotions, sexual desire and utter sadness, she was able to emit through her dishes.
    My second encounter with magical realism in this movie was when mother Elena made her appearance to Tita the night of the bonfire. Once the encounter is ended by Tita expressing her hatred towards her mother the narrator says, "With those MAGIC words Tita drove her mother’s ghost away for good, and the tormenting OF HER PSYCHOLOGICAL PREGNANCY. But not before her mother’s ghost could get even with Pedro." The fact that Mother Elena is a ghost is a magical realist element in and of itself. Then we throw in the idea of a Psychological Pregnancy that was being caused by her mother. And even after all of that, Pedro experiences spontaneous combustion and bursts into flames, due once again, to the actions of Tita's dead mother's ghost. That whole scene stood out to me as being a great example of the Magical Realist elements seen in this movie.

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  8. Kelsey Souleret

    In the film "Like Water for Chocolate", one of the most blatant elements of magical-realism was the appearance the mother, Elena's, ghost. The ghost begins harassing Tita after she believes herself to be pregnant. Both the ghost and the pregnancy are burdens to Tita because of her mother's condescending attitude. It is not until Tita tells the ghost that she will do as she wants that she rids herself of both the ghost and the psychological pregnancy. I think that the psychological pregnancy was a physical illustration of the burden that Tita's mother put on her by making her feel inferior and incompetent.

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  9. Jen Davis
    Geng239
    M/W/F 9:05

    In the film, “Like Water For Chocolate,” I found the most important magical realist element to be the food that Tita cooks. There were multiple scenes in the film that portrayed the effect of Tita’s food on people. When Pedro gives Tita a rose she uses it to cook a meal. As everybody eats the food they begin feel the effect of it and everybody becomes extremely loving and lustful. Whereas when Tita cooked for Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding everybody became ill and depressed. These polar opposite effects make it clear that the relationship Pedro has with Tita is much more real and loving than the relationship he has with Rosaura.

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  10. Emily Collins
    GENG 239

    In Como Agua Para Chocolate, directed by Alfonso Arau, Tita has the gift of transferring emotions of love and her own personal feelings of desiring love from her forbidden lover, Pedro, into her spectacular cooking masterpieces which, then in turn, are consumed and felt by the people who eat her food. For example, at one particular dinner, Tita fixes a meal with rose petals and causes her older sister, Gertrudis to run off with a revolutionary soldier which was obviously caused by the magic realism of love and passion from Tita’s cooking. Why does Tita cook these meals with the magic of emotions as part of the “ingredients?” She does this because she is unable to show or express her real emotions because of her abusive and domineering mother, Mama Elena, who does not allow Tita to profess her love for a man by marrying or even cry at the death of her nephew.

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  12. Emily Bunner
    GENG 239

    I find that the novel and film's use of magical realism is very creative. In "Like Water for Chocolate" the character Tita is forced to suppress her emotions because of her controlling, evil mother. In response to this, when Tita cooks she mixes her emotions with the ingredients and whoever eats the food shares her feelings. In the scene where Tita is angry at her sister Rosaura for keeping the family tradition of the last born female as a slave she wishes that her sister would eat her words and have those words fester inside of her. When Rosaura eats the food that Tita has made she starts to become fat and have uncontrollable gas and bad breath. This is a different kind of magical realism that we haven't seen in Marquez's works and I find it interesting.

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  13. Danielle Kuykendall

    In the film “Like Water for Chocolate”, there are two significant magical realist elements. The first element of magical realism is Tita’s ability to share her emotions with her friends and family through the food she cooks. Tita cries when she prepares the cake for her sister’s wedding, and when the guests eat the cake, they feel her sorrow and become sick. Later, her love for Pedro comes through in the rose petal sauce she prepares and her sister Gertrudis feels Tita’s lustful passion. This is important because Tita’s mother does not allow Tita to show her emotions of love or sadness, so she finds a way to channel them through her cooking. The second significant magical realist element in the film was the appearance of Tita’s mother as a ghost. Tita is finally able to escape the haunting of her mother when Tita admits to the ghost that she has always hated her mother for her selfish ways, and that she will live her life the way she wants to.

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  14. Katelyn Bledsoe
    GENG 239

    In the film "Like Water for Chocolate", there is one main element of magical realism being Tita's cooking. An example of this element would be when Tita made the rose dish for dinner with the roses that were given to her by Pedro. While the family ate dinner passion was affluent throughout the room. Another example of this element would be when Tita was helping make the wedding cake she was crying and her tears fell in to the batter, when the guests started eating the cake they all were sick suggesting the marriage of Pedro and Tita's sister was in an ill light. Magical realist elements allow ideas to be expressed in mystical ways such as the examples above.

