Like Water For Chocolate Conflict Essay

When self conflict arises in a character, two different beliefs are brawling within his mind; imagine the figurative devil and the angel standing on the shoulders of a beloved cartoon character, each feeding him information as to why one’s thoughts and ideas are better than the other’s. In literature, the devil and angel would symbolize the different cultures that a certain character interacts with. In Esquivel’s magical realism novel Like Water For Chocolate, she collides John’s national culture with the regional culture of Mexico to advocate ending oppressive traditions. In the novel, John struggles with how Mexico’s culture differs from the American culture he comes from, and through his reactions to this conflict, he helps to promote

He encounters a girl with whom he falls in love with. However, in the Mexican culture, the youngest born daughter may not marry; she must act as a servant to her mother until her mother passes on. Just by being born the last girl in her family, Tita’s destiny has already been decided for her. She cannot live her life the way she wants to live. Instead, Tita must live her life according to her mother’s demands. Additionally, Tita has lived a very difficult life: her one true love, Pedro, marries her sister, Rosaura, because Tita is not allowed to marry while her mother lives. Tita must watch as the love of her life loves another woman; Tita must suffer as she watches Pedro become the father of another woman’s child. In Mexican culture, people are expected to hide their emotions, especially women. Women are expected to mask their true emotions because even when their life is falling to pieces, they need to hide their true selves and pretend to be a proper women; women are expected to mask whatever emotional distress they face from the rest of society. Even though Tita does so much for her family, as soon as she experiences emotional difficulties, her family sends her to an insane asylum; as a reward for cooking for her family and taking care of her mother, Tita’s family calls in the doctor to take her away, even though she

Being a doctor, John believes in healing the source of Tita’s pain; John wants to restore Tita back to her true self, and through his healing, she “felt better everyday” (109). John cannot comprehend how Tita’s family could send her away when she is experiencing a very traumatic event in her life. When presented with beliefs opposite to his own, John does not conform to the Mexican culture, and this allows Tita to recover and become the woman she once was. By using the beliefs he learned in America, he is able to provide Tita with a better quality of life. John not only helps to restore the happiness and joy Tita once contained, but John also helps Tita to realize she must live her life to her own accord; she must not let anyone else decide her