Like Water for Chocolate, Essay Example

The film Like Water for Chocolate (1992) is a film based in the sub-genre of magical realism.  The movie uses devices of fantasy combined with an expression of human lust and love to create a story which not only challenges conventional ideas about the nature of human passion, but attempts to show a link between human emotion and the human experience of the material world. In many ways, the film draws a direct relationship between moods, desires, and passion and the way that physical reality responds tot these emotions, almost as though  the physical world is regarded as an extension of human emotional experiences.  One example of this dynamic is when Tita bakes a wedding cake that includes her tears. Eating the cake then causes those who have ingested it to become sick and also to experience a painful longing for the person they most truly love. The magical element of the story is mean to illustrate the previously mentioned connection between the material world, symbolized by the cake, and the world of passion.

Another example of this theme in the film is when Dr. John Brown reveal to Tita the secret reality that all people contain the combustible materials to create fire within them but that each person has a unique “match” that triggers the fire. This ultimately results in the conflagration that takes place between Tita and Pedro that takes place more than twenty-years after their initial falling in love with one another. Pedro is killed by way of sexual experience and Tita’s internal power, manifested as a physical fire, which burns down the ranch leaving only her recipes behind.

The theme of an invisible link between emotion and physical experience is the main theme of the film. The message of this theme is that  emotions, no less than objects, can be dangerous and that passion when neglected or pursued to intensely can become a self-destructive power.  These themes are mean to enrich the lives of viewers by instilling within them a belief that emotions and passion occupy as important a station in life as material things and that material experience is only valuable due to its connection to human emotion and passion.