A philosophical approach in deconstructing Like Waters for Chocolate

1. “Kitchen Bound No
More”
Deconstructing Laura Esquivel’s
Like Water for Chocolate in a
Radical Feminist Perspective

2. Deconstructed by:
Ms. Georgina Viterbo,
MA in Teaching English
as a Second Language
Ms. Rimsky Nikolai S.
Gervacio,
MA in English as a
Second Language

3. Laura Esquivel: Up Close
• was born on September
30, 1950, in Mexico
City, Mexico,
• Julio César Esquivel
and Josefa Valdés
• a novelist,
• taught kindergarten
• and wrote screenplays
for children's television
in her native Mexico

4. Laura Esquivel: Up Close
• most noted work is
the novel and
cookbook Like
Water for
Chocolate
• In 2009, Esquivel
won the candidacy
for Mexico City's
Party of the
Democratic

5. Radical feminism
• focuses on the theory of
patriarchy as a
system of power that
organizes society into a
complex of relationships
based on an assumption
that "male supremacy"

6. Radical feminism
• aims to challenge and
overthrow patriarchy by
opposing standard
gender roles and oppression
of women and calls for a
radical reordering of society.

7. Radical feminism
• arising within
second-wave feminism in the
1960s,
• typically viewed patriarchy as a
"transhistorical phenomenon"

8. • Radical feminists locate
the root cause of women's
oppression in patriarchal
gender relations, as
opposed to legal systems
(as in liberal feminism) or
class conflict (as in
socialist feminism and

9. Theory and
ideology
• society is a patriarchy
in which men are the
primary oppressors of
women
• women have come to be
viewed as the "other" to
the male norm and as
such have been
systematically
oppressed and

10. Theory and ideology
• Radical feminists
seek to abolish
patriarchy
• the way to deal
with patriarchy
and oppression of
all kinds is to
address the
underlying causes
of these problems
Alice Echols. (Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967–1975
through
University of Minnesota Press p. 139)

11. Theory and ideology
• the root cause of
all other
inequalities is the
oppression of
women
• acknowledge the
simultaneous and
intersecting effect
of other
independent

12. Theory and ideology
• other categories of oppression may
include:
– gender identity
– race
– social class
– perceived attractiveness
– sexual orientation
– ability

13. Theory and ideology
• Radical feminists
believe that men
use social
systems and
other methods of
control to keep
non-dominant
men and women
suppressed

14. Theory and ideology
• Radical feminists
also believe that
eliminating
patriarchy, and
other systems
which perpetuate
the domination of
one group over
another, will
liberate everyone

15. Getting to Know the Novel
• Like Water for
Chocolate is the first
novel published by
Mexican novelist and
screenwriter Laura
Esquivel in the year
1989. The book is
divided into twelve
sections named after the
months of the year. Each
section begins with a
Mexican recipe. The
chapters outline the

16. • The novel follows the story of a young
girl named Tita who longs her entire
life to marry her lover, Pedro, but can
never have him because of her mother's
upholding of the family tradition of the
youngest daughter not marrying but
taking care of her mother until the day
she dies. Tita is only able to express

17. Analysis
• primary
element of
patriarchy is a
relationship of
dominance
• Mama Elena
takes on the
role of a
patriarchal

18. The ranch is her territory.
She dictates and makes rules
“Unquestionably,
when it comes to
dismantling,
dismembering,
desolating,
detaching,
dispossessing,
destroying, or
dominating, Mama
was a pro.”

19. She utilizes
traditional cultures
and sociological
constructions to
subject her
subordinates to
obedience and
oppression.
• “If he intends to ask for your hand,
tell him not to bother. He’ll be
wasting his time and mine too. You
know perfectly well that being the
youngest daughter means you have
to take care of me until the day I

20. • “You don’t have an
opinion, and that’s
all I want to hear
about it. For
generations, not a
single person has
ever questioned
this tradition, and
no daughter of
mine is going to be
the one to start.”
January p. 11

21. • “But if you really
want Pedro to get
married, allow me
to suggest my
daughter Rosaura,
who’s just two
years older than
Tita. She is one
hundred percent
available, and
ready for
marriage.
January, p. 13

22. • “I won’t stand
for your
disobedience”,
Mama Elena
told her. “Nor
am I going to
allow you to
ruin your
sister’s
wedding, with
your acting like
a victim.”
February p. 27

23. • “It was really hard to
meet Mama Elena’s
gaze, even for the
captain. There was
something daunting
about it. It produced
a nameless fear in
those who suffered
it; they felt tried and
convicted for their
offenses. They fell
prisoner to a
childlike fear of
maternal authority.”
May p. 90

24. • “The only
person she knew
who could do it
without a sign of
fatigue was
Mama Elena.
Not only could
she crack sack
after sack of
nuts in a short
time, she seemed
to take great
pleasure in doing
it”.

25. Rosaura, on the
other hand, is a
typical
representation of
how traditional
females are,
always bowing to
convention and
evidently doesn’t
have a will of her

26. Gertrudis, she gives
us a portrait of how
and what a Radical
Female should be.
She is not
constrained by
traditional
definitions of
gender, race, class,
or any prevailing
sociological and
hierarchal construct.

27. “ Dear Tita,
You can’t know who own grateful I
am that you sent me my clothes. Fortunately,
I was still here to get them. Tomorrow, I will
be leaving this place, which is not where I
belong. I still don’t know where that is, but I
know that I have to find the right place for
myself somewhere. I ended up here because I
felt an intense fire inside; the man who
picked me up in the field in effect saved my
life. I hope to meet him again someday. He
left because I had exhausted his strength,
though he hadn’t managed to quench the fire
inside me. Now at last, after so many men
have been with me, I feel a great relief.
Perhaps someday I will return home and
explain it to you.
I love you, your sister Gertrudis.”

