Throughout the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel there contains a sort of essence for the readers to help recognize their sense of emotion and she does that by connecting to you through the inner thoughts of the characters throughout her book. This