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“[Nacha] felt she had the best chance of ‘educating the innocent child’s stomach,’ even though she had never married or had children. Though she didn’t know how to read or write, when it came to cooking she knew everything there was to know. Mama Elena accepted her offer gratefully; she had enough to do between her mourning and the enormous responsibility of running the ranch—and it was the ranch that would provide her children the food and education they deserved. . . .” (Esquivel 6-7)
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The first thought that comes to mind reading this quote is Sor Juana’s description of the eggs she grew up making and the way her life in the kitchen gave her a unique education of its own. Nacha, obviously a much older woman and possibly one who has filled her role in the family as cook for a long time, most likely sees the potential of cooking/being in the kitchen as an opportunity for education. Esquivel mentions how despite not being a mother or a wife, Nacha still feels she is able to “educate the child’s stomach.” This is indicative of the way we generally view cooking and being in the kitchen as not just womanly duties, but motherly/wifely ones, too. It is also indicative of Nacha’s motherly disposition in spite of her not being an “actual” mother; the fact that she is not very educated but is more than willing to offer everything she does know to help Tita (and Mama Elena in her time of distress) is a mothering quality in itself. It’s probable that Nacha knew that Tita, being the youngest, would not marry and would maintain the duty of being her mother’s caretaker, and therefore wanted to teach her to cook to fulfill one of the main tasks of this lifelong responsibility.
Mama Elena lacks the motherly quality that we would expect of sacrifice or providing everything for one’s child. While Nacha, with very little to offer, still volunteers to take on the role to care for Tita, Mama Elena is relieved to hand her off and focus on other matters. We might view this as Mama Elena’s first step in the many ways she will continue to abuse and disregard her children, but it’s also very telling of the expectations we have for women, especially mothers. An enormous grief and task both presenting themselves to you simultaneously will obviously have a tremendous effect, and yet I think we are more eager to judge the decision of Mama Elena to hand Tita off to Nacha to raise because we expect a lot of women/mothers. In short, we expect endless sacrifice. We don’t necessarily consider that it might have been a sacrifice for Mama Elena herself to relinquish the opportunity to try to feed and bond with her newborn child and focus on running the ranch instead. In fact, it says directly in the quote that she believed good maintenance of the ranch held the highest opportunity for feeding and educating her children. Maybe in the wake of her losing her husband she focused most on practicality for the survival of her and her family rather than the essence of a loving and warm “family unit,” maybe made even more difficult for her to aspire to because a part of that family unit had just passed away.
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Neglected to mention that your gut has a “brain” of its own, according to science–it functions largely on its own and the brain is actually much more receptive and reliant to signals the gut sends to it than vice versa. Your gut microbiome is developed within the first 3 years of life, made stronger, of course, by natural birth and breastfeeding, which introduce new and diverse bacteria that strengthen’s one gut and immune system. Though this is not explicitly stated in the book and maybe isn’t strictly known by any of the characters, there is a strong link between a child’s nourishment and the way they grow up: better nourishment means better health, a higher IQ, etc. “Educating a child’s stomach” is both figurative and literal. Yes, Nacha is able to teach Tita how to cook and familiarize her with the kitchen, but she is also playing a MAJOR role in Tita’s lifelong development, with or without either of them even realizing it, feeding her during an incredibly formative time period in which it is crucial where/what a child is being fed for their immunity and their development.
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According to this NYT article (from 1998), formula was in fact the default method of feeding children until quite recently (at least in the U.S.). If you’re keen, you might notice that the timeline in the article roughly matches the rise in birth control. It reflects an attitude that science would save us and make us healthier. In rural Mexico at the turn of the century, you don’t have the same options.
The gut bacteria/feedback/brain loop is a fascinating one and ine I’m sure the real Esquivel is all about!
It’s interesting, in light of Price, that Esquivel would choose to make breastfeeding part of the “motherly” quality Mama Elena lacks. It makes women who can’t breastfeed appear as somehow less than those who can (even though it’s not an uncommon problem for plenty of normal reasons, including grief).
