For today, you were to read up through July. We have already talked about what Magical Realism is. If you weren't here last class and didn't get the handout, please come see me to get one.
I'd like you to comment and answer the following question:
Using any other outside texts or films that you have read and Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, what do you notice about the genre of Magical Realism? Pull out 2-3 examples that really stuck you from Like Water for Chocolate that represents this type of genre.
PS) No additional reading assignment for Thursday. (You should be read through July.)
FINISH YOUR SECOND PERSON SHORT STORIES!!
Ms. Moraites
in the book there are many events that occur that show magic realism. Examples that really stuck out to me was when Tita was able to feed Roberto and she wasnt even his birth mother. It was magicial how the milk had magically appeared in her breast. This event made Tita fall more for the little baby Roberto. Another example was when Tita was cooking with the rose petals and when Gertrudis ate the rose petals and she started to get sweaty. Her body started to smell like roses, and when she went to take a shower there was a fire that broke out by the fire. Her sweaty rose smell atracted a rebel in the town, so he came and swept on a horse and they made love.
ReplyDeleteLike Water for Chocolate is a book of the magical realism genre because the story is one that is realistic in that it could happen, but fits better in Magical realism bedcause it contains elements that are more magical. Tita is a Mexican girl who is struggling with love and family problems that have left her in charge of her mother and with no chance to marry the man that he loves. Tita loves cooking and preparing equsit meals but strangely, when she is upset and cries over the food, the family gets very emotional and sad while eating it. Also when she is preparing the meal for her family and John she is angry causing the food to not be as good as her usual cooking. These are things that don't really happen in real life but also don't take away for the realism of the book. Tita also becomes a wet nurse for her nephew Roberto even though it isn't really possible to produce milk without having a baby. Obviously these things aren't real and wouldn't happen but are incorporated in the book to enhance the real elements of the story that are there.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the metaphor in the book where somone describes people as having a box of matches in them and when something particularly strikes them it is like a match is ignited and the person feels warm for a moment. This image was really effective and beautiful :)
Nahoma
One example that I find interesting from Like Water For Chocolate that relates to magical realism is that Tita is able to breastfeed Roberto even though she has never had a baby herself. It is not possible in real life, obviously, but her determination to feed her nephew makes her able to nurse.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is when Gertrudis becomes the "middleman" of Tita and Pedro's desire and absorbs the rose scent of the dinner, making her so hot she sets the outside shower on fire. She then attracts the soldier and they, er, make love on horseback. This is most likely not very common to happen.
The first text that comes to mind when I think of magical realism is A Series of Unfortunate Events for some reason. It is slightly plausible, the fact that the children are orphaned and have to live with a distant relative, but then there are added elements, such as secret societies and evil henchmen, and the orphans don't even really seem to notice how out of the ordinary that is.
Sha81_gurl=Shana
ReplyDeleteWell, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about magical realism is the very end of Like Water for Chocolate when Pedro dies while he and Tita are having sex for the first time when they don't have to hide it or be afraid of being found out. I guess, hypothetically, this could happen, but realistically, it wouldn't. Also, the way that Tita talks about it was in more of a mystical sense, that all the candles in his body were light in a moment of such love. The thing is, as you are reading, it doesn't seem so far fetched. You become almost sucked in to the world of Tita, and anything that she believes and states as real, you believe by default.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is when Tita becomes a wet nurse for Roberto, which is obviously not possible comsidering the fact that she has never had children. However she loves Roberto so much that she can't bear to see him strave to death.
Having finished Like Water for Chocolate, I've noticed that magical realism is, for the most part, believable, but is marked with mystical or "magical" occurrences that cannot be explained. However, the characters in Laura Esquivel's novel do no seem bothered or perturbed by these magical events. The narrator describes the birth of Tita in a wave of tears, the disastrous effects of the wedding cake, and Gertrudis's bizarre reaction to the quail in rose petal sauce as though she is describing the weather or some other everyday occurrence. Most of the events in this story are realistic, but these occasional miraculous happenings give the story a fairy-tale, mythical quality. Mixing fantasy and reality in this way requires the reader to be open-minded to inexplicable happenings that occur inside an otherwise believable tale.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most memorable example of magical realism is the symbol of tears. In the film especially, the images of the birth on a river of tears and the tears that fall into the food that make everyone sick are good examples. Magical realism brings these kinds of examples into the diegesis of the story, becoming an accepted part of the setting. However, these examples do not become fantastic – the do not dramatically change the course of the story, which, though fictitious, is not fantastic, and acts as most other stories in terms of conflict, setting, and character.
ReplyDeleteJames B
ReplyDeleteMagical Realism is shown frequently in Like Water for Chocolate. It is used in the beginning when "Tita came into the world in a tide of tears that spilled over the kitchen floor", when Tita's dad dies "Mama Elena's milk dried up from the shock." A major example is also shown during the wedding with Pedro and Rosaura, Tita had cried into the cake a little over not being able to marry Pedro. When everyone else ate the cake, they remembered lost love and either cried or vomited in the river.
One example of magical realism that struck me in the novel was when John and Tita made matches and John explained that one's soul has matches that are lit when one experiences an intense, life-changing emotion.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Juan and Gertrudis's seemingly magical attraction for one another without even having met previously illustrated this genre.
Lastly, it saddened me that Roberto died because he could not receive nourishment, because Tita was the only one who could provide him with milk. The sole fact that Tita, who is not his biological mother, can feed him, is magical. Then, it is quite emotionally moving when he moves away and his own mother still cannot provide for him, causing him to pass away at a very young age.
