Magical Realism: Like Water for Chocolate

Magical Realism: Like Water for Chocolate”

Magical Realism is a term first described by the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in his 1949 essay, “Lo marvavillso real” (marvelous reality). This term is often used to describe literary works that contain fantastic elements and incorporates characteristics such as hybridity, the supernatural, and the natural. Irony regarding the author’s perspective and authorial reticence are also features of this genre. In her novel, “Like Water for Chocolate,” Laura Esquival uses this literary technique. (Moore pp. 1-2)

Laura Esquivel keeps the narrator at a distance from fantastic elements in “Like Water for Chocolate,” while allowing the narrator to respect magical elements. This technique is called “irony regarding the author’s perspective (Moore 2).” Esquivel pulls this off by introducing the narrator at the beginning of the book, explaining that the narrator is a great-niece of Tita and the book that follows is a diary left from her aunt. Thereforore, this gives the narrator distance, but also makes the magical elements seem “real” because they are from a diary. These “magical” elements are never questioned or explained. This technique is called authorial reticence, which refers, “to the lack of clear options about the accuracy of events and the credibility of the worldview expressed by the characters in the text (Moore 2).” This in turn, promotes acceptance in magical realism. Not once, throughout the novel does the narrator try to explain the supernatural elements of the book. Instead, it is left up to the reader to compromise the elements of realism.

Supernatural elements are not considered questionable or irrational in novels containing magical realism (Moore 2). Instead, the supernatural is incorporated within the natural elements of the literary work, so that it does not take precedence over realism. Tita’s birth portrays this: “The way Nacha told it, Tita was literally washed into this world on a great ride of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor (Esquivel 6).” The supernatural element (flood of tears) is exaggerated in the natural element (birth) but it does not overshadow the natural. The supernatural is within the normal perception of the narrator, characters and the reader. Therefore, it is not questioned.

The element of the supernatural and the natural is depicted in Tita’s cooking which produces strong emotions and/or physical reactions in those who eat it. For example, Tita assists Nacha in creating Pedro’s and Rosaura’s wedding cake. Tita begins to cry and sheds tears into the batter, which causes Nacha overwhelming sadness and longing for her lost fiancй and the next day, she dies. A bizarre reaction also occurs in the wedding guests who eat the cake: they run and vomit while they long for their lost love. The wedding cake combines natural and supernatural elements. The sickness that takes over the guests is preposterous, yet, there is some truth to the sickness: there is scientific proof that certain foods can cause emotional and physical reactions in people (Graimes 6), yet not to the extent of the reactions to Tita’s cooking. The “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” recipe is another example of this absurd reaction. The dish is made with the roses that Pedro gives to Tita and her blood soaks into the roses, which in turn, causes a fanciful reaction. Gertrudis has an overwhelming sexual experience at the table which fills her with heat and assists in the sexual exchange that occurs between Tita and Pedro: “With that meal it seemed they had discovered a new system of communication, in which Tita was the transmitter, Pedro the receiver, poor Gertrudis the medium, the conducting body through which the singular sexual message was passed (Esquivel 52).” In both of these examples, the supernatural does not outweigh the natural, but is embodied into it, so that as a reader one does not question its relevance, but accepts it.

Hybridity is another common feature of magical realism. Hybridity can be defined as the mixing of opposites or cultures as a result of colonization, which creates an inharmonious relationship. The relationship between Mama Elena (the colonizer) and Tita (the colonized) shows this kind of relationship. Tita must take care of her mother until she dies; her personal freedom is taken away and she lives to be a slave to her mother