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Nacha, mother-figure and chef extraordinaire, is the one who teaches Tita everything. Also, what she knows is both scrumptious and powerful. As said previously, Nacha is obviously an a lot more seasoned lady and perhaps one who has filled her job in the family as cook for quite a while, no doubt observes the capability of cooking/being in the kitchen as an open door for instruction. Nacha is basically doing the job of being a mother as instead of Mama Elena who lacks the motherly quality and is instead focusing on different matters that she chooses to care more about. Tita who was the youngest in the family, would not marry and would do all the work of being her mother’s caretaker, and therefore Nacha was determined to teach her to cook to fulfill one of the main tasks of this lifelong responsibility. The fact that Nacha who goes out of her way with very little to offer to help Tita out and teach her how to cook and makes Mama Elena relieved to hand her off and focus on other matters is outrageous. Mama Elena would disregard her children and abuse them in which is not the expectations of having the quality of being a mother. This might be Mama Elena’s traditions of being a mother doing the things she’s doing like not caring about her children and focusing on other matters, but in reality the expectations of having the quality of a mother are totally different as mothers are expected to care about their children and to raise them the right way growing up. It might have been a sacrifice when Mama Elena gives up her mothering role for Nacha to take over as being a mother and raising Tita by teaching her how to cook and accomplishing the main task of her lifelong responsibility. Mama Elena after losing her husband may have changed her in many ways within the family. She might have become depressed and focus on the other matters like having survival for her family by working the ranch instead of being expected of what a mother does such as taking care of her children. As stated previously with the “family unit”, Mama Elena without her husband who passed away may really be the big issue here as she maybe she lost her connection with her family due to how it’s difficult to raise her children without her husband/father being there too as she probably thinks there isn’t a family unit anymore.
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This is a good paraphrase. I wonder, though, about some of the specifics of this quotation. For example, why do you think it draws particular attention to the facts that Nacha cannot read or write? We know Tita can write and so assume nearly every other character can. Why not Nacha? Did Mama Elena stop her or did Nacha have no interest (hard to believe)? Why would Mama Elena not want Nacha to read?
On a practical level it shows some genuine skill of Nacha. If she can’t read or write then she knows all the recipes by heart and always knows the ingredients in the cupboard. How does that kind of knowledge contrast with the type of knowledge Tita has? Or the “education” that Mama Elena thinks her girls “deserve”?
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This quote really emphasizes Nacha’s role in Tita’s life and in the family. She is the reason they were all fed, and ultimately a more of a mother figure to Tita then Mama Elena ever was. Both characters serve as a mother figure to Tita, however Mama Elena is strict and hostile to Tita throughout her entire life. She was never even nurturing to Tita, especially in her most vulnerable time- an infant. Rather do to the sudden death of Tita’s father, Mama Elena’s breast milk dried up from stress and Nacha took over and offered to take chage of Tita. Since her birth she knew the key to her stomach. Usually, mothers who carry their child are the only ones who truly know the key to their stomachs and how to sooth the hungry infant. In this case, someone totally non-blood related to Tita was the only one who was able to sooth her which portrays her as a more motherly figure. Yes, Mama Elena was a mother figure in other ways, caring for her children by providing a roof over their head but overall Nacha was the caregiver and this quote made me want to bring out how food was the ultimate thing that brought Nacha and Tita together, a bond that could of never been broken apart.
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You do a good job of paraphrasing the quotation. You know what strikes me, though? The quotations within it. Who do you think first said they were “educating” Tita’s stomach? Why would it be retained as an important phrase? The part about the ranch providing an education to the de la Garza family isn’t in quotation marks, so why the special attention to the phrasing of Nacha’s role?