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  15. Liz Wilson
    "Como Agua Para Chocolate" commentary

    Throughout the movie "Como Agua Para Chocolate" written by Esquivel and directed by Arau, the magical realist element that is present is Tita's cooking. Cooking is something that is very normal in everyday life, but Tita's cooking has something special that is present throughout the movie. The fact that her tears and her blood affected everybody who ate them in the way that they did was a surreal element of the movie. The way that Tita feels when she is cooking the meals makes the people who eat them feel similarly to the way that she does.

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  16. Roxanne Rohr

    I know one of the magical realist elements in the movie “Like Water For Chocolate” was Tita’s tears. I also remember in the movie during the scene where she prepared the wedding cake for her sister and Pedro that she cried in the batter, causing anybody who ate the cake to “…yearn for the love of their lives.” When she cooked other foods, I thought she put some magic in them. I do not know if they are her tears or if it was just more T.L.C. then usual because sometimes her foods would create joy rather than sorrow. For example, her niece’s wedding’s food made everybody uncontainably happy for love if. Some people however were still crying if they had no love in them like Tita’s mother’s friend. How was Tita able to differentiate the emotion she wanted to cause in the people? Maybe the tears showed why people cry, because they regret something either by not having it or having it, and the love she puts in her foods shows how joy can overcome sorrow through pure love, assuming you have not lived your life with a cold heart.

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  17. Marlee Newman
    March 28, 2010

    The film Como Aqua Para Chocolate contains many elements of magical realism, the most visible of being Tita's to transfer her emotions into her cooking. But also notable is the use of fire with sexual acts. As has been noted in other commentary's, Tita's rose petal dish makes Gertrudis run off with a soldier, but not before her repressed passion sets the bathroom on fire. There is an intense lightening storm each time Pedro and Tita consummate their relationship, with the fire ultimately consuming them at the end. Fire representing passion is not a new phenomenon, and this film continues the idea that love and passion consume the mind and soul, influencing everything in your life.

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  19. Natasha Bauer
    March 28

    Arau’s use of magical realism is absolutely indispensable to the passionate anticipation of character growth throughout the film’s plot. Tita’s mysteriously sensual and personal cooking is the main outlet for which Arau’s magical realism reveals itself. In the beginning of the movie when she had to prepare the wedding cake for her sister’s wedding to the man of her dreams, she weeps of sorrow, pain, misery, sadness and frustration. The following morning when the wedding guests all ate her cake, the taste of Tita’s misery seeped into their bodies, and eventually, every single one of the guests began to vomit at the pungent sadness. Later in the movie, Arau’s magical realism appears through Tita’s cooking over and over again. In one scene Tita receives roses from her lover, Pedro. Ecstatically aroused by the intimate and meaningful gift, she quickly used the roses’ petals to cook quail. Her passion and love for Pedro growing stronger by the minute, only seeped into the food in a sensual fashion. When one of sisters, Gertrudis, begins to the eat the meal, she is so immediately overtaken by sexual arousal and passion, that she begins stripping at the table. A similar effect happens to the other family members. Gertrudis eventually streaks the fields of their ranch completely naked, upon which she is literally swept off her feet by an attractive soldier. Tita’s food, embodying a powerful magical realist element, was responsible for liberating Gertrudis from the unfair constraints of her mother’s tyranny. Tita’s cooking continues to have such effects on the course of the entire film. Her strong and devoted love is clearly a relevant ingredient in her cooking, as well as indispensable to the movie’s plot.

    Like Water for Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi. Walt Disney Video, 1993. DVD.

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  20. An interesting feature of the film "Like Water for Chocolate" is the magical realism of how Tita's cooking has a physical affect on the characters in different ways. In the scene in which Tita makes a rose petal dish, she and Pedro experience a feeling of extreme love, while Gertrudis becomes incredibly turned on, Rosaura gets sick and the mother becomes angry. Later in the movie, both the mother and Rosaura die from Tita's cooking just because of their animosity towards her and her feeling toward them. Perhaps the directors were using the characters as an analogy for those emotions, as though Tita and Pedro are love, Gertrudis is passion, Rosaura is jealousy and the mother is anger.

    Like Water for Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi. Walt Disney Video, 1993. DVD.

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  21. In the film For Water for Chocolate, the magical realist element was displayed through the reoccurring ghost of Tita’s deceased mother. The ghost would occur to torment Tita to make her feel guilty and worthless about her secret love for Pedro. Tita was able to defeat the angry spirit by expressing her hate towards her mother, showing that she will not be controlled by her any longer. It showed how much Tita grew to be more independent.