The first example from Like Water for Choclolate, is the cake baked with tears. The cake makes everyone cry and then vomit after they eat the cake. There is no way that would happen but still it is just slightly stretching the truth. It's not completely impossible and it isnt fantasy...but it isnt to factual and its exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteThe second example is from Like Water for Chocolate and involves the tears flooding the room after the mothers birth. There is no way in HELL that you could cry that much. Still, there are a lot of tears involved with childbirth. Then the tears dried up and the salt that remained was used for the cake. Thats just gross. This isnt possible. But it isnt complete fantasy. Its just a slight exaggeration. The truth is just stretched enough to make a point.
Also, Gertrudis is so horny she gets overheated and sets the shower on fire. This isnt at all possible. Again, it just stretched the truth. so yea....
1.)The instance where Tita believes she is pregnant because she misses her period represents the genre of magical realism. This is because after standing up to her mothers ghost the baby is released and she catches her period. This is a realistic issue that is slightly exaggerrated. If you are already pregnant nothing can just end the pregnancy causing you to get your period.
ReplyDelete2.)Another example is the mnay occassions where the way the food turned out affects the the mood of the person that was preparing it. like the cake for Rosaura wedding, the beans that wouldn't cook because they were angry from Rosaura and Tita's argument and the food from Alex and Esperanza's wedding that gave everyone the urge to make love. This shows how the amount of time and care we put into preparing our food can affect its turn out
but at the same time our emotions while cooking can't affect the emotions of the person eating it.
3.)Also at the point where Pedro and Tita make love without trying to hide it. Did Nacha really like the candles? how else would they have gotten there? so that made the magical and the real imerge to make you wonder how to distinguish between the two.
The first example of Magic Realism would be the cake at the wedding. Tita cries into it so much that it makes everyone so filled with grief that they vomit.This draws the reader between magic and realism and it is also impossible according to natural law.
ReplyDeleteAnother example would be when Gertrudis is taken away on horse back making love with juan. First of all this is definitley impossible, both Gertrudis being so overheated after eating the quail and making love on a galloping horse! But it does have that sense of fairytale magic.
The last example would be when Pedro dies making love to Tita. It could happen but it is highly unlikely. I think that this really makes the story magical but rather than in a good way it is in a bad way because they are supposed to be together and they love eachother so much.
In Like Water For Chocolate there's some things that are magical and not realistic for example when Tita baked the cake and her tears when in it and the people who ate it feel what she felt and start to cry as well or the rose incident with her sister. Another example is when she breast feeds her nephew and got milk out of no where.
ReplyDeleteMagical Realism in Like Water for Chocolate:
ReplyDelete1. Some of the magic in the book that can not be explained includes Rosaura's marriage and the weirf behavior of the guests. Also at the marriage of Esperanza the guests act really weird as a result of Tita's cooking. They begin to act as she does and feel the same way that she feels.
2. After Gertrude (?) eats the pheasant and rose petals the real and the magical are merged. When she is taking a shower magical things begin to happen (shower real, steam magic).
3. Time is definitely played with in this book. The chapters go by months but in actuality the time span in the book is over several years. Actually the months of the chapters do not correlate with the actual time within the school.
in like water for chocolate there were lots of examples of magical realism, like when tita cried into the cake which made everyone that ate it cry. Thats definitely not possible as far as im concerned and also when the room is flooded with tears. No one could cry that much and live and who in their right mind would save the salt from the tears to cook with? that just makes no sense
ReplyDeleteAmane Amireh
ReplyDeleteI notice that magical realism can take place in any ones life in any which way. Weather you are a rich or high-class living person, or a farmer or peasant or slave. You can be some one so strict and tough and scary or you can be a victim a servant and have your whole life taken and it will still be present. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate both Tita and Mama Elena witnessed magic that they could not explain, weather it was good magic or bad magic, or both. When Dr. Brown was talking to Tita talking about the inner match and the flame and the getting them damp and stuff like that, this was magical realism because it seems real because the character can feel it and they know its there. But are having difficulty understanding why they can’t see it. Or how to change it and fix it back to the way it should be. This part also shows how the reader is drawn between the magical and the real. They (magic and real) intersect when Tita begins to fall for Dr. Brown. Or when Tita finds her mothers box and discovers her mother’s love life and loss she finds that her mother was the way she was for a reason. This shows that Tita sees her mother in a whole new and different way. Unfortunately her mother is dead now so she can’t change any thing. This is an example of how identity was broken down, which is a primary trait of magical realism. The ingredients mentioned through out the novel are metaphors for the hard life Tita was going through. How she bled into or cried into the food she cooked and it impacted the people she served it too either negatively or positively was also a very interesting thing in the novel. Like when she baked the cake and cried into the batter and every one became sad after eating it. Or when she hugs the roses Pedro brought and bled into them and then used them in her quail dinner and it caused Her sister Ger… can’t remember her name, but it caused her to become full of heat sweat and pleasure which caused that guy to come by and pick her up on the horse and run away with her. Magic example was when Tita was able to breast feed Rosauras son and her sister didn’t have milk.
Magical realism in this story seems to be simnplymanifestations of the character's feelings.Therefore the magic is not your regular "oooooh" and "ahhhh" affair. Examples of which can be found in the following:
ReplyDelete1)The moment in which Tita cried so much into the cake that everyone who ate it got sick. Of course it helped get a point across, being that her sadness manifested itself in the form of widespread sickness, however it also is very not your typical fairy tale magic.
2)The love which Pedro felt for Tita and vice versa, which was in the rose that Tita used to prepare a mea caused her sister to feel immense pleasure.
3)A third moment is directly a result of the second in which Gertrudis is so overwhelmed with passion that the shower catches fire.