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.