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  22. A magical realism element in "Like Water for Chocolate" is fire and it represents the passion that the characters experience. The doctor, John, tells Tita that we all have a match inside us that must be ignited by a person that we love. We see this when Gertrudis lights the bathroom on fire with her passion, but the most significant expressions of it are when Tita and Pedro make love. The first time that they do, sparks of fire can be seen all the way from the house, and these same sparks are seen at the end of the film when Tita and Pedro are finally free to be together and make love again. Their passion is so great at the end that Pedro dies and then Tita, after swallowing matches, catches the bed on fire.

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  23. In order to prevent the passing of judgement on such a unique cultural difference, we need to "peel" back the cultural lens to fully understand the whole story of, "Like Water For Chocolate." "Tita will never marry. Being my youngest daughter she is destined to look after me till I die." This is an important statement made by Tita's mother as it is the reason why Tita and Pedro's love is forbidden. Tita is a prisoner of tradition as she has to sacrafice marrying Pedro, the man whom she loves in order to uphold her mothers values. Much like Erendira from The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother, Tita is abused for her birth.

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  24. Rebekah Wilkins
    3-39-10 GENG 239
    Prof. Brown

    Within the film, "Like Water for Chocolate",one of the many magical realism elements that struck me revolved around the scenes that was the connections to the spiritual realm. Near the beginning of the film in Tita's youth, she loses her cooking mentor Nache, but it begins to signal the beginning of food playing a role in Tita's growing skill as a cook as well as showing expressions by how one feels or what has happened. As the movie goes on, Nache appears a few other times to help Tita with the wisdom of the past (when, with another ancestor, consulted Tita about using a certain plant to cure Pedro's burnt back) as well as show her support for Tita and Pedro (when she lit the last candle in the barn). Another example of connections between the material and spiritual realm was shown with Tita's mother appearing to Tita as a ghost after her death and tormenting her; symbolizing Tita's unfinished business with her mother and the hidden guilt of being herself in the ideal of a "perfect high society" but then being able to over come this and realizing it is okay to be yourself and live the life you want; no body is perfect. This concept of magical realism draws from the stories "Death and the Kings Horseman" by Soyinka and "The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother" by Marquez; both showing bonds that can't be described or comprehended by material logic as well as showing duty to one's self and the abuse that people have to go through by a repressing force.

    Like Water for Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi. Walt Disney Video, 1993. DVD.

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  25. Meredith Sizemore
    GENG 239 9:05-9:55

    The most interesting magical realism element in the film, Como Agua Para Chocolate, was how Tita put her emotions into the food that she cooked. At Rosaura’s wedding, Tita was very sad because Rosaura was marrying her lover, Pedro, so when eating the food, the guests began to cry just as Tita had while cooking the food. At Esperanza’s wedding, Tita was very happy and the wedding guests became very happy too when eating Tita’s cooking. To make her cooking all the more a mystery, every time someone asked Tita for her secret recipes, she merely replied, “The most important part is to make it with lots of love,” and Tita truly did this.

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  26. Brian Stout
    GENG 239

    In "Like Water for Chocolate", Tita's mother is a key element of magical realism. After her death she continues to haunt Tita, voicing her disapproval. Tita is finally able to rid herself of her mother's ghost when she tells herself that she will no longer listen to her.

    Like Water for Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi. Walt Disney Video, 1993. DVD.

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  27. Ingred Centeno
    GENG 239

    In “Como Agua Para Chocolate” directed by Alfonso Arau and based on the novel by Laura Esquivel, I think it’s interesting to see how connected the living, dead, and unborn are. Part of the magical realist element of this story is the influence Tita’s mother has over her even after she dies. Tita is haunted by the memory of being insulted and emotionally abused, and is even tortured by her mother’s random appearing. After she is able to break free from her mother’s ghost, Tita’s “psychological pregnancy” disappears. For a while however, Tita’s mother had great power over her by inspiring fear, even cursing the child in Tita’s womb to scare her into believing she was damned. Tita of course refused to believe her child would be born with bad luck and was encouraged to finally stand up to her mother.

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  28. Jennifer Lineback
    Geng 239

    In the movie "Like Water For Chocolate" I think that food is the magical realism element. Tita spent the majority of her time in the kitchen and the foods she made often reflected her mood which affected those who consumed it. For example, when Tita was sad the food made the guests cry, and when Tita felt love it made the guests feel the same way.
    Tita's mother is also the magical realism in that she haunts Tita even after her death.

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  29. This movie has obvious magical realist elements throughout it, but do you think that Alfonso Arau intended all of these elements to be a “critique” on society? I think that Tita’s “powers” best seen when she makes the quail with rose petal sauce can be seen as a critique on family tradition, showing us that breaking free and living a life that you make for yourself to be the most fulfilling. But, at the end, when Tita eats the matches, causing her to catch on fire, do you think that is a critique on something? I don’t see that scene as anything, but the scene after where Tita’s sister’s daughter is talking as a sense of closure having to do with the theme of family tradition carried throughout the movie.