28. Pedro: “And me,
aren’t you going
to congratulate
me?”
Tita: “Yes, of
course. I hope
you will be very
happy!”
February p. 38

29. • “Pedro watched them
through slits of eyes.
He didn’t care a bit
for the familiar way
John drew near Tita
when she whispered
something in his ear.
What was going on?
Tita belonged to
him, and he wasn’t
going to let anyone
take her away.
Especially not now
that Mama Elena,
the major obstacle to
their union, had

30. Dr. John Brown:
“How nice the
child looks with
such a beautiful
aunt holding him.”
Tita: “Thank you,
Doctor”
Dr. John Brown:
“He isn’t even your
own. Imagine how
pretty you will look
with one of your
own son.”

31. Tita is depictive of the utopian
image of a woman, an obedient
daughter, a loving sister, a
selfless nurturer, and an ideal
lover.

32. • “ Tita lowered her head and the realization
of her fate struck her as forcibly as her
tears struck the table. From then on they
knew, she and the table that they could
never even have the slightest voice in the
unknown forces that fated Tita to bow
before her mother’s absurd decision, and
the table to continue to receive the bitter
tears that she shed on the day of her
birth.”
January p. 11

33. • “If there was one thing Tita couldn’t
resist, it was a hungry asking for
food. But she had none to give. It
was sheer torture. When she couldn’t
stand it a moment longer, she pulled
open her blouse and offered the baby
her breast. She knew it was
completely dry, but at least it would
act as a pacifier and keep him
occupied while she decided what to
do to appease his hunger.”
April p. 73

34. She fought oppressiveness by
going against Mama Elena’s
will.
• “Tita felt a violent agitation take
possession of her being: still
fingering the sausage, she calmly met
her mother’s gaze and then, instead
of obeying her order, she started to
tear apart all the sausages she could
reach, screaming wildly.” “Here’s
what I do with your orders! I’m sick of
them! I’m sick of obeying you!”
May p. 99

35. • “Tita couldn’t take her eyes from
her mother’s face during the
wake. Only now, after her death,
she saw her as she was for the
first time and began to
understand her. Anyone looking
at Tita could easily have mistake
this look of recognition for a look
of sorrow, but she didn’t feel any
sorrow.”
July, p. 136

36. “… and she swore in front of Mama
Elena’s tomb that come what may,
she would never renounce love.”
July, p. 138

37. In addition, she also finally had
the courage to confront
Rosaura and correct her wrong
doings
“Papa, I want to get married too, just
like you, with this little girl. They all
laughed at that, but when Rosaura
explained to Alex that he couldn’t
because this little girl was destined to
take care of her until the day she
died, Tita felt her hair stand on the
end. Only Rosaura could have
thought to perpetuate such an
inhuman tradition.”

38. “Rosaura and Tita stared
unblinkingly at each other and their
eyes were still locked when Rosaura
opened the discussion.
Rosaura: I think you and I are overdue
for a talk, don’t you agree?
Tita: Yes, I certainly do. We have been
since you married my boyfriend.
Rosaura; Fine, if that’s what you want,
let’s start there, with your wrongful
claim to a boyfriend. You had no right

39. Tita: Says who? Is that according to
Mama or to you?
Rosaura: According to family tradition,
which you are breaking.
Tita: And I’m going to break it several
more times if I have to, as long as this
cursed tradition doesn’t take me into
account. I had the same right to marry
as you did, and you had no right to
stand between two people who were
deeply in love.

40. Rosaura: Not that deeply. You saw how
Pedro switched to me at the last
opportunity. I married him because
that’s what he wanted. If you had had
the tiniest crap of pride, you would have
put him out of your mind forever.
Tita: Well, for your information, he
married you just so he could be near me.
He doesn’t love you, and you know that
perfectly well.”
Chapter XI p. 213-214

41. And lastly, after being held in
years of suppression, she
finally succumbed to expressing
her love for Pedro. heard
Pedro: Do you remember when we
this song for the first time?
Tita: I’ll never forget
Pedro: I couldn’t sleep that night, thinking
about asking for your hand right then. I
didn’t know that it would take twenty-two
years before I would ask you to be my
wife.”
Tita: Are you asking me seriously?

42. Pedro: Of course. I don’t want to die
without making you mine. I have
always dreamed of walking with you
into a church full of white flowers,
and you the most beautiful of them
all. Chapter12 p. 236

43. Conclusion
"I think women rule the world and that
no man has ever done anything that a
woman either hasn't allowed him to do
or encouraged him to do."
Bob Dylan

44. Men would arguably disagree with this
text. But reading Like Water for
Chocolate will definitely give people
another perspective at how they should
look at women. Women are capable of
gargantuan things. She can mold and
reshape individuals, lure people to do
something perpetually good or immensely
bad.

45. Most importantly,
it was shown in
the novel how
women can be
both keepers
and destroyers
of traditions,
social
constructs, and
culture in a
broader sense.
They contribute
and maintain
society which in
turn revolves
around them.

46. “Kitchen Bound No
More”
Deconstructing Laura Esquivel’s
Like Water for Chocolate in a
Radical Feminist Perspective

47. References:
Weisberg, D. 1996. Applications Of Feminist Legal
Theory to Women's Lives: Sex, Violence, Work, and
Reproduction. Philadelphia. Temple University
Press
Willis, E. 1992. No more Nice Girls: Counter
Cultural Essays. Connecticut. Wesleyan University
Press
Echols, E. 1989. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism
in America 1967-1975. University of Minnesota
Press Minnesota
www.upping the anti.org (2011)
www.sparknotes.com (2011)
www.bookrags.com (2011)