Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate seems to be a title not well-known; nevertheless, I found myself intrigued in the plot within the first few chapters. It was also a fairly quick read.

This novel, written by Laura Esquivel, is written with a Latin American style with the setting residing in Mexico. There are 12 chapters in the book, and each chapter is a month of the year- starting in January and ending in December. Along with these chapter titles, a unique recipe is written for each month. Throughout the course of a chapter, the narrator speaks of the events occurring and weaves in the recipe and all of the instructions until it is served in the actual plot. It is quite an usual way to write a novel, but it adds to the passion of this romantic story.

The novel begins explaining the birth of the youngest daughter, Tita, and also the main character, and her younger years. Tita was born in the kitchen and therefore grew up loving food and taking great pride in creating each meal. She was the most skilled in the kitchen of her two other sisters- Rosaura and Gertrudis. As the plot progresses, Tita begins to realize that food can have "magical" powers, which change the attitudes and bring out true feelings in the people who consume her food. Eventually, Tita falls in love with a man, Pedro, but her mother, Mama Elena, won't allow Tita to marry him because of an ancient tradition. This tradition states that the youngest daughter in the family cannot marry because she must take care of her mother until she passes away. Mama Elena is a very strict lady and holds down Tita and punishes her harshly for anything she does wrong.

Tita struggles with this tradition, especially when Pedro marries Rosaura. Pedro only married Tita's sister so he could be as close as he could to Tita, but Tita is extremely upset by the whole concept. She is heart-broken, and the relationship she had with her sister Rosaura is severed. Mama Elena keeps a watchful eye over Tita and Pedro to make sure that nothing happens between the two. Time passes and Rosaura has two children with Pedro- the first dies and the second lives. The second child takes after Tita, which Rosaura is bitter about.

Eventually, Mama Elena dies and Tita is relieved somewhat of her extremely restricted lifestyle. She is able to see Pedro more, and when Rosaura dies, Tita is free from all the pressures that her family traditions placed on her. In the end, Tita passes away while making love to Pedro. The two go into the light together, after living life hiding in the dark.

The novel can be explicit, and other minor details add to the intensity of the plot. Overall, the tragedy that plays a decent role throughout the plot is heightened at the very end, creating a sense of sadness for the life that Tita had been forced to live.


-A. Pruett

The Help

For my novel I am reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I had only heard of good reviews of the book and I enjoyed the movie so I thought it would be a good book.  The main synopsis of the book is the story from African American maids working in Southern Mississippi white housewives’ homes during the 1960s.  The story is told in a similar way to The Poisonwood Bible in that the story is told through multiple characters, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter.  Aibileen works for the Leefolt family cleaning and taking care of their toddler.  Minny is the outspoken maid who acts before thinking of consequences most of the time.  Skeeter, a recent grad of Old Miss College, dreams of being a writer, and is somewhat of a rebel in the way she thinks about society in the South. 

So far, the main defining elements in the book are the setting, how the setting shapes the society, and the society as a whole.  The story, or rather stories, take place in Jackson, Mississippi; this in itself helps explain parts of the story.  The South is known for its slavery and having been very slow to end slavery.  Personally growing up for five years in Texas even in 2002 people would comment that “we are still fighting the War of Northern Aggression…there was nothing civil about that war. ”  In a sense, these maids of the wealthy white households are kept separated as if they are practically still slaves.  Hilly Holbrook, who Minny worked for, for awhile, proposes a sanitation bill that declares it unsanitary for the help to use the guest bathroom or any bathroom in the house that the white people use because the whites could get diseases from the black help.  She demands that households build a bathroom outside of the house just for the help to use. 

In this way the ideals of the South in the 1960’s influences the society.  The group of white Junior League ladies, who hire the help, create a society built on petty sorority, to the extreme and rules.  Hilly could be considered the ruthless ruler.  She controls what goes on in the Junior League meetings, who is excommunicated, and what is the ideal way to live.  The rules of this southern society are made by Hilly as she goes.  Besides Hilly’s rules there are general society rules: the white people are expected to have help, the white women are expected to go to college to find a husband and then not finish, and the help are expected to raise the white children that then become their employers.  For all three narrators these “rules” are what they come to question.  Skeeter is the only one who has finished college and the only one out of all of her friends to not be married.  The society puts a lot of pressure to conform to these rules.  Minny used to work for Hilly but once Minny crossed Hilly she was fired.  Hilly didn’t stop at just firing her, Hilly had to make sure Minny would learn from her mistake so Hilly claimed that Minny stole from her.  This doesn’t seem like it would mean that much, but Hilly being the queen of society that Minny is essentially ruined destroying all chances of getting another job.  No one was going to dare and hire Minny and have to face the wrath of Hilly.  All except Celia Foote who is on the outside of Hilly’s society circle.  Celia is on the outs because she married an old boyfriend of queen Hilly’s, that Hilly never truly got over.  Celia in essence serves as a loophole in Hilly’s society; Celia longs to be part of this society but by being on the outs she opens up changes in society.

