Like Water for Chocolate
Dennis Nguyen
Ms.Kung
English IIA
7 November 2012 What to choose, Love or Tradition?
Back in then in the 1920’s, everyone except the youngest daughter could get married due to the Mexican traditions that pass from generation to generation. In this novel, Like Water For Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, Mama Elena, Tita’s mother, and had to choose between running away with the love of her life or staying with the family because the tradition did not let Mexicans and Mulatos, a breed of African American and Mexican get married. Mama Elena is most affected by tradition and her personal desire of love as she must cover up her secret love of Jose Trevino, a Mulatto, to stay respected in her family. The three things that influenced her decisions the most are that she did not get to marry the love of her life; she was forced to marry Juan De la Garza, and that tradition controlled all of the decisions she would later make. To start things off, Mama Elena had a rough love life. This caused her to make many harsh decisions things that made her disliked throughout the De la Garza family. First off, she caused Tita to have a lot of pain and distress as a young child due to her secret affair dying to an unknown killer and her legal husband dying of a heart attack. This event later caused her breast milk to dry up and this is when the ruthlessness started to show up in her personality. Tita was then put under Nacha's care. Actions like these caused people in the family to question the decisions she made but no one would challenge them due to the fact that she was the head if the family. "Jose was the love of her life. She [is not] allowed to marry him because he [has] Negro blood in his veins." (137) After taking Juan De la Garza as her husband, Mama Elena was still madly in love with Jose Trevino. Her decisions during that period of time were affected by her double life of having a husband and having an affair. She was a mom of
Ms.Kung
English IIA
7 November 2012 What to choose, Love or Tradition?
Back in then in the 1920’s, everyone except the youngest daughter could get married due to the Mexican traditions that pass from generation to generation. In this novel, Like Water For Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, Mama Elena, Tita’s mother, and had to choose between running away with the love of her life or staying with the family because the tradition did not let Mexicans and Mulatos, a breed of African American and Mexican get married. Mama Elena is most affected by tradition and her personal desire of love as she must cover up her secret love of Jose Trevino, a Mulatto, to stay respected in her family. The three things that influenced her decisions the most are that she did not get to marry the love of her life; she was forced to marry Juan De la Garza, and that tradition controlled all of the decisions she would later make. To start things off, Mama Elena had a rough love life. This caused her to make many harsh decisions things that made her disliked throughout the De la Garza family. First off, she caused Tita to have a lot of pain and distress as a young child due to her secret affair dying to an unknown killer and her legal husband dying of a heart attack. This event later caused her breast milk to dry up and this is when the ruthlessness started to show up in her personality. Tita was then put under Nacha's care. Actions like these caused people in the family to question the decisions she made but no one would challenge them due to the fact that she was the head if the family. "Jose was the love of her life. She [is not] allowed to marry him because he [has] Negro blood in his veins." (137) After taking Juan De la Garza as her husband, Mama Elena was still madly in love with Jose Trevino. Her decisions during that period of time were affected by her double life of having a husband and having an affair. She was a mom of