The document discusses two novels, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. In both novels, the central female protagonists - Emma and Tita respectively - struggle to express themselves within the confines of their societies and family situations. Emma uses relationships with men to find satisfaction, while Tita uses food and cooking. However, their means of expression ultimately lead to their destruction.

1. The need to express themselves is the central motivation that drives characters to
find meaning in their lives in the books Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and
like water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel; is this also what leads to their ultimate
destruction?
Language A1 literature
Word literature assignment 1
Word count: 1362
Expression of feelings is an arduous task for some while and easy for others. The characters in
both the works express their feelings and emotions through different mediums. In Like Water for

2. Chocolate, Tita, the protagonist uses food as a medium of expression where as in Madame
Bovary, Emma uses men for satisfaction. In both the books the characters have used elements to
portray their feelings. The strong symbolism used by Laura whatever for depicting grief and
emotions through food also shows the love and desire of the character for cooking also making it
a part in developing and reflecting the bonds between the characters. On the other hand, Emma,
sickened by leading an unsatisfied married life turns out to look towards men for sexual
satisfaction and then for money.
In the book „like water for chocolate‟ Tita, the protagonist loves cooking. Tita‟s life is identical
to that of a life of a servant in all practical senses. She has to take care of the house all the time
and also listen to the orders of her mother like a servant and master relation. Her life was havoc
and to make sense of it she used media‟s like food to express her feelings. Making food for
people is what made her happy, and throughout her life cooking was the only thing which egged
her on to live. She was born in the kitchen and always stayed in the kitchen throughout her
young days and hence she might be so connected with food. Tita is defied from voicing her
opinions and choices. Tita‟s world revolves around kitchen making the traditional dishes. “With
that meal it seemed they had discovered a new system of communication, in which Tita was the
transmitter, Pedro the receiver”1 shows how she conveyed her feelings to people while them
realizing it. . Laura Esquivel has used food to describe all that she feels too like “It was then she
understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body
was so real she was afraid she would start to bubble-her face, her stomach, her heart, her
breasts-like batter”2.
1
Henrik Ibsen, Like Water For Chocolate, publisher: anchor books, year:1995, pg no. 52
2
Henrik Ibsen, Like Water For Chocolate, publisher: anchor books, year:1995, pg no. 16

3. Her action of refusing food and deserting her mother in the book changed her fate completely
and also changed her future. Even though Tita moved out she was helpless against her mother
and she left hope for herself. While Dr. John is the man by whom she gains support on her side
and is instrumental in helping Tita recover both physically and psychologically.
The need to find herself and express her individuality led to her leaving mama Elena and seek
refuge with Dr. John. And this need to express also led to her coming back home to treat her
mother which coincided with Mama Elena‟s sickness. This decision changed her upcoming life
and also had a role in leading to her death.
In the novel Madame Bovary, Emma, has her own way of expressing herself. The feeling of
being deserted and not being happy in her married life led to her finding happiness outside her
married life. Also, the fact that Emma was from a superior class than bourgeoisie, she is not able
to adapt herself to the new surroundings and hence feels deprived. It aggravates her situation of
an unsatisfied married life. It is not that her husband is not capable of making her happy, but she
never tried to express her feeling to him. She never told him that she was not happy by the way
they were living. She sought to go to another man when he openly told her that he wanted her.
He is the way through which she expressed the desires she wished to have in a married life. In
the book the antagonist, Charles mother, knows what she is going through and knows what
Emma will ultimately do, hence she tells Emma to stop reading romantic books. Romantic books
are another way of showing how much she wants that kind of a life. Her belief in romantic books
is the main belief which led to her marriage with Charles as she “before marriage thought
herself in love”3.
3
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, publisher: penguin classics, year: 1992, pg no. 23

4. In both the novels the protagonists go against the norms of the society or parent. In like water for
chocolate, Tita tries to fit in and listen to her mama Elena‟s every demand. But after a period of
time, she gave up. She stopped trying to express herself through food, for that matter she started
rejecting everything. In Madame Bovary, she thinks different than her social group. She made
various attempts in the beginning to try to be like the others but her idea of the perfect life was
different than the one she was experiencing, hence leading to her downfall in the end. In both the
cases the ways of expression did not help them conquer the very needs of theirs. They made an
attempt but in the end either stopped or gave up.
The need to express themselves in different ways was needed to highlight the fact that the female
characters could not do whatever they wished or desired, hence they used various elements to
show their grief and terrible lifestyle they were stuck in. also, the authors have tried to throw
light on the life of Tita and Emma and the situation they were going through. They were tied
between the bonds of marriage, love and other relationships. In the case of Tita, in the marriage
or her sister, by the use of magical realism the scene of the wedding cake was created. As while
making the cake Tita was at the peak of her sadness the people who ate the food also felt sad.
These kind of intense emotions are displayed showing the strength of Tita‟s repressed emotions.
Through these mediums only do the characters find the meaning in their lives as for them it is
nothing but living according to the society or tradition. Emma is a lady who craves for affection
and for a fairy tale life. After all the troubles she went through in her life until her death, she
never expressed her feelings directly to anyone. Charles loved Emma tremendously, but she
never truly knew her husband, or even loved him. She could also never express this fact to him.
This led to her committing adulterous acts, which left her unable to satisfy her feelings, resulting
ultimately in her suicide. Emma rather, did not try to express her feelings. She assumed Charles

5. would know what she thought or wanted. This was her fatal flaw which eventually led to her
destruction.
By the use of social realism and Emma‟s fantasy we see the contrast in her and the people around
her which led to her death and in like water for chocolate by the use of magical realism enhanced
the expressions giving it a more fantasizing effect. Emma dies with regret where as Tita dies
with final solace of her soul. Emma chose to express her feelings through a anti-social method,
which is justified in her own. She did what she did to find peace by not caring for the society.
Tita on the other hand expressed herself by the means of food which is socially accepted and also
by the novelist‟s use of magical realism, which glorified the facts to a certain extent. The flaw in
both the characters in the books is that of not speaking up their feelings which led to their deaths
in different ways. For Tita it was a happy ending. She finally found her true love and her dreams
came true whereas for Emma, her life came crashing down. She never understood that her true
lover was with her the entire while and if only she would have conveyed her feelings to him, her
life would have been on a completely different mode.

6. Bibliography
1) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
2) Like water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel