Oppression in Like Water for Chocolate and Master Harold In the two novels, Master Harold...and the boys, and Like Water for Chocolate, there are many symbolic similarities. In both books there are acts where individuals strongly oppressed, or discriminated against. Although the individuals are being oppressed for different reasons their emotions are shattered deeply. In Athol Fugard's book Master Harold and the boys, an older man is discriminated against by a younger child only because the older man is black and the child is white. In Laura Esquivel's book Like water for chocolate, a girl by the name of "Tita" is oppressed by her own mother because of the soul reason of being the youngest child, therefore lying in her destiny to serve her mother till death, and being unable to decide her own destiny. However in both cases there are signs of rebellion, and protestation, even though both novels do not end the same end the same, both Sam and Tita get their point across. Hally is a young white boy living in Africa, it is safe to say that he was raised by a black man by the name of Sam. Now Hally is starting to grow up and he is noticing things which he did not notice when he was younger. He realized that where he lives white people have certain rights over black people. Hally owns a cafe and he has got two black men working for him, one of which is Sam. Hally walks in one morning and finds Willie and Sam dancing, preparing for a dance contest. "Hally- Think you stand a chance. Act your bloody age! (Hurls the rag at Willie) Cut out the nonsense now and get on with your work. And you too, Sam. Sop fooling around " (Athol Fugard, Master Harold and the boys 18). Hally criticizes Sam by asking him sarcastically if he really thinks that he is good enough to win a dancing contest. Hally screams at Willie and Sam for making a mistake, this is ironic because Willie and Sam are in their forties while Hally is not even a teenager yet. Hally has power over Sam and Willie because of their difference in skin color. Tita falls deeply in love with a man by the name of Pedro. Pedro asks Tita to get married, she would love to marry Pedro but she knows that her destiny is to take care of her mother till death. Tita will confront her mother and ask her permission to marry the man he loves. "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 die" (Laura Esquivel, Like Water for chocolate 10). Tita loves Pedro dearly and would love to marry him, but her mother refuses to grant her permission because she is the youngest daughter and her task in life being to take care of her mother till death. Sam is like a father figure to Hally but yet he doesn't respect him, because of the color of his skin. "Hally- Don't turn your back on me! I haven't finished talking (He grabs Sam by the arm and tries to make him turn around. Sam reacts with a flash of anger" (54). Hally does not respect Sam, he not only orders him around but becomes violent when Sam does not listen to him. He treats Sam like a dog. Mama Elena refuses to let her youngest daughter get married, to make the situation worse she Pedro and his dad show up at the ranch to ask permission from mama Elena to get married to Tita. Mama Elena refuses to approve on the marriage of her youngest daughter. "But if you really want Pedro to get married, allow me to suggest my daughter Rosaura, who's just two years older than Tits. She is one hundred percent available, and ready for marriage" (13). Not only does mama Elena disapprove the marriage of Pedro and Tita but she offers Rosaura, which is an older daughter. Hally is not grateful for what Sam has done for him in life. He understands that Sam cannot do anything to him, because he is white and Sam is black. Hally therefor Hally takes advantage of this, by degrading Sam whenever he can. "Hally- (quietly) Sam.. (Sam stops and looks expectantly at the boy. Hally spits in his face. A long and heartfelt groan from Willie. For a few seconds Sam doesn't move)" (56). The worse act of discrimination one person can possibly do to another, is spitting in one's face. This is extremely degrading. Mama Elena sets up a marriage between the man that Tita loves and her sister Roraura. Tita is extremely depressed. "I won't stand for disobedience, Mama Elena told her, nor am I going to allow you to ruin your sister's wedding, with your acting like a victim. You're in charge of all the preparations starting now, and don't ever let me catch you with a single tear or even a long face, do you hear?" (27). Not only does mama Elena approve the marriage between Rosaura and Pedro, but she also holds Tita responsible for the preparations of the marriage of her sister. Hally- Think you stand a chance" (Athol Fugard, Master Harold and the boys 9). Sam shows sign of rebellion against Hally. He is tired of being picked on and spoken down to just because of the color of his skin. "Hally-(Pause as Hally looks for something to say) To begin with, why don't you also start calling me Master Harold, like Willie" (54). Sam proves appoint to Hally and Hally does not know how to reply so he relies on the fact that he is on a higher rank and asks Sam to call him Master Harold, instead if Hally. This proves the power trip which Hally is going through. Sam is an old friend as well as a father figure, and know Sam has got to put the word "Master" in front of his name, to demonstrate to himself, Hally, and everyone else how Hally is at a higher level than Sam. "Sam- (Quietly and very carefully) If you make me say it once, I'll never call you anything else again"(54). This is the only sign of rebellion that Sam shows. He lets Hally know that he is against it, and threatens to not call him anything else. At this point Sam realizes that Hally has grown up and changed. Tita rebels against the ghost of mama Elena. The Ghost shows up to tell Tita that what she is doing is wrong. "See what you've done now? You and Pedro are Shameless. If you don't want blood to flow in this house, go where you can't do any harm to anybody, before it's too late. The one who should be going is you. I'm tired of your tormenting me. Leave me in peace once and for all. Once and for all, leave me alone; I won't put up with you! I've always hated you! Tita had said the magic words that would make Mama Elena disappear forever"(199). (199). After all this time Tita finally stands up against her mother, and puts her in her place. She chooses to fight back instead of just remaining quiet and obeying her mom's orders. Throughout the novels Like Water for Chocolate, and Mater Harold...and the boys, Tita and Sam experience discrimination. The difference between them were that after Sam protested, he was still treated the same, were as when Tita rebelled, she was set free. The ad thing about all this is that, Sam's example is what happens in the real world. Maybe people can learn from these novels and stop discriminating people because they were born in class were they are expected to do perform only certain roles in society, or obey certain people.