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  30. Soyoung Choi
    Geng239

    What is meaning of a mother? A mother sometimes sweet as hug, sometimes like a teacher. However when I watch a "Like water for chocolate", the mother who has three daughters does not look like mother as a normal. How come she nice to first one and not for last daughter of hers? If she is a mother, she should gives her love equally. Also normal mother loves last daughter in my experience, my mother also has three daughters like a movie. She loves me and also she loves my youngest one, too. She might be loves more me or second or youngest. She haven not expressed which one she likes. Also I have not felt that that she loves just one daughter. The mother in movie definitely strange for me and feel sorry for all three her daughters.

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  31. The use of magic realism in the movie "Like Water for Chocolate" was humorous to me. Every time Tita started cookie food, I knew something crazy was about to happen. For example, the first time magic realism occurs is when Tita is forced to make her sister and Pedro's wedding cake. Her heart has been broken for she wanted to marry Pedro. So, as she makes the cake, her tears fall into the batter. When the wedding guests eat the cake, they feel the same as Tita: a saddness and longing for their true love. After that, we could sense the foreshadowing when we saw Tita in the kitchen preparing a special dish. The most humorous instance perhaps, is the dish Tita makes for her sister Rosaura. Tita's anger and disgust goes into making the food and in return, Rosaura suffers from horrible gas, bad breath, and even weight gain. Poor Rosaura, but even more so, poor Tita. Her mother has taught, or forced, her to suppress any feelings that are out of line because she is a woman and the youngest daughter. The culture these women lived in had customs that the mother felt needed to be followed strictly. But Tita still finds a way to truly express her feelings and that is through cooking.

    Anna Eldredge

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  33. Shawna Bruell
    9:05-9:55 MWF
    Geng239
    Como Agua Para Chocolate, directed by Alfonso Arau, is a film that uses the magical realism literary element, that was created by Gabriel García Márquez a Columbian author. There are many examples of this element in "Like Water for Chocolate" (translated into english). Several examples are showcased throughout the film of magical realism. Most importantly,Tita's recipes have weird effects on the people who consume them when people eat Tita's foods, It is as if whatever emotion Tita is feeling when she cooks, gets made INTO her food and then that feeling is then transferred to the eaters of her foods. Other examples of magical realism in the film are how she is getting visits by spirits, and how when she cries, she cries actual "rivers" of tears, so people always tell her to stop.

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  34. Shawna Bruell
    9:05-9:55 MWF
    Como Agua Para Chocolate, directed by Alfonso Arau, is a film that uses the magical realism literary element, that was created by Gabriel García Márquez a Columbian author. There are many examples of this element in "Like Water for Chocolate" (translated into english). Several examples are showcased throughout the film of magical realism. Most importantly,Tita's recipes have weird effects on the people who consume them when people eat Tita's foods, It is as if whatever emotion Tita is feeling when she cooks, gets made INTO her food and then that feeling is then transferred to the eaters of her foods. Other examples of magical realism in the film are how she is getting visits by spirits, and how when she cries, she cries actual "rivers" of tears, so people always tell her to stop.

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  35. Katie Lynch
    M/W/F 9:05

    Like Water for Chocolate conttains two very prominent magical realist elements. First, Titas mother continues to haunt her even after she has died, and second, Titas ability to create emotions with her cooking is definitely unique. As in Erendira, Tita is suppressed by her mother but her ability to incorporate her emotions into her cooking enables her to break free from her mothers control, much as do Erendiras "winds of misfourtune."

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  36. Ciera Haskins
    GENG 239
    Commentary #6

    In the film “Like Water for Chocolate”, the main character Tita is emotionally distraught by her love for her sister’s husband Pedro. One of the magical realism elements of the film is how Tita’s emotions are shown. When she cries while cooking, the people who eat the food also feel sad. The peppers she made with lustful emotion had everyone leaving to be intimate with their partner. Another way we see her emotions in a magical realism view is when she eats the matches (to ignite her soul) to be reunited with Pedro after death. Passion here is used to show that love can transcend death, and that love is immortal. This being the second time I’ve seen this film, now understanding magical realism, I was able to view it differently.

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  37. Sheri Carey
    Geng 239
    3/29/10
    "Like Water for Chocloate"

    Commentary

    In the film "Like Water for Chocolate," directed by Arau, one of the main themes presented is tradition. When Tita, the main character was born, Nacha, the head cook on the ranch, said to Tita, “You will be so beautiful that the first boy who sees you will want to marry you.” Tita’s mother then scolds Nacha and says, “Nacha! Don't say that. As my youngest daughter, Tita will care for me until the day I die. She won't marry.” As Tita grows up she is forced to conform to the family tradition and must care for her mother. Although Tita and Pedro are madly in love with each other, the tradition will not allow Tita to marry, and in their culture, tradition is a very important thing. However, Tita finally goes against the tradition and in the end, her and Pedro are together. The theme of tradition was also present in “Death and the Kings Horseman” by Wole Soyinka. Both Elesin and Tita must conform to the tradition of their culture, but in the end they both defy the tradition and follow their hearts.

