Passion or Pain?
In Like Water for Chocolate and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, both Esquivel and Marquez introduce magical realism. Albeit, they use different techniques and emotions when writing their stories. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story gives the reader a plaintive tone, “… The world had been sad since Tuesday,” (Marquez 233). The reader begins to detect the pain and desolation revealed by the angel, who is kept in a chicken coop only to be observed by unknown face and Pelayo, who must work as a bailiff and suffer the hardships a ill new born child , while being impecunious. Laura Esquivel’s story gives the reader a tone of passion that is repeatedly used in the form of fire, figuratively speaking, to describe the passion and love between Pedro and Tita and Gertrudis and Juan. They incorporate the magical realism using figurative language such as similes, metaphors, and personification. The language, colors, sound, sights, taste, and textures help give details and describes the story almost like a poem that includes Mexican culture. Marquez and Esquivel use the technique, magical realism in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and Like Water for Chocolate frivolously, but fascinates readers with strong emotions influenced by Mexican culture.
Marquez uses desolation and pain to express magical realism within his story. He also includes terms that alienate the main character, the angel, “Alien to the impertinences of the world…” (Marquez 234), to describe the angel, who seems oblivious to the people around him and the world itself as he wanders around with empty eyes. The writer includes a figurative language that Esquivel does not, an allusion, " … [The angel] could fit on the head of a pin,” (Marquez 235). The allusion refers to a medieval theological debate over how many angels could fit on the head of a pin and shows how Marquez’s style, tone, and irony when formulating a fictitious tale. Sensory details transformed into metaphors depict the appearance of an angel, who appears to be a very old man and how he has become a source of entertainment to the town’s people. The characters in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings , such as Pelayo and Elisenda who become wealthy because of the angel and a woman (half tarantula/ half human) who shares the hardships of being different and turned into a spectacle.
Esquivel used passion to express magical realism, using fire as a symbol of their passion. For example, when Gertrudis ran off with Juan, a soldier, after she went to go take a shower which then caught on fire causing Gertrudis to run outside naked screaming only to see Juan and fall in love at first sight. Fire symbolizes the passion between Pedro and Tita, who are like star- crossed lovers, never to be together no matter their love for each other, like Romeo and Juliet. To prove this point even more just like Romeo and Juliet both died after finally being able to no longer have to hide their love for each other, to only die in the end. The style of Esquivel’s writing of Like Water for Chocolate is sort of sequential, although it is not exactly in order and is written like a cookbook. The writer uses many examples of magical realism, some that even seem almost outrageous. Also Esquivel gives a specific time period, during the Mexican Revolution, that Marquez does not.
In conclusion, Tita and the angel are both captives in their stories, Tita to Mama Elena and the angel to Pelayo and Elisenda. Tita must take care of Mama Elena until the day she dies because she is the youngest daughter and it is tradition in their family for the youngest daughter to take care of her mother until the day she dies, which prohibits Tita from ever marrying her true love Pedro and ever having children of her own. The angel has become a source of income to Pelayo and Elisenda, an audience comes to see the angel and the other entertainers while Pelayo and Elisenda both make money and become wealthy. In the end, both the angel and Tita escape from their imprisonment and are free to make their own decisions, whether to leave to place they were once held or die so that they can be with the one they love in life, or death.
Marquez uses desolation and pain to express magical realism within his story. He also includes terms that alienate the main character, the angel, “Alien to the impertinences of the world…” (Marquez 234), to describe the angel, who seems oblivious to the people around him and the world itself as he wanders around with empty eyes. The writer includes a figurative language that Esquivel does not, an allusion, " … [The angel] could fit on the head of a pin,” (Marquez 235). The allusion refers to a medieval theological debate over how many angels could fit on the head of a pin and shows how Marquez’s style, tone, and irony when formulating a fictitious tale. Sensory details transformed into metaphors depict the appearance of an angel, who appears to be a very old man and how he has become a source of entertainment to the town’s people. The characters in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings , such as Pelayo and Elisenda who become wealthy because of the angel and a woman (half tarantula/ half human) who shares the hardships of being different and turned into a spectacle.
Esquivel used passion to express magical realism, using fire as a symbol of their passion. For example, when Gertrudis ran off with Juan, a soldier, after she went to go take a shower which then caught on fire causing Gertrudis to run outside naked screaming only to see Juan and fall in love at first sight. Fire symbolizes the passion between Pedro and Tita, who are like star- crossed lovers, never to be together no matter their love for each other, like Romeo and Juliet. To prove this point even more just like Romeo and Juliet both died after finally being able to no longer have to hide their love for each other, to only die in the end. The style of Esquivel’s writing of Like Water for Chocolate is sort of sequential, although it is not exactly in order and is written like a cookbook. The writer uses many examples of magical realism, some that even seem almost outrageous. Also Esquivel gives a specific time period, during the Mexican Revolution, that Marquez does not.
In conclusion, Tita and the angel are both captives in their stories, Tita to Mama Elena and the angel to Pelayo and Elisenda. Tita must take care of Mama Elena until the day she dies because she is the youngest daughter and it is tradition in their family for the youngest daughter to take care of her mother until the day she dies, which prohibits Tita from ever marrying her true love Pedro and ever having children of her own. The angel has become a source of income to Pelayo and Elisenda, an audience comes to see the angel and the other entertainers while Pelayo and Elisenda both make money and become wealthy. In the end, both the angel and Tita escape from their imprisonment and are free to make their own decisions, whether to leave to place they were once held or die so that they can be with the one they love in life, or death.