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“Sometimes [Tita] would cry for no reason at all, like when Nacha chopped onions, but since they both knew the cause of those tears, they didn’t play them much mind. They made them a source of entertainment, so that during her childhood Tita didn’t distinguish between tears of laughter and tears of sorry. For her laughing was a form of crying.” (Esquivel 7)
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Compare these two explanations for Tita’s unusual birth:
“TIta had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged; maybe that was because she knew then that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage. The way Nacha told it, Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor.” (Esquivel 6)
“It was useless to try to recall the first time [Tita] had smelled one of those rolls—she couldn’t, possibly because it had been before she was born. It might have been the unusual combination of sardines and sausages that had called to her and made her decide to trade the peace of ethereal existence in Mama Elena’s belly for life as her daughter, in order to enter the De la Garza family and share their delicious meals and wonderful sausage.” (Esquivel 9)
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“Tita knew perfectly well that these questions would have to be buried forever in the archive of questions that have no answers. In the De la Garza family one obeyed—immediately.” (Esquivel 12)
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Here on a surface level, we’re presented with the tradition that ultimately binds Tita to her family and sets off the conflict that arises in the second chapter. Because Tita is the youngest, she’s obligated to stay with her mother until her death, for she is the one deemed required to care for her until then. There’s no questioning allowed, even though Tita herself prior to this passage contemplates the problems that arise from the person who finds themselves obligated to care for their mother.
This raises the general notion of what exactly is the difference between tradition versus obligation. To Tita, tradition is something that she’s not attached to or fond of in a personal manner. In the context of the story, I don’t think it’s hard to imagine that Tita feels a disconnect or detachment from her mother, given the circumstances of her birth and how hard-pressed she is as a worker. Rather, Nacha is the motherly figure to Tita, teaching her both how to live as a person and a cook. The fact that Nacha even feeds her during the time when a child develops a physical, hormonal connection to a mother implies how much Tita may not exactly feel as part of Mama Elena’s “family” per se. Because of this, Tita understandably does not feel attached towards the tradition that she is subjected to, and thus, tradition becomes an obligation. It is not a family value that enriches lives, rather it burdening them. This is emphasized by what’s described as an “archive” of questions. This archive does not necessarily pertain to just Tita though. Because we are speaking in the sense of tradition, this “archive” can hold the questions of the entire De la Garza family line of those who questioned why they were forced into the mannerisms of behavior they found themselves in. Even in immediate obeying, this does not stop the countless build-up of questions in one’s mind. Comparing such questions to an archive that’s buried stresses that these questions have always been, and will continue to be refused to be answered. For every question unanswered leads to another, and the cycle continues for the next generation of children. This leads to the idea that there is no real communication here. While it’s possibly a stretch to say that there’s no connection or love between the family, (although from what I can tell, there really isn’t) it’s rather blatant that the family fails to actually reach out to one another, and lack of communication about wants and desires ultimately sparks the conflict, and eventually death, that arises in the novel. It’s particularly interesting that despite that Tita knows how futile her questioning is, she does it in the first place despite knowing perfectly well to do otherwise. Her concern for her own self-interests shine here, and Mama Elena takes notable offense to this, seeing as how talking immediately ends following this, and whatever communication they do have is only a reinforcement of rules that need to be followed.
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Very thoughtful discussion of the quotation!
The tradition/obligation point is intriguing. Thinking about it lead me to look up the word obligation (I’m often fascinated by etymologies). It means a task you are morally/legally/or contractually bound to do and the root word originally means to tie or bind. That’s some powerful connotation in this context!
Also interesting, tradition (which means “to hand over”) shares the same linguistic root as traitor (who you also hand power over to if she’s successful). I don’t know that this etymology is as rich as the one above… but maybe there’s something in there.
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Continuing off what D’Andre has already wrote…
This quote here provides insight on how perhaps Tita sees family and “tradition”. She “knew perfectly well” suggests that this realization that there was no questioning what Mama Elena said was “tradition”, was not a recent or newly made realization. Rather it was something that had been told to her and reinforced time after time again, until she KNEW that it was law, hence she didn’t just know it, but she knew <b>perfectly well</b>. The quote goes on to explain that her questions of why the traditions were as such “would have to be buried forever in the archive…”. Tita’s questionings and thoughts regarding the traditions that Mama Elena is instilling in her and the family are not the only ones. The idea of an archive is a collection of old, no longer relevant things, and in this case, there is this image of a collection of all the questions or wonderings one has ever made about the De La Garza family history/tradition. Despite the archive of questions that anyone has ever had about the traditions, they have never had a single answer, described as “questions that have no answers.” This means that nobody has ever been successful in challenging the De La Garza traditions, and Tita’s chances of doing such are nothing. While the questions has continued to remain unanswered, people still seem to continue to form these questions as D’Andre has mentioned. It’s almost cyclical how members of the family question the traditions, find themselves obeying, and enabling further generations to question the traditions. Yet as the quote continues, “In the De La Garza family one obeyed — immediately”. Despite not having answers, the members of the family continue to obey — just as Tita may not be content with her responsibility to remain alone to take care of Mama Elena, she must obey in serving Mama Elena and helping out (as far as we know now). The quote uses “in the De La Garza family” rather than a personal “my family” or “her family” to refer to the family as Tita’s. This would seem to suggest a disconnect between how Tita either views her relation to the family as a whole or perhaps only the traditions. There is already a disconnect between Tita and Mama Elena due to Mama Elena’s failures as a mother (unable to provide warmth, feed her, etc), and Tita notices how Mama Elena treats her differently.