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  38. Kelsey Brennan
    I believe that both Tita's cooking and her mother's ghost are magical realist elements in the film "Like Water for Chocolate". The fact that Mama Elena continues to appear to Tita after her death and even still have power, like causing Pedro to fall into the fire, represents Spanish colonialism. She is the oppressor and even after the colonizers have left, they still have some control because of the mark they left on the people, like Tita. Knowing that magical realist elements are trying to make a political point, I had difficulty figuring out what Tita's emotional cooking could represent and stand for. Could the author possibly be saying that she thinks if political leaders put the right emotions into their political decisions, then they will get the right reactions from their people?

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  39. The film "Like Water For Chocolate" uses several aspects of magical realism. Right from the beginning, when Tita is born, the tears from her birth wash over the floor and the sun dries them into salt, which is used for cooking. It is the basis for all of the other instances of magic that occur in the story. From then on, since Tita is the cook, all of her feelings affect other people when they eat her food. What is interesting about it, is that this also works as a form of poetry in revolt. Tita is under the tyrannical rule of her mother, and the effects that her food has on other people ultimately sets her free. Tita does the same for Esperanza, so that she does not suffer the same oppressed life that Tita did for so many years.

    -Jordan Smith

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  40. Carrie Barbagallo
    GENG239
    March 29, 2010
    “Como Agua Para Chocolate”
    In the film “Como Agua Para Chocolate” (“Like Water for Chocolate”) directed by Arau, a number of magical realism elements seen throughout. The main element portrayed throughout the movie is Tita’s transfer of emotion into her cooking. Tita was forced to suppress her emotions because her strict, controlling mother did not allow her to love another and made her stay home to take care of her until her death. I found this to be very similar to Gabriel Marquez’s story “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother.” Erendira is controlled by her grandmother and Tita is overpowered by her mother. The only way Tita has to express herself is through cooking, where she literally puts herself into her cooking. The emotion she cooks into her food affects all who eat it. When Rosaura and Pedro were to get married, Tita’s tears fell into the cake batter which led to weeping and sorrow at the wedding as everyone ate the cake. Also, when Pedro delivered flowers to Tita, she cooked the rose petals into a sauce full of love. When the guests ate the sauce, they were full of love and sexual feelings. This reminds me of the saying “you are what you eat;” Tita put emotion into the food so that people who feel that as they ate the food.
    The other main element of magical realism seen in the movie was when Tita’s mother returned after her death. Elena showed up the night of the bonfire and continued to torture Tita. Tita told her mother that she hated her and did not want to be bothered by her any longer. With this her mother was vanished and left Tita alone.

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  42. In the film "Like Water for Chocolate", directed by Arau and written by Laura Esquivel, there is a recurring element of magical realism. The magical realism in this movie is Tita's cooking; it represents how she is feeling as she prepares the meals. Her feelings while cooking the meals are then felt by everyone who eats Tita's food. When she made the cake for her sister's wedding the guests felt love sick and wanted to be with their one true love. When she made the chicken dinner with the rose petal sauce they all felt love and intimacy when they ate the meal. Tita even stated, "My secret recipe is to cook the food with love."
    Colleen Bogert

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  43. In the film "Like Water for Chocolate," directed by Arau and witten by Laura Esquivel, the most recurring magical realism theme was tears and the magical power they possess. In the beginning of the movie, Tita's mother gives birth to her, and Tita is pushed out of her mothers womb with a large current of tears. In the movie, it shows the mother on the counter giving birth and water (the tears) flowing out of her and flooding the floor. This could be foreshadowing of how Tita's life will be filled with sorrow and pain, that she will always feel such intense emotion that tears will only satisfy her hurt.
    Sara Pribus

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  44. In Like Water for Chocolate there is no doubt that the main magical realism element is the kitchen and Tita’s cooking. Her emotions are transmitted through her cooking “with love” and allow the people that eat it to feel these emotions. However there were a few other elements that were subtle that still confuse me. For example, throughout the movie Tita finds comfort in knitting. After she finds out that her sister would marry Pedro she starts knitting because she is cold. Once she finishes knitting the blanket she made to cover herself she says that she “can still feel the cold air rushing in her body.” This is the first reference of another magical realist element, the cold air. What does this cold air represent? She makes a reference to her body feeling like a black hole with air rushing in it. This presence of the cold wind occurs again after the wedding when they are all eating the batter that Tita cried in while preparing. This is the last reference of the cold air in the movie and I am confused why it stopped and what it represented in the first place?

