Simple Passion

The beginning of the novel is shocking because it just jumps right in to the vivid description of sex. There is no introduction or explanation. You wouldn't expect the novel to start out like this. I think the most interesting thing about the beginning is when she says, "something one could barely take in without dying has become as easy to watch as a handshake." People become desensitized to things. This reminded me of our own culture. 50 years ago the things we see on TV would have been unthinkable. It would have been improper to show a half naked woman on television. Now, we see it during prime time. Shows about violence and death are everywhere. We have become desensitized to dead bodies and sex. I think she believed that writing should stir these same emotions. It should make you think and push your comfort barriers. 

I think she definitely lives in the present. She doesn't think about the future, the only thing she thinks about is waiting for this man to call. "I had no future other than the telephone call fixing our next appointment. I would try to leave the house as little as possible except for professional reasons, (naturally he knew my working hours) forever fearing that he might call during my absence. I would also avoid using the vacuum cleaner or the hair dryer as they would have prevented me from hearing the sound of the telephone." Her entire life revolves around this man. She doesn't even live. She waits for him to call as if she is only living when he is around. "It would last only a few hours. I never wore my watch, removing it just before he arrived. He would keep his on and I dreaded the moment when he would glance at it discreetly." She completely lives in these temporary moments. She doesn't even want to be reminded of time so she removes her watch. Her association with temporality is ridiculous. 

Beyond Silence

     Lara took care of her parents from an early age. She went through things that children with hearing parents would never have to. For example she made calls for her mother and translated for them. Her parents depended on her in many ways. I think Lara's father depended on that and didn't want it to change. His strained relationship with his sister didn't help this. He felt like Clarissa was trying to take his daughter away from him, that she was trying to turn Lara into herself. It is human nature to resist change and I think we see a lot of this in the movie. The final acceptance of Lara's dream by her father shows that he has come to terms with her growing up. Before her mother dies, she gives Lara tickets for a concert and says she will go with her. I think this shows Lara's mother's acceptance of her dream. She wants to share in it with her even though she can't hear the music. Lara's father's acceptance comes later in the film. He has more resentment toward music from his childhood. 

  Lara's relationship to music compared to her father's is quite interesting throughout the movie. We learn that her father has some resentment toward the clarinet because when he was younger he was put in his room whenever Clarissa was playing the clarinet. Clarissa gives Lara her clarinet and cuts Lara's hair so it looks like Clarissa's hair when she was young. This reminds Lara's father of Clarissa and in turn causes him to resent his own daughter in some ways. He can't hear music. He doesn't understand that feelings that rise for Lara when she plays or listens to a piece. He doesn't understand why music is so important to her. This is why I thought the end of the film was so moving. Her father shows up to her audition, even though he can't hear. He puts his hands on the railing. I saw this as him feeling the vibrations of the music. It was his way of supporting her and encouraging her. 

     The differences between home and Berlin were also interesting. Lara's hometown was quiet and serene. The fact that the only way she communicated with her parents was through sign language made her home life even more quiet. When she gets to Berlin we see the noise and excitement of the city. City life is completely different from what she is used to. She is able to develop her musical skills in the city.

Like Water for Chocolate Day Two

"When she came out of hiding, Tita immediatly missed the constant cooing if the doves, which had been part of her everyday life ever since she was born. This sudden silence made her feel her lonliness all the more. It was then that she really felt the loss of Pedro, Rosaura, and Roberto. She hurried up the rungs of the enormous ladder that went to the dovecote, but all she found there was the usual carpet of feathers and droppings." (page 92)
     I think this moment really reinforces the loneliness in Tita's life. She has lost everyone who meant something to her; Pedro, Nacha, and now her doves. Her doves were the only things left that she could nurture and love. Her nephew had been taken away from her along with the man she was in love with. She couldn't marry or have children of her own so she displaced those instincts and feelings onto the doves. Everything has been taken away from Tita and this paragraph evoked a strong emotion. You can't help but feel terrible for Tita and the lonely life she has to live. The sparing of the one newborn pigeon is like a glimpse of hope. "From then on, her main interest lay in feeding that pathetic baby pigeon. Only then did life seem to make a little sense. It didn't compare to the satisfaction derived from nursing a human being, but in some way it was similar." (page 93) This baby pigeon gaver her something to focus on, something to shed her love on. She was substituting this baby pigeon for the child she longed to have but knew she could never.

"She made her cuts through the rind with such mathematical precision that when she was done, she could pick up the watermelon and give it a single blow against a stone, in a particular spot, and like magic the watermelon rind would open like the petals of a flower, leaving the heart intact on the table. Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro. After she died, no one ever came close to accomplishing the same feats, no one ever came close." (page 96,97)
     This quote struck me because of the words used to describe Mama Elena. She was good at 'dismembering, destorying, dominating.' It gives you a good glimpse into Mama Elena's character. I also thought it was interesting that right before Mama Elena is described in this way, they are speaking about the watermelon. She was able to cut it just right so that the heart was exposed (kind of like Tita). Mama Elena knew how to destory Tita, emotionally and physically (beating her).

Like Water for Chocolate Day One

    Tita was born in the kitchen while her mother was chopping onions. "Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor." (Page 6) When her mother couldn't feed her (due to the shock of losing her husband), Nacha, the cook, took over. Tita grew up in the kitchen amidst the colors and smells. She learned to see the world through food. Her isolation in the kitchen only contributed to this more. Once she was forbidden to play with her sisters, she was confined to the kitchen with Nacha which led to Tita having a different outlook on life than her two sisters. Mama Elena tells Tita that she can't marry Pedro because Tita must take care of her. When she suggests that Pedro marry Tita's sister, Tita is incredible upset. Even a Christmas roll, her favorite food, can't cheer her up. Normally the food would comfort her but here it doesn't. She feels cold and has insomnia. Her staying up late could draw comparisons back to Freud. Her insomnia was a physical manifestation of the extreme sadness she felt over being deprived love.      Furthermore, it seems as if the emotion Tita feels at the time she bakes something, is transferred into the food. The people who eat that food immediately feel that same emotion. An example is at the wedding. When Tita was making the icing for the wedding cake she was crying. Tears fell into the icing and when Nacha checked to see if her tears had ruined it, Nacha fell sick. When the guests at the wedding ate the cake they too experienced a profound sens of lose and some vomited. They find Nacha dead at the end of the chapter and Tita is made the new cook. To cope with the loss of Nacha, Tita throws herself into elaborate dishes. Everything is revolved around food.

I think Tita represents the 'rebel', for lack of a better word. She refuses to conform to the social responsibilities and customs put on her. Mama Elena tells her she can't marry because she must take care of her until the day she dies. This is the custom, as everyone in the family has done before, and she won't let Tita be the one to stop it. The very way Tita came into the world foreshadows her life. The moment was exaggerated with magical realism but she "washed into this world on a great flood of tears". I think this foreshadows the sadness Tita will experience through her life, longing for Pedro, having to endure her mother's strict rules. She also represents the oppression that many women went through. Being denied something like love, something that today we take completely for granted. She is a symbol of struggle to overcome the negative things dished out to her in life.