Tita was aware of her own discontent and her questions over the De La Garza’s family traditions, yet she still continued to obey. The response to obey is also not one where the members of the family can take time to mull over the traditions or what is asked of them, but they are expected to obey immediately. The family and Mama Elena has strict expectations for the family, and tradition is simply that, traditions. There is no room for interpretations or for the self, but it is all about the family and taking care of the family.
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In other words this quote basically means that Tita has no choice but to obey her family’s regulations. Which would mean that Tita can’t marry or start her own family since she is the youngest daughter. In the De la Garza family the youngest daughter is obligated to take care of her parents, in this case Tita would only have to look after Mama Elena since her father passed away. On the other hand, her siblings such as Rosaura would be able to marry and start their own family. This upsets Tita very much because she genuinely loves Pedro but can’t marry him due to her family’s tradition. This quote basically means that even if she tried to rebel and try to marry Pedro it probably would not work out because everyone from her side of the family would not be supportive at all. In a way it would very heartbreaking for Mama Elena since she raised Tita without a father figure around and she would have no one to take care of her when she becomes older. However, though Mama Elena raised her and it is tradition to conserve the younger daughter it is not fair Tita at all. She was born into this world and after a certain age she should be able to decide what she wants to do with her life. That does not mean it would be right for her to disrespect her mother but it means that once she becomes an adult Tita should be able to make her own decisions. If that means marrying the person she loves than she has every right to. Traditions like these cause people to be depressed because they have no control over their own life, it’s as if they are living their life to fulfill others desires.
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Conceptually, this quotation makes perfect sense and who hasn’t felt this way?
But what about this quotation specifically grabbed your attention? What’s the deeper logic behind it? There’s a metaphor, after all, about archives and burying. Why do the questions have no answers? Is it because they cannot be broken or they simply the wrong questions? You want to push beyond the literal meaning of words to see what’s lurking below!
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“That look! She had been walking to the table carrying a tray of egg-yolk candies when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned her head, and her eyes met Pedro’s. It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body was so real she was afraid she would start to bubble—her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts—like batter, and unable to endure his gaze she lowered her eyes and hastily crossed the room, to where Gertrudis was pedaling the player piano, playing a waltz called ‘The Eyes of Youth’” (Esquivel 16)
“The Eyes of Youth” – https://youtu.be/2TtFxG0roIs
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“Finally she went to her sewing box and pulled out the bedspread she had started the day Pedro first spoke of marriage. A bedspread like that, a crocheted one, takes about a year to complete. Exactly the length of time Pedro and Tita had planned to wait before getting married. She decided to use the yarn, not to let it go to waste, and so she worked on the bedspread and wept furiously, weeping and working until dawn, and threw it over herself. It didn’t help at all. Not that night, nor many others, for as long as she lived, could she free herself from that cold. (Esquivel 19)”
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The contrast and connection between the physical and emotional reactions that Tita experiences while falling in love and losing it helps us understand the intensity and depth of each incident in Tita’s life. As Tita comes across pedro for the first time, her body reacts with heat. Her physical response is also compared as “how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil” because everything in her life is tied to the kitchen and cooking. As since birth Tita only knew how to connect her emotions with food and cooking, therefore, the physical reaction of her body when she sees Pedro also reflects the chemistry heat and food has in the kitchen while cooking. The heat is also a symbol for the extreme physical and sexual attraction she feels towards Pedro. On the other hand, in reaction to losing her love, Tita’s body responds with hunger and cold which can’t be cured even by her favorite food. This totally opposite reaction of her body reflects the gravity of her emotional devastation and emptiness she feels as she loses her only love and her dream of marriage. It also reflects the importance of marriage in her life to break free from her mother’s cage.
