Character Sketch (Like Water for Chocolate)

In Like Water for Chocolate, food plays a dynamic role. Food is the vessel through which the reader fully understands Tita's emotions. Every recipe that she prepares is filled with her tears or her passion or her anger and this is transferred to the characters who eat the food. For example, when Tita prepares the wedding cake for Pedro and Rosaura, she is overcome by sadness at the loss of her lover Pedro. Her tears then fall into the cake, and when the people eat it at the reception, they too are overcome by sadness at losing lost loves and end up vomiting due to their intense emotion.

Food is more than just a vessel for Tita's emotions. It also becomes a foreshadow for the novel. Anytime the reader comes across Tita preparing a recipe, they automatically become aware that something vital is going to occur. After the wedding cake fiasco, the reader becomes acutely aware of the power of Tita's food and is therefore anticipating the affects of her food on others.