Final Synthesis Blog - What is the effect of Onions and Tears
Our symbol, Onions and Tears, are added into the book in the beginning of the story as a way to physically symbolize Tita's pent-up sadness and a release of that sadness. Over time, the onion and tears develop from solely symbolizing sadness into general emotional frustration. In this way, Onions and Tears are a general physical symbol that helps the audience understand Tita's feelings through that physical representation that also reaches into the story's overarching theme of food and the feelings that accompany those foods. The symbol of Onions and Tears enhanced the novel.
Onions are one of the first things mentioned in the story and almost immediately connected to Tears when Esquivel writes "The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can't stop"(Esquivel, p. 1). This quote summarizes the effect that Onions have on the story. Once the onion is cut, the tears flow. The cutting of the onion is a way to show the last straw that would break someone into release of feelings. As the onion is cut, the person gives off that emotional release, and in this case, that person specifically is Tita. The onions are given an even more in-depth symbolic role when Mama Elena began to cry after cutting onions, "her wailing got so violent that it brought on an early labor" that gave birth to Tita.(Esquivel, 1). This line seems akin to a throwaway line at the beginning because it has not been established that onions are equivalent to that sadness, but once the reader finished the story, they know that Mama Elena went through a similar tragic experience as Tita regarding love. The onions affected Mama Elena just as much as they affected Tita, and the onion symbolizing pent up sadness shows that sadness induced the birth of Tita, who was then given a similar fate as Mama Elena. The tragedy that Mama Elena went through was represented as one of the many sadnesses of the onion, and that sadness was transferred onto Tita when the onion induced the labor, confining the daughter to a life of sentence.
Onion and Tears are symbols that are developed only further as the story goes on, enhancing the novel. The symbols of the novel are present throughout the entirety of the story, and Onions and Tears are no exception. Instead of disappearing halfway through the book, they are at the beginning and show up at the end in the recipe for November, the final chapter before we see Tita truly happy and with her love. The metaphoric presence of Onions and Tears act as the physicality of not only Tita's but also Mama Elena's emotions that they have kept hidden all of these years.
Onions are one of the first things mentioned in the story and almost immediately connected to Tears when Esquivel writes "The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can't stop"(Esquivel, p. 1). This quote summarizes the effect that Onions have on the story. Once the onion is cut, the tears flow. The cutting of the onion is a way to show the last straw that would break someone into release of feelings. As the onion is cut, the person gives off that emotional release, and in this case, that person specifically is Tita. The onions are given an even more in-depth symbolic role when Mama Elena began to cry after cutting onions, "her wailing got so violent that it brought on an early labor" that gave birth to Tita.(Esquivel, 1). This line seems akin to a throwaway line at the beginning because it has not been established that onions are equivalent to that sadness, but once the reader finished the story, they know that Mama Elena went through a similar tragic experience as Tita regarding love. The onions affected Mama Elena just as much as they affected Tita, and the onion symbolizing pent up sadness shows that sadness induced the birth of Tita, who was then given a similar fate as Mama Elena. The tragedy that Mama Elena went through was represented as one of the many sadnesses of the onion, and that sadness was transferred onto Tita when the onion induced the labor, confining the daughter to a life of sentence.
Onion and Tears are symbols that are developed only further as the story goes on, enhancing the novel. The symbols of the novel are present throughout the entirety of the story, and Onions and Tears are no exception. Instead of disappearing halfway through the book, they are at the beginning and show up at the end in the recipe for November, the final chapter before we see Tita truly happy and with her love. The metaphoric presence of Onions and Tears act as the physicality of not only Tita's but also Mama Elena's emotions that they have kept hidden all of these years.
Comments
Post a Comment