To keep her daughter’s “virtue” intact Macaria beats her. In this way the mother establishes complete control over Marcela’s sexuali...
to take care of her mother later in life. The novel follows Tita's life from
He would lose interest and was also fatigue. In Sam’s manic state, he found it hard to concentrate; something was always distracting him. He was also very goal oriented. Sam believed he was on a mission to get America back on track. He also wanted to get people to vote for Bill Bradley at the time.
In the beginning of the story Tita and Pedro seem to favor each other. Pedro then asks his father is he may ask for Tita’s hand in marriage. During the Meeting Mama Elena explains to Pedro and his father that Tita cannot marry, because she is the youngest daughter and must take care of her in Elena’s old age. Elena then proposes her other daughter, Rosaura to Pedro. Pedro then accepts and explains to his father that he just
is not like Caroline. By the end of the movie Sam learns a valuable lesson about being her own person and even gets the guy along the way.
can no longer be as reliant on his parents as he once was. Even in
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
his young upbringing in the Ku Klux Klan. Sam's background as a Klansman is told
boys if they looked and if they didn't. The white men at once made the
(237) Tita does not care about what people think anymore. Years have gone by and and Tita and Pedro attended the wedding of Alex “John’s son” and Esperanza “Pedro’s daughter” and Rosaura has passed and Pedro wanted to marry Tita but she was not sure if she was serious or not about it. Tita gets a feeling she never felt before when this happens and she is ok with people thinking of her in a bad way now because she does not care about societal expectations.
To begin with, Sam Wood is one of the main characters and is racist towards a black man, named Virgil Tibbs. The first racial thought that was made towards Virgil, was “Sam saw that his face lacked the broad nose and thick heavy lips that characterized so many southern laborers” (Ball 15). This proves that Sam categorizes people by their physical features and thinks that all coloured people should have the same physical characteristics. Secondly, while they were exiting through the door of Bill Gillespie’s office, Virgil Tibbs did not take any time to wait for Sam to exit first, which left Sam quite surprised. “Ordinarily he would not have permitted a Negro to proced him through a doorway, but this Negro did not wait for him to go first” (22). This quote makes it clear that Sam believes white people are more superior to coloured people. Finally, Sam was evaluating the thought that it was clear Virgil would have a better chance than Bill Gillespie to solve the homicide because of his forensic scientist background and because Bill Gillespie had no crime scene investigator training. “He wanted the crime solved, but he w...
He knew what it was like to be discriminated against, as his unusually narrow build and sunken chest became the object of ridicule throughout his youth. Well-honed psychological lines of defense had been fully developed by this point in his life, and he was certain his new friends could relate. Appreciating his company, and accepting him into the culture, the black servers, both from local communities and from other countries became his ally. Some had even been in prison for serious crimes, but what struck him the most, since this was the first time he worked with this group, was their sincerity. They came from vastly different backgrounds; the education difference was enormous, and the opportunities could not have been wider. Despite that,
wants to marry Robert, but he will not because it will disgrace her to leave her
Nora and Torvald's marriage fails because they lack in all of the qualifications for a successful marriage and because of Torvald's control over his family. Before Nora leaves, she tells Torvald,
Road rage affects everyone, whether you are a victim or suspect. There are mild cases of road rage, like yelling at another driver, and more severe cases, such as getting out of a car and assaulting another driver. Road rage’s severest consequence is death, and many of these can be eliminated. There are three main ideas to keep in mind while driving to help stop road rage. Number one, don’t offend another driver. Number two, be forgiving of other mistakes or lack of knowledge while driving. Number three, do not respond if another driver is showing signs of aggression towards you. If you feel threatened don’t take matters into your own hands, call the police. It is there job to make the roads a safe place, not yours. Now you know what road rage is, who is affected by it, the consequences, and how to make an efforttry to end road rage. If we all work together we can save lives and make the roads a safer