Like Water for Chocolate

1. Why “Like Water for Chocolate”?

* In the movie there is a scene where the main character, Tita, is making mole (a chocolate and chili sauce) when she is thinking about ‘like water for chocolate’. That section of the movie is interpreted to mean that substituting one love for another is like using water in the mole sauce instead of chocolate, because that sort of love triangle exchange is what is happening in the plot of the movie.

* It is basically saying that it would be substituting one thing for another, like when you make mole to put water in it instead of chocolate. This relates to Rosaura being water and Tita being chocolate, Pedro had Rosaura but it did not work out.

* The title is a metaphor for Tita’s passion for Pedro. Her love for him as hot as water needs to be melting chocolate.

* This saying may also refer to describing a state of passion or sometimes – sexual arousal or “boiling point” in anger.

2. Effects of food to the characters.

Tita prepares most of the food in the novel, and she uses food to express her emotions because her lowly cultural status affords her no opportunity to do so. The vomiting and moroseness at Rosaura’s wedding results from the guests’ eating the cake that bears Tita’s tears. Likewise, the sexual frenzy that compels Gertrudis to leave the ranch is occasioned by the transmission of Tita’s passion for Pedro into the dish she prepares for dinner. Food is often direct cause of physical and emotional unrest, and serves as a medium through which emotion can be transmitted. This incident suggests a commodification and uncontrollability of emotion.