The crocheted bedspread represents Tita’s dream to marry Pedro and eventually losing her virginity in wedding night. Because Tita is the youngest of all, according to a family tradition she is required to stay by her mother till her last breath and is also deprived of the right to marriage. On one hand, though being devastated by the news of her sister and Pedro’s wedding, her still working on the wedding bedspread till dawn, explains that she still has some hope left inside her and she is not ready to give up her dreams. Also, her determination to not let the bedspread go waste reflects her own intentions about herself that she refuses to let her go to waste either. Yet, she feels desperate to be free and feel the warmth and heat that Pedro’s love made her feel, thus, she attempts to feel warmth by holding onto her dreams, throwing the bedspread over herself. But she fails to get rid of the coldness because she feels betrayed in love and knows that she will be left all alone with her mother if her dream to get married never comes true. However, the quote, “It didn’t help at all. Not that night, nor many others, for as long as she lived, could she free herself from that cold.” brings up the question if she will ever be able to break free from her mother’s constant control over her life and fulfil her dreams.
On the other hand, this scene can also be a contrast to the scene in Chapter 2, where Tita walks on Gertrudis and Chencha embroidering the imported white wedding sheet for Rosaura and Pedro wedding night. Seeing this Tita becomes horrified by the whiteness of the sheet and afterwards sees white in every color. The “white” bedspread in this scene, represents purity and virginity. In Tita’s case, she is caged by this purity/virginity/whiteness because her mother won’t ever allow her to marry and she will never be able to use her own made bedspread. Therefore, her own virginity and purity almost feels like a burden to her that she can’t be free of and therefore, the whiteness of her sister’s wedding bedspread, haunts her for several days.
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I’m really intrigued by your contrast with chapter two and the whiteness of the “nuptial sheet.” It reminds me of a famous chapter in Moby-Dick where the main character discusses the “whiteness of the whale” and what it means to nearly every sailor on the ship. In the narrator’s mind, the scariest part of the whitness is that it is unnatural–the world is colorful and rarely white (he actually describes nature as wearing too much makeup like a prostitute). Tita’s horror might be what the sheet is meant for–it’s white because it’s meant to prove the bride’s virginity. The old cliche of a “virgin bride” bleeding on the wedding night feels particularly antiquated, as does the tradition of displaying the sheet in a window, for example, as proof that the marriage is consummated. Maybe it’s not the whiteness that Tita fears but the promise of it no longer being white…
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While the bedspread can represent Tita’s dream to marry Pedro, it can also simultaneously represent the development of her relationship with Pedro after he considered marrying Tita. It is implied that the relationship has developed up to the expected amount of time they planned to wait before they were going to get married, considering the fact that Pedro was ready to ask for Tita’s hand in marriage. The bedspread illustrates the growth of their “hidden” relationship (since other people knew about this relationship), which they had to keep a secret from Mama Elena. In terms of the worth of this bedspread, for Tita, it meant a growing hope of a wedding day she has always dreamed of happening to her, which only grew with time along with her love for Pedro. Furthermore, handcrafted items always are worth more than something that is fabricated by a machine. This places more emphasis on the genuineness of the bedspread as well as the time and effort she spent on making the bed adornment. It is something she herself chose to develop rather than her mother. As a more personal item, she put her love into it in the same way that she likely puts love into her cooking. Likewise, the bed adornment could also represent her naivety in creating her ideal joyful love.
When she realizes that her dream won’t come true and Pedro will marry her sister instead, she still tries to finish the bedspread, though it isn’t done with the same vigor or pleasure as before. She instead works “furiously” at it in an attempt to cling onto her love (Esquivel 19). One could say she is truly “like water for chocolate” in this moment (Badum tss!). It demonstrates her constant inclination to rebel against her mother’s orders. Of course, she feels heartbroken, and she is unable to warm herself up. Love is often associated with nice warm feelings; it is natural for lacking love to be the same as lacking warmth.