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  45. Betsy Kaeberle
    3/29/10
    GENG 239
    In “Como Agua para Chocolate”, there are two main magical realism elements. The first being Tita and her cooking. Whenever Tita cooks, whatever emotion she is feeling at the time goes into the food and the people who eat it are affected by the same emotion Tita was feeling. For example when Pedro gives Tita a rose, she uses it to cook a sauce and everyone who ate it became full of passion and lust. The second element is Mama Elena. When Mama Elena dies Tita thinks she is free from her mother, but her mother turns into a ghost and appears to Tita until Tita stands up for herself and “with those magic words, Tita drove her mother away for good.”

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  46. Tuba Ahmed
    GENG 239
    3/29/10

    Tita’s confrontation with Rosaura towards the end of the film signifies a break away from her silent conformity to a more aggressive stance on questioning and negating her role as both a woman and a member of a matriarchal family. Tita questions, “You think this family is decent?” still in disbelief that Rosaura regards the family as such and is so concerned with protecting the family image despite the more controversial and divisive issues taking place within the home. Tita’s confrontation unveils the irony of upholding a certain “image” of the family as one that is well-functioning when all the members of the group contribute to its dis-functionality and ultimately, the repressiveness of the family ideal itself.

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  47. Alex Mingo

    In “Como Agua Para Chocolate” directed by Alfonso Arau, based on the novel by Laura Esquivel, the biggest magical theme is the effects of Tita’s cooking on other characters. More specifically, Tita’s emotion while cooking is what has the prominent effects of the other characters in the movie. The first example is during Pedro’s and Rosaura’s wedding, when Tita cries into the wedding cake, and the guests all begin to throw up and desire there true love. This even has an effect on her mother, who during this scene opens up the photo of another man who was not her husband. The second example is the rose petals that Pedro gave Tita later on, which represented passion and everyone who ate the quail with rose petals started to feel impassioned, leading to Gertrudis running off with a revolutionary soldier. Finally, at the end of the movie Tita’s cooking has a positive effect on the wedding guests after Pedro tells Tita finally that he wants to marry her.

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  48. In the film "Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)" directed by Alfonso Arau, one of the scenes that really caught my eye was the scene where Tita's mom tells Tita to throw the roses Pedro gave her out. This scene caught my attention because of the amount of blood drawn from Tita's chest just by hugging the flowers. I was asking myself why and how did the roses make that large of a cut and why were the cuts only on her chest? Then I realized that these large cuts could represent either her mom tearing at her heart so that she could love no more or it was representing Pedro's love for her yearning to become one with Tita. But then I asked myself, would Tita still get the cuts if her mother would let her and Pedro be together?


    "Como Agua Para Chocolate." Dir. Alfonso Arau. Prod. Alfonso Arau. Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc., [1999?]. Film.

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  49. Natalie French
    March 28, 2010

    Although there are several magical realist elements which can be found in the film Como aqua para chocolate by novelist, Esquival, and director, Arau, the most noteworthy is the magical realist element of Tita’s food. Tita’s food can qualify as a magical realist element because it is set in the realistic setting of Mexico in the 1900’s, but Tita’s food has magical qualities which are not necessarily realistic. Tita’s inner feelings seep into her food, and are then carried to the consumers’ of the food, causing these individuals to experience the same emotions which Tita is feeling. Many of these emotions revolve around Tita’s love for Pedro. The scene, or visual element, which most clearly demonstrates this idea, shows the guests at Tita’s sister’s wedding crying upon eating the cake which Tita has helped to prepare. While preparing the cake the night before, Tita became extremely upset that her lover, Pedro, was marrying her own sister, and she cried into the cake batter. The guests also experience Tita’s intense sadness and suddenly begin crying upon eating the cake, for what seems to be no apparent reason.

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  50. I will be exploring the significance of Tita’s life compared to that of Gertrudis. I found it strikingly unfair that Tita would have to work so hard and so loyally for her mother while putting up with the constant abuse while Gertrudis runs away to live a life of “sin” and join the army, taking a soldier for her husband. It struck me as odd that Gertrudis would turn out relatively happy and Tita would find love only in old age and die not long after acquiring it. I think the final scene of the movie where Tita and Pedro pass away after making love is a testament to the sacrifices that must be made for true love.