            There are many changes in society coming from the help being willing to talk to Skeeter.  Skeeter, the aspiring writer, decides that she wants to write a book about the help and the “irony that they (the employer) love them (the help) yet...They don’t even allow them to use the toilet in the house.”  Skeeter who has to deal with the pressures of society herself sees the unjust pressures put on the help.  She wants to bring change in her own society and life.

-Aimee E

Oliver Twist

For my novel I began reading "The Age of Innocence" but decided it was very dry and I did not necessarily want to read something that I personally did not find interesting. So, I chose "Oliver Twist" and actually have found that I am enjoying it. For those who have not read the book, it is about a boy born into an orphanage in a poor workhouse where his mother dies shortly after his birth. He is born into the car of an extremely unpleasant and greedy woman, Mrs. Mann, whose name represents the predominant male figure although she is a female character in the book. She continues her persona of being the over-dominant male presence by beating the children when they disobey her orders and frequently cuts back on rations so she can obtain more capital gains.  Oliver soon begins to question why the other orphans and himself are being deprived of food, so a few of his friends nominate Oliver to ask for more. He soon does and the overseers are so appalled by his request that they offer to sell him for 3 pounds. Oliver is soon taken to court to finalize the offer of his sale to a cruel man who has a history of killing the children he cares for. Oliver breaks down in the courtroom and begs not be sold to the cruel man. The court magistrate sees the desperate look in the poor boy's eyes and refuse to sell him. As a result, one of the undertakers (burial coordinator/mortician) of the workhouse decides to make Oliver his apprentice in hopes of giving the young boy a slightly less bleak future.

Oliver begins his work as an undertaker grudgingly, but realizes that he could have been dead had he been sold to the other man so continues his work. An epidemic breaks out which causes many deaths so Oliver begins to excel at his profession. One of the other apprentice boys that works with Oliver soon begins to become jealous of the attention that Oliver is receiving so the boy makes a comment about Oliver's mother, which causes the two to get into a fight. The man that Oliver was apprenticing for decides to kick him out because of the disagreement and Oliver is forced into a cellar and is beaten. In the morning, he decides to run away and try to start a new life for himself. This point in the book is where the reader begins to see a change in Oliver's behavior. He symbolically runs away from the poverty and hunger to try and make a better life for himself.

He runs away to London, a 70 mile walk and finds a boy roughly his age who is sharply dressed. The boy offers to take him to his house for the night until he can contact a friend who has a place Oliver can stay. Oliver goes with the other boy, a sort of savior in his eyes, to a somewhat dirty den with a few other people. After staying with the new people he has met for a few days, Oliver realizes that they are in fact a band of pickpockets. He gets arrested after running away from an attempted robbery involving two of the other people that live in the den. When he is taken to court the man that was robbed realized that it was not in fact Oliver that robbed him, but the other two boys. The man decides to take Oliver under his wing and have him work as a servant in his house.

Oliver represents the poor society and his struggle to do everything in his power to escape its clutches. He is tempted by several sins along the way but that in another way can be related to modern society. But in risk of this sounding like just another essay, Oliver gives us all the incentive to strive for what we want in life. I am only about halfway through the book but I can assume that he will eventually become wealthy enough to save the other children born into poverty from the fate he narrowly escaped.

Kevin W.

The Layers by Stanley Kunitz

So unlike most of the blog posts on here I will not be writing about my outside reading book. As most of the class already knows reading isn't my, lets say "BEST" subject. I am about 50 pages into my book which I feel isn't enough to make a post about so I will wait until next week so that I actually have something to talk about. As for this week I will be writing about the poem we read in class called, The Layers, by Stanley Kunitz.

After reading this poem I am sure everyone took it a different way and interpreted it to fit into their own lifestyles and challenges each one of us face. To me the poem is about the layers you go through in your life and the things you must leave behind. The poem starts off by saying, "I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was."  Personally I have "walked through many lives" moving from one Rialto Middle School to another and then to a High School located in a very different environment, Rancho Cucamonga. Changing from being a little "wanna-be chola" into a well off teenage girl was one of the biggest transformations. Having to leave behind all my friends and everything I was used to was one of the hardest things I have had to do. Kunitz truly understands the pain and hardships of leaving behind a life you once knew  to go create one you know nothing about. He says, "In a rising wind the manic dust of my friends, those who fell along the way, bitterly stings my face." This is the feeling of leaving behind the people you once told everything to and going to a place where no one knows a thing about you. Over coming these obstacles may seem difficult but subconsciously you are writing your next chapter in life. Kunitz ends the poem with saying "I am not done with my changes," realizing that life is all about the changes and adjusting to them, pushing through the layers and not looking back at what is left behind but looking forward towards whats to come.

-Janet Jones