Speaking of warmth, another important thing to point out— the bedspread is described as being “crocheted” (Esquivel 19). It should be noted as additional detail on Esquivel’s part according to the placement of the commas. Although such details could be seen as removable or unimportant, Esquivel must have wanted to add that or draw attention to it for a reason. Normally, the art of crochet has numerous holes in the work with embellished designs outlined by said holes (I looked it up to make sure and yes, different crocheted bedspreads have holes in them. They made me think of one of my mother’s blankets and one of her table cloths).
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Tita’s bedspread mostly likely has several holes in it. Although this can be seen as an artistic choice, the holes could refer to the flaws in her love. Therefore, when she tried to cover herself with it, it failed to warm her up or comfort her. She attempted to use it as a blanket, confusing the use between a bedspread and a blanket. Her situation leaves her vulnerable to the cold, where tradition would only provide her with her mother’s company in the end. The crocheted bedspread was fabricated out of her own wishful thinking; her fantasies or dreams cannot come true and provide the warmth she had when she could still dream of marriage.
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The pictures really add to this analysis and shows some good research!
I’m never quite sure what to do with the bead spread. On one hand, it’s typical women’s work and we know that Tita is magically perfect at sewing and needlework (like she seems perfect at everything), so why not this?
The key element seems to be that it’s meant to mark time the time of an engagement and Tita’s never ends… so she never knows when to stop? It’s also obviously for warmth, as you mention.
It’s reference in the movie version is genuinely funny, so maybe that’s given me a block!
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This quote shows the reader how symbolic Tita’s bedspread is, it shows a hopeful side of her. She began to make the blanket after Pedro planned to propose to her and knowing that the blanket would take time to finish so she started it instantly. After Pedro gets engaged to , Tita stays awake all night crocheting the blanket. She cries and weeps because it shows that she is a strong woman even in times of hardship. After the marriage, she continues to crochet the blanket each night, and she adds different colors of yarn. She would also go outside and sit with an oldwoman, who reminded her of Nacha. She would sew the blanket to remind herself of Pedro while sitting next to a woman who reminded her of Nacha, like sitting next to that women the blanket probably made her feel happy in a nostalgic way, when she would reminisce the time in her life when it was going better than it is in that moment. The different colors represent the changes that happen in her life, she might think that it was pathetic to continue but uses the yarn anyway so it doesn’t go to waste. After her nervous breakdown, Tita leaves the ranch with nothing but her bedspread, which Chencha runs out to give to her before she leaves. She knew that Pedro was still in love with her and wouldn’t let his love be forgotten.
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I’d probably spin this ever so slightly differently: This doesn’t show the symbolic nature of the bedspread, it establishes it. In this moment, the bedspread becomes symbolic.
Your discussion of nostalgia made me realize that Tita never tells Mama Elena about the blanket. I wonder if it was a secret? It probably would be, in which case this is a curious moment object that Tita makes outside the kitchen. How does it compare to her food?
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“[Tita] felt like screaming, Yes, she was having problems, when they had chosen something to be neutered, they’d made a mistake, they should have chosen her. At least then there would be some justification for not allowing her to marry and giving Rosaura her place beside the man she loved. Mama Elena read the look on her face and few into a rage, giving Tita a tremendous slap that left her rolling in the dirt by the rooster, which had died from the bungled operation.” (Esquivel 27)
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This quote sounds like Tita is in a sense comparing herself to the rooster because she’s saying she should have been neutered and not the rooster. In a way Mama Elena telling Tita that she cannot marry Pedro or any man at all because she has to take care of her, Is in a way is the same as her getting neutered since the she won’t be able to have kids or find a partner much like the rooster. For Tita the process of neutering that rooster was horrible she did not want to do it but much like everything else in her life she was forced to by her mother. Tita maybe feels that the rooster could have actually had a chance to have a better life than her in a sense that the rooster could have had a partner but instead it died. Tita feels that if in a way she was able to get neutered instead of the rooster it would have been a more justifiable reason to not be able to marry her lover Pedro, since she wouldn’t be able to reproduce that the marriage would have almost been pointless. If she had been neutered she could have possible made peace with that being the reason she couldn’t marry instead of the reason Mama Elena gave her. If Tita could not have kids then she might have even been more willing to let her older sister Rosaura get married to Pedro because in her head she might had been like since I can’t give him the family he wants at least she can. Afterwards when Mama Elena slaps Tita for the expression Tita was displaying which was most likely disgust or horror Tita falls over. This is when the comparison of the rooster to Tita becomes more real because Tita is on the dirt laying next to this dead rooster who she neutered. The rooster had been laying in the dirt dead, alone, cold and dirty which is maybe how Tita pictures her death to be like alone and cold because she won’t have anyone by her side. Usually people die surrounded by people they love but, if Tita can’t marry or have kids than she won’t have anyone to accompany her in her old years and death. This is probably one of the many things that bothers Tita from Mama Elenas decision.