    -Adam Moyer

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  51. Audrey Sedlacek
    March 29, 2010
    "Like Water For Chocolate" Commentary

    In the film "Like Water For Chocolate" by Alfonso Arau there are many magical realism elements. The most significant is Tita's ability to transfer her emotions into her cooking. Tita is forced throughout the film to suppress her love for Pedro. She does not stand up to Mama Elena and keeps all he emotions to herself. Tita’s cooking therefore is her medium to express her emotions. While she is keeping all her longing and sorrow to herself verbally, she puts it all into the food she makes. This then makes the people that eat it feel those same emotions.

    One significant example of this is when Tita is forced by her mother to cook Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding food. Tita is crying about her true love getting married while she makes the cake and her tears fall into the cake batter as she is making it. This then makes all the guests start crying and get sick when they eat the cake at the wedding. Her sorrow was transferred into the food. They all start longing for their true love.

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  52. Tian-Hao Wang

    “Like Water for Chocolate,” directed by Alfonso Arau shares this interesting idea of passing over similar to Soyinka’s, “Death and the King’s Horsemen.” In “Death and the King’s Horsemen,” the idea of passing over was greatly emphasized, as once people die in this world they pass over into the other realm instead of dying and being gone forever. In “Like Water for Chocolate,” this idea is also shared as it is seen many times throughout the film where the people who passed away reach out to Tita as ghosts. There were many scenes where Nacha speaks to Tita and gives her advice, such as the scene of Nacha telling Tita to not throw away the roses Pedro got her but to make a sauce out of it, or Nacha and Tita’s grandmother appearing to give her advice on how to treat Pedro’s burn wounds. Despite no longer in the living world, there is this idea of people not dying but simply passing on and still having impact on the living’s life, such as Mama Elena who haunted her daughter for being disobedient.

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  53. Heather Allen
    GENG 239
    March 29,2010
    Commentary

    I believe the magical realist element in "Like Water for Chocolate" is the power of emotions in the food Tita prepares. The most significant expression of this is the scene when Tita's sister, Rosaura marries Pedro. Tita prepared the wedding cake and when the people of the wedding party eat the cake they become sick. This is significant because it shows that Tita is a character who can only express her emotions in the food she has to prepare for her family.

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  54. Throughout the movie "Like Water for Chocolate" directed by Alfonso Arau - the book was written by Laura Esquival - multiple magical realist images are present. I will be exploring two: the mother and the cooking/recipes. The mother comes back as a spirit to condemn Tita, and she nearly succeeds as Tita becomes distraught. This portrayal of magical realism serves to represent the invisible power of women over women and that power that serves to define the relationships between women - notice that the central characters are women. The other magical realist portrayal is the food that prepared by Tita. Food is an important image in the movie as it is not only a medium in which Tita expresses her emotions but it has magical attributes that causes the eater to feel Tita's emotions - more specifically passion, whether good or bad. When Gertrudis eats Tita's rose-petal sauce made with such strong emotion and lust, she is over taken by a heated passion. This represents another theme of the movie: heat. Notice that Tita cooks with the stove every time and had to learn how to cook with the stove. This serves to represent a taming of heat or passion - not necessarily her own, though. Perhaps the movie is implying that passion must be tamed as it is contagious - the recipes are the medium - if one would prefer a more suitable outcome. After all, the film was set during the Mexican Revolution, the theme of taming passion would parallel the passion of revolution needing to be tamed.

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  55. Tita's cooking was the magical realism element in the film because whatever she felt, love, lust, hatred, it was expressed through others who ate her food. The most significant representation of this and my favorite scene in the film was when Tita was lusting after Pedro and the meal she cooked made Gertrudis rip off her clothes, get in to the shower, and then ride off with a bandit in to the desert. That was some pretty powerful stuff Tita was cooking and as she always tells people, " the secret is you have to make it(food) with much love" whenever they would ask her how she made such great meals.

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  56. Andrea Ryan
    Geng 239
    9:05- 9:55

    There are several magical realist elements in Como Agua Para Chocolate. One of the most obvious elements in the film is Tita's mother who haunts Tita after her death. This theme of an evil mother constantly dictating the life of the daughter is consistent with other stories we have read, such as The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother. The culmination of this theme occurs in the movie when Tita tells the Ghost of her mother that she has always hated her. Her mother then seems to strike back by setting Pedro on fire.

    Like Water for Chocolate. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi. Walt Disney Video, 1993. DVD.

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  57. In "Like Water for Chocolate" the magical realism was displayed in many different ways. One way that was reoccurring throughout the movie was Tita's cooking. The magical realism was shown in many different scenes including the scene that she was displaying her sadness when her mother stated that she could not marry Pedro. Tita was preparing the wedding cake for her sisters wedding and cried in the batter. As the cake was being eaten, everyone was crying at her sisters wedding. This scene was extremely important to show the magical realism in the beginning of the movie. As continuing through the movie people continuously comment on Tita's cooking because it always expresses a specific emotion, feeling and psychological impact on the people. This was extremely powerful because in today's society people always say that they eat their feelings, however in the movie it is the opposite and people eat for the emotions.

