Like tita for pedro

Laura Esquivel’s choice for the title of her novel Like Water for Chocolate is a perfect fit for the contents of the work. Aside from alluding to the important cooking motif that pervades the book, the title emphasizes the unifying theme of the novel: the more suffering one must endure and the more tests one must overcome for love, the more intense it will be when one can finally cherish and embrace it.
The supernatural link between Tita’s cooking and her experiences with love is apparent throughout the novel. Esquivel intersperses her plot with recipes in order to emphasize the symbolic significance of cooking in the story. Magic realism is masterfully implemented to further accentuate the power of these symbolic recipes. For example, when Tita bleeds on the roses she uses as ingredients in a family dinner, her passion is infused into the food. Gertrudis, after tasting the food, is overcome by sudden lust, and feels...