LWFC Final Essay
A Seamless Ending
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel tells a magical love story of a young woman named Tita who struggles to overcome the innate restrictions of family tradition imposed upon her. The novel presents the central conflict of Titas quest for true love against Mama Elena and her traditional values. Esquivels structuring of the novel is organized in such a way that each chapter is a month of the year and contains one family recipe. Therefore, the 12th chapter, December, is the culminating episode of the novel. Within this climatic month Esquivel brings a successful dnouement to the story through various techniques. Firstly, events in December occur some twenty-two years after the timeframe of the other eleven chapters, thus providing a base for the dnouement to unfold. Furthermore, the conclusion of the novel is achieved through the effective resolution of the conflict and the skillful use and implementation of magical realism. In the end, the various threads of the plot and characterization are wonderfully united and brought together when all that remains is the recipe book, which after all is what has been used to write the very novel itself.
The concluding chapter of Like Water for Chocolate leaps ahead twenty-two years in time to the wedding of Alex and Esperanza. Esquivel employs this time shift in order to provide a base for the dnouement of the novel. The reader is clearly confronted with the vast change in time and therefore anticipates the close proximity of the ending. The long passage of years enables the plot to develop extensively and it further allows for Esquivel to book end the novel. For example, the time gap enables the reader to witness the wedding ceremony of Alex and Esperanza. This wedding reinforces the severing of family tradition and is necessary in resolving the major conflict within the novel. Furthermore, the marriage of Alex and Esperanza is significant because it can be juxtaposed with the marriage in the very first chapter. As such, the time gap is vital in the resolution of the novel.
Most importantly, the last chapter cements the resolution of the conflict through triumph and destruction. After the wedding of Alex and Esperanza, a symbol of the breaking of family practice, custom and tradition, Tita and Pedro are liberated for the first time in their lives. They are left alone on the ranch and are able to consummate their love freely. This in itself is also highly symbolic of the liberation from family tradition, as previously Tita and Pedro were forbidden from seeing each other by Mama Elena. These two events are triumphant and are sufficient in providing a dnouement to the novel.
Yet Esquivel succeeds even further in her climatic chapter, by providing destruction. The month of December also features the deaths of both Tita and Pedro. The two pass away into the luminous tunnel after having magically passionate sex. Also the death of Rosaura is reintroduced through the description of her funeral. Lastly, the ranch is completely destroyed by a surreal conflagration. Thus, at the end of the novel Mama Elena, Rosaura, Tita and Pedro are all dead and the ranch in which the entire novel took place is destroyed. This is dnouement at its most dramatic and poignant best.
Lastly, Esquivel brilliantly employs the recurrent technique of magical realism to close the novel. Magical realism plays such a large role in the novel that it is only fitting it is implemented to its most powerful effect at the end. This literary device is predominately seen in the consummation of love between Tita and Pedro. The passion and love that is felt and displayed is surreal. Ultimately, it is only magical realism which allows both characters to experience such passion that it climaxes in their very demise. Furthermore, the passionate, fiery love is what burns down the entire ranch. The employment of magical realism on such a large scale in the final chapter also book ends the novel as the very first chapter features significant magical realism as Tita was born on a flood of tears. At the end of the fire and decimation of the ranch, all that survives is the cookbook full of the family recipes. This book ties everything together as it embodies all previous generations and allows them to remain in the present. It is the symbolic link between the past and the fiery conclusion.
Esquivel thus satisfies her readers magnificently through the employment of successful dnouement. At the end of the novel, the plot and characters are joined together seamlessly through the highly effective use of magical realism. Esquivel resolves the conflict
in a superb fashion and leaves the reader pondering the subtle link between past and present which is manifested by the survival of the cookbook.
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