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.