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  58. In the movie, Como Agua Para Chocolate (For Water Like Chocolate, the magical realist element that stood out to me the most was how Tita's emotions affects her cooking. Depending upon how Tita feels about the occasion or day is displayed in her food; and is felt by those around her. For example, when the love of Tita's life,Pedro, married her sister she was completely heartbroken. Tita's mother forced her to make the food for the wedding. As she was making the cake the reality of the situation really hit Tita, and began to cry into the batter. The day of the wedding the guests were served Tita's cake and they too remembered their first love and began to cry. Tita's personal feelings were oppressed for many years by her mother; the only way to express herself and show others how she truly feels was through her food.

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  59. Aly'ssa Quinn
    3/29/10

    In the film “Like Water for Chocolate,” I think that the most prevalent example of magical realism is in Tita’s food. Tita’s recipes have the fantastical ability to change people’s emotions. For example, when Pedro gives Tita a rose, she uses it to cook a meal that makes everybody feel sensual, lustful, and loving. When she cries into the wedding cake batter, everybody who eats it becomes sick, upset, and depressed. Whether it be sexual desire or complete sadness, Tita has the ability to emit her emotions through her cooking. Her emotions flow into her food and the people who eat it experience the same feelings.

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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. Kerry Laub
    3/29/10

    The magic realism in "Like Water for Chocolate", I feel, was portrayed through food and how Tita's emotions were brought through the food she prepared. The food had the ability to change people's emotions based upon how Tita was feeling when she prepared the food. One experience of Tita's emotion enhancing food was when she baked her sister's wedding cake when she was marrying Pedro. Tita's tears went into the cake batter because she was not marrying Pedro, the man she loved, and she was love sick. The next day at the wedding, when the guests ate the wedding cake, everyone was caused to be sick. Since her mother's strictness kept her from expressing her emotions, her emotions were brought out through her food, and who ever ate her food experienced them as well.

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  62. Anne Marie Moore

    Like "Water for Chocolate" directed by Alfonso Arau had several magical realist elements. One that I found particularly interesting was Tita's ability to affect others emotions through her cooking. It was a unique element to the story compared to the somewhat common factor of a character being haunted by a ghost. I thought Arau very effectively displayed Tita's connection to food: it was the only outlet she had under her mothers oppressive regime. She put so much of herself into it, it was even able to affect those who ate it.

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  63. Victoria Watson
    GENG 239

    Citation: "Like Water for Chocolate".Screenplay by Laura Esquivel.Dir.Alfonso Arau.Perf.Lumi,Convazoz,Marco Leonardi,Regina Torne.1992.Burbank,Calif.:Miramax Home Entertainment, 2000. DVD.

    In the film "Like Water for Chocolate", there were multiple connections to our previous readings through magical realism. The scene where Tita and Pedro are being sensually connected through the meal that she cooks for him with the rose sauce made me think back to the reading By Marquez, "Through the Eyes of a Blue Dog", Both couples were interestingly connected through something that could not exist in reality. Although there is no such thing as a blue dog and this was the element of connection. Tita and Pedro were connected through their meal in a sensual, passionate way that would probably not happen through a cooked meal in reality. There were also similarities between Mama Elena and poor Elendira's mother. The maternal abusiveness seems to be a common theme in magical realist stories and films we have read so far.

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  64. Annie Armstrong
    10:10 class

    The most prominent element of magical realism in Como Agua Para (Like Water for Chocolate), as most people have pointed out, is Tita's cooking. Her cooking is more than a simple preparation of food to satisfy hunger or appetite, but a preparation of a completely moving experience, a process of feeling and emotions. Everyone praises her food highly, after being overcome by strong desires to be with the love of ones life, of erotic passion, and of sadness. Her answer to any question of how her food is prepared is that it is made with lots of love, something that is far more true than anyone realizes (for people believe she is being condescending).

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  65. I am not sure if I am supposed to comment right below the post I am going to respond to. If we are sorry, I am not quit sure how to do that. I want to comment on what Amy talked about. She said, "Tita's mother is an element of magical realism in Como agua para Chocolate. She appears to Tita as a ghost and haunts her. "See what you have caused. Pedro and you have no shame." She is judgmental and hypocritical. Tita finally drives her away by telling her she will do what she pleases."

    I agree that Tita's mother could represent another magical realism element in this movie. I believe her mother represents Tita's conscious. Tita needs to tell Pedro that she thinks she is pregnant, and she needs to tell her sister that she slept with her husband. Until Tita is able to confess what she did or stand up for herself and say she did nothing wrong, her mother's ghost haunted her thoughts.

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