Literary Devices in Like Water for Chocolate
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
It's a dog-eat dog-world during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. While the ranch seems removed from the actions and events at times, Esquivel never lets us forget that there's a pretty brutal b...
Narrator Point of View
The narrator is the grandniece of Tita De la Garza, whom the story revolves around. The novel starts in the first person point of view, in a conversational-like manner:To keep from crying when you...
Genre
What's magical realism you ask? Let's just say it's got next to nothing to do with top hats and fuzzy white rabbits. It's all about fantastical, mystic, and epic themes. Just look at how Tita was b...
Tone
Esquiviel knows how to talk the talk, and she does it in two distinct manners:In some ways, she's straight to the point and direct. For example, those cooking instructions explicitly tell us how to...
Writing Style
Exaggeration is alive in this tale—just look at what happens to Gertrudis when she eats the quail in rose sauce, or when Mama Elena turns into a (goodness, greatness) great ball of fire: The fire...
What's Up With the Title?
Like Water for Chocolate, or "Como Agua Para Chocolate," can be taken two different ways.The first, and more innocent, of the two is the common Mexican
expression to indicate anger. We're not surp...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
To the table or to bedYou must come when you are bid.Not only is this a Mexican proverb, it's a command to the domestic parts of the house—the kitchen and the bedroom. For our girls/women readers...
What's Up With the Ending?
With the last lines of the novel, we are left in the hands of Tita's grand-niece, who states:[…] perhaps I am as sensitive to onions as Tita, my great-aunt, who will go on living as long as ther...
Tough-o-Meter
Reading through the ingredients, recipes, and romances that mix together in Like Water for Chocolate doesn't require too much heavy-lifting. In large part this is due to minimalistic dialogue and s...
Plot Analysis
Coming soon!
Trivia
Before she was an internationally acclaimed best-selling author, Laura Esquivel wrote the scripts for children's shows in Mexico. Hey, we've all got to start somewhere. (Source)
You know how those...
Steaminess Rating
While much of the sex in Like Water for Chocolate is merely suggested, we are often left no choice but to imagine the scenes in our heads. Not that that's a bad thing. We kinda dig that Esquiviel d...
Allusions
La llorona Pancho Villa Zacatecas Mexican Revolution