Hoffert 1

Ingrid Hoffert

Kapp

H English 10

30 April 2021

Conflicting Forms of Femininity

In the book Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, the female characters

demonstrate both traditional and non-traditional feminine roles. Like Water for Chocolate takes

place in the early twentieth century during the Mexican Revolution, which highlights the

difference in roles that the different female characters play. While Rosaura and Mama Elena

represent traditional and widely accepted female characteristics, Tita and Gertrudis represent a

more complex and non-traditional depiction of femininity.

From the beginning of the book, Rosaura is the favored child of Mama Elena. She is the

first sister to marry and have a traditional domestic life. Throughout the book, Rosaura is

concerned with appearances and how she is viewed by others, a traditionally, and stereotypically,

female preoccupation. Even when Rosaura’s husband Pedro wants to continue having an affair

with Tita, Rosaura agrees only with the condition that they “maintain the appearance [of] her

marriage” (Esquivel 237). Mama Elena, like Rosaura, is proper and follows tradition strictly, it is

Mama Elena who enforces the rule that the youngest daughter takes care of her mother in old

age. Mama Elena is also perfectionistic, being able to shell nuts “without any sign of fatigue”

(Esquivel 157). Perfectionism is normally a trait associated with women, and it is one that Mama

Elena possesses. Both Mama Elena and Rosaura also enjoy being heads of their households, with
 Hoffert 2

Mama Elena controlling every aspect of life on the ranch and Rosaura taking the lead of the

house when Tita lives with her, Pedro, and Esperanza following Mama Elena’s death.

Traditionally, women are expected to maintain and control the household, roles both Mama

Elena and Rosaura are willing to fill. Mama Elena and Rosaura both fill traditional gender roles

and exemplify the way women are expected to act and behave.

While Rosaura is traditional and concerned with her appearance, Tita and Gertrudis are

direct opposites to her. Gertrudis is passionate, freedom loving, independent, and a leader; her

personality much bolder than her sisters. Gertrudis is also sexual, as can be seen when she runs

away to become a prostitute at the beginning of the book, a trait which is often looked down

upon when seen in women. Although Gertrudis’s fleeing of the ranch in favor of becoming a

prostitute is looked down upon by Mama Elena, who said she never wanted to hear Gertrudis’s

“name mentioned ever again,” Tita admires her sister and recreates the meal which led to her

fleeing as a “tribute to her sister’s liberation” (Esquivel 59). Both Tita and Gertrudis share the

want for freedom from tradition and confining gender norms. Tita, in many ways, follows

traditional gender roles, being a skilled cook and naturally maternal, but her want for freedom

and the desire to blaze her own path contrasts her personality to Rosaura and her mother. While

Like Water for Chocolate discusses the romance between Tita and Pedro, it also focuses on Tita’s

journey towards discovering what makes her happy and rebelling against those who prevent her

from happiness. The concept of following your own desires contrasts to the traditional rules that

Mama Elena and Rosaura both enforce, and separates Tita from her sister and mother. Gertrudis

returning to the ranch as a general, and having a separate life from her family, reinforces this

division between the de la Garza women. Overall, both Gertrudis and Tita emphasize the
 Hoffert 3

different ways femininity can manifest and the balance of both traditional and non-traditional

gender roles.

The de la Garza women in Like Water for Chocolate represent traditional and

non-traditional forms of femininity. Rosaura and Mama Elena’s strict adherence to tradition

contrasts to Gertrudis and Tita’s want for individuality and independence. Overall, the division in

the roles that the women in Like Water for Chocolate play, highlight the complexities of gender

roles and femininity.

 Hoffert 4

Works Cited

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Doubleday, 1992.