The Connection between Soul Food and Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate is a magical realist novel, written by Laura Esquivel, that combines two of Latin American’s loves, food and passion. Esquivel does an excellent job at capturing her audience’s attention and slowly transitioning them into the storyline of Tita and Pedro. Esquivel does not use the transition of time and space as other magical realist authors do, but she uses other magical realist techniques to demonstrate the “magical” part of the book. I found it interesting to compare the way that Esquivel uses magical realism throughout the entire novel because I would imagine it would be harder to hold your audience’s attention rather than using it only in a short story.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. I typically do not enjoy literature when it is chosen for me, but because of the relevance to today’s society and the clear metaphors in the book, I would definitely read this again for pleasure.
Food, lust, and love are all things that contribute to every society regardless of time and people. Food is such a contributing factor to one’s mood and actions, and Esquivel illustrates this clearly in the text while integrating magical realism. The vomiting, passion for one’s first love, and sadness are all caused by the food. Tita’s emotions are “put into” the food, and everyone who eats begins to feel those strong emotions themselves. This is much like today in some regards; if someone cooks a nice, hearty bowl of soup, the soul feels warm and safe (hence “soul food”). Americans are influenced by this whether they are conscious of it or not. One way to my father and boyfriend’s heart is food. If I prepare fried chicken, okra, cornbread, and some pecan pie, those guys are happy campers. It makes me feel better about myself to cook for others as well. This is what Esquivel is concentrating on when we see Tita retreat to the kitchen when something is wrong or she is upset. Cooking is her way of venting and escaping her current condition.
I could go on and on about the way that Esquivel creates passion and lust by literary devices without explicitly stating them, but I just wanted to state the main themes from which I learned, and that is the use of food in everyday society.

Zorro and the Amazing! Use of Graphics!

Although I am not able to fully discuss Isabel Allende’s version of Zorro, her plot combined with Matt Wagner’s Storytelling and Francavilla’s use of vivid imagery is full of interesting and exciting themes. When discussing this graphic novel, many points could and should be discussed; however, I am going to focus on the use of graphics in combination with words to create a magical realist novel. Unlike previous excerpts of text we have read, this book is completely occupied with bright and action-packed images that help to glide the reader through the facts of the story.
I worked as a graphic design artist for three years, so the illustrations in this graphic novel really “hit home” with me. Understanding the precise placement of text and gutters, thickness of gutters, and color tones are play a vital role in understanding this character of Zorro. The majority of readers understand better with an image than with straight-forward text, so the ability of the author to combine with such illustrations brings the level of intensity over-the-top. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, not for its content as much as its exquisite use of picture and text placement. The image that drew my attention the most was in chapter one when Diego and Bernardo are traveling through the cave. This page has no gutters and a combination of narrative text and dialogue. Starting at the top left-hand corner, we see the opening of the cave, and our mind continues to travel with the images to the bottom right-hand corner. The picture without gutters allows the readers to relax and allows the mind to flow just as the picture does. I also LOVE the fact that the narration, right in the most suspenseful parts, is put on the bottom corner of the page, so the reader must either turn the page or bring the eye up to the top of the next one. This further intensifies the novel. The brown torn look of the narration stands out on the page and is easy for the eye to find. If anyone was interested in studying graphic design, I would highly recommend studying this graphic novel. I have gained much by being introduced to Allende’s graphic novel of Zorro. It has greatly expanded my view of the comic book (although I understand it is not one) and has helped me to learn more about this world of the graphic novel.