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Tita has been forced to take care of her mother for the rest of her life because she is the youngest daughter. Like a lot of people today, even me, when you feel like you have no choices in life you just wanna break down. People with no choices feel confined and trapped in an endless loop. A person with no control of their lives just wanna scream like Tita because you’re raised to think you can have free choice to be whoever you want, and do whatever your heart desires. Having no choices leads people to suicide because they feel trapped. Tita even tries to rationalize in her head why her mother won’t allow her to get married, and she’s trapped in this stupid tradition of taking care of her mother for the rest of her life, just because she’s the youngest. Mama Elena is a very tradiontal, abusive person who’s quite ignorant to her own daughters mental health. When she is slapped by mama Elena, and Tita falls over near the dead chicken, it symbolizes the death in Titas life of not being able to be with the person she loves. She’s stuck having to cook and neuter chickens all day. It’s a miserable life to have no choices, and to take care of someone who’s abusive and won’t take no for an answer.
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Your phrasing actually made me realize how strange this scene is, in a way. You write that Tita can’t have kids and get married, just like a neutered rooster. Something about your sentence at first read to me as if you were arguing Tita couldn’t get married by roosters can and while I was thinking “whaaaat?!” I realized how strange it is for Tita to think if she can’t be married she can’t have kids and if she can’t have kids she might as well be…neutered? It implies, perhaps, a dim view of a woman who perhaps chooses not to have kids or perhaps has children outside of a marriage. I wonder what Price would think?
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This quotation represents the helplessness that Tita feels alongside the pain of her not being able to be with the one she loves.
Madenisse describes Tita as comparing herself to a rooster and similarly, I also believe that Tita is essentially likening herself to an animal. The term “neutered” is usually used for animals and represents them being castrated.
Tita states that instead of the roosters being castrated, she’d rather be the one getting emasculated because then at least she’d have a rationalization of why she can’t be allowed to marry the one she loves alongside having to watch him marry her sister.
The quote finishes the comparison of Tita with a rooster by describing Tita being slapped so hard that she rolls next to a rooster that is dead due to the botched operation of being castrated. This hidden metaphor is used to compare Tita and the rooster by depicting the helplessness that Tita feels from the situation she is stuck in alongside the immense pain from not being able to be with Pedro. Tita would rather have been castrated as a justified reason for not being with Pedro even though she ends up next to a dead rooster that is dead from being neutered. This comparison with a rooster helps represent what Tita feels in the circumstances that she is in.
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“No, the flavor did not seem to have been affected, yet without knowing why Nacha was suddenly overcome with an intense longing. One after another, she thought back on all the wedding day banquets she had prepared for the De la Garza family, ever cherishing the illusion that the next wedding would be her own. At eighty-five, there was no longer much point in crying, lamenting the wedding banquet she’d been waiting for that had never come, or the wedding she had never had, even though she had had a fiancé. Oh yes, she had! But the mama of Mama Elena had sent him packing. . . . On the day of the wedding, when Tita went looking for [Nacha], she found [her] lying dead, her eyes wide open, medicinal leaves upon her temples, a picture of her fiancé clutched in her hands.” (Esquivel 36, 41)
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Tita’s tears affect Nacha in a way that struck her deeply. The longing and sadness in Tita’s tears bring up the pain that Nacha had buried away; the fiancé that Nacha never married. Similarities between Tita and Nacha are that they are both forbidden from marrying by Mama Elena and Mama Elena’s mother respectively. Nacha passes away a photo of her lover clutched in her arms; her sadness from the lonely life that she lived without her fiancé’s love being what killed her. The rules imposed by Mama Elena and the traditions of the De la Garza family are cruel and unjust toward the last child, who is robbed of any sort of freedom for the rest of their lives. Mama Elena doesn’t care about the grief that Nacha experienced, and has an equal amount of concern for Tita, who she sees as a future caretaker more than a daughter like her others.
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“That look! She had been walking to the table carrying a tray of egg-yolk candies when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned her head, and her eyes met Pedro’s. It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body was so real she was afraid she would start to bubble—her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts—like batter, and unable to endure his gaze she lowered her eyes and hastily crossed the room, to where Gertrudis was pedaling the player piano, playing a waltz called ‘The Eyes of Youth'” (Esquivel 16)
Throughout the novel of course cooking as a main portion or even all of the book, so Tita is bringing out a fresh egg-yolk candies which. The ingredients of eggs are used in almost all over her recipes. Tita has to bring out food to not only her mother who she has a pretty negative relationship with but also her lover that is marring her sister. She is caring the hot candies and since they were already causing her, herself to warm up due to the heat; the heat of Pedro’s eyes caused her skin to rise in flames. This really allows the reader to step even more inside the relationship of Tita and Pedro because even though they can never be together due to the fact that the youngest daughter can never get married there is still a flaming tension between them that can be ignited through just one look of an eye. The analogy of dough being dropped into boiling oil is used to describe how she feels when locking eyes with her lover. Even though Tita brings out the food to her whole family she still her red in the face (assuming) and cannot control her feelings.
Her boiling feeling lead to the continuation of describing the dough when dropping into hot oil. Naming different body parts such as her face stomach and even heart are bubbling up just like the oil gets hotter and hotter over an open flame. Tita gets to a point where she cannot longer bear the warm feeling caused by love overpowering over her body, so she quickly moves across the room (assuming she is moving further away from everyone else). Not only did she quickly scurry t0 the other side, she even lowered her eyes meaning she no longer was connecting eyes with Pedro, breaking the tension that was being passed onto each other through their eyes.
Ironically, Gertrudis was playing a waltz called “The eyes of Youth” on the piano just as Tita moved closer toward her direction. This waltz fit the mood of the scene perfectly, especially since in the title the song is named eyes of youth. Which Pedro and Tita both being of a young age have locked their eyes and flames began to grow inside them both. A waltz is usually used in ballroom dance which is where there are pairs of individuals that have to be focused on each other movements and work together to be able to execute the dance correctly. This is a well-chosen piece to be playing as the pair of young lovers’ dance with their eyes and sharing an intimate moment only the two of them feel. Usually young love is considered to be passionate and filled with heat which is exactly what the two lovers were feeling as a perfectly fit waltz was playing in the background as they felt the flame arise in the body when locking eyes.
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Esquivel is rarely subtle and the irony of the “Eyes of Youth” playing while Tita fixates on the eyes of Pedro is palpable.
I wonder, though, if there isn’t something more to this incredible food metaphor. After all, if it was only the bubbling warmth that was needed, it could have been the metaphor of the title which implicitly refers to boiling water. Instead, this is frying batter, sort of like a pancake (it’s cornmeal, probably, though). When you’re frying dough, you get that incredible transformation from liquid batter to bubbling, hot, delicious treat. Deep frying is transformative. A more cliche phrase might be something like emerging as a butterfly (although that version emphasizes the final process, not the slow transformation).
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“She kept her mind on these and other memories like them in order to maintain a little contented-cat smile throughout the ceremony ” (Esquivel 15)
This quote shows that Tita is headstrong and has a good control of her mind. She distracted herself during the wedding by thinking of other things that made her happy in order to keep a smile on her face. This displays that she can handle difficult situations (such as this one) that come into her life. The situation can affect her in her mind, but she won’t show it on her face. In this book, this is very important because she cannot give everyone what they wanted- which is to see her upset about the wedding between her one true love and her sister. Additionally, if a somber face from her was seen by her mother, she might have received another beating of a lifetime.
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