Chapter Five

In today's chapter, tears were mentioned, however it was very brief. "'Sit down and get back to work. I don't want any tears (Esquirel, 99).'" Mama Elena was speaking to Tita when she said this and it was because she had just broken the news of Roberto's death. Tita was visibly very upset about it and Mama Elena didn't want to have to deal with her crying. In this book, the attempt to prevent tears represents Mama Elena's dislike for Tita. Tita was born because of someone crying extremely loud and if they hadn't cried(the crying had been prevented), Tita wouldn't have been born so early. This shows how Mama Elena just would rather not have to deal with Tita.

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  1. AnonymousSeptember 12, 2017 at 12:45 PM

    In chapter 5 of Like Water for Chocolate, when Tita began crying and Mama Elena told her to stop I think it does symbolize Mama Elena's uncaring attitude and cold-hearted opinion of Tita. It was the last straw, then that Tita finally cracked because her own mother wouldn't even allow her to cry for her lost nephew. But, I do think that Mama Elena cares for Tita in some capacity. She is her daughter and may have not wanted to see her cry because she knew she would have hated to see her daughter sad and broken. The tears that Tita cries represent possibly how very emotional Tita is and how Mama Elena doesn't want to see them might symbolize how hard and bitter Mama Elena is. From this point on, you can tell the story has changed in some way. I also have a question; why do you think Mama Elena was willing to send her off to a mental asylum of all things, but would not let her get married? You address this a bit at the end, but your exact opinion on it is unclear. -Ashley

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 12, 2017 at 4:14 PM

    I didn't think about how much tears might represent Tita to Mama Elena. This also meant I didn't think about how this may be why she doesn't like it when people cry; this is definitely an interesting point. I don't necessarily think Mama Elena hates Tita though; I think Mama Elena is just very strict and sticks to the rules and traditions too closely, and that just makes her seem cold. On the complete opposite topic of coldness, my symbol was heat, and I think in this chapter heat was used to describe the cause of Tita's carelessness throughout the chapter. This was done by talking about several mistakes she made, including burning Mama Elena and her clothes. We see an example of Mama Elena being strict and cold when she seems to be unforgiving towards Tita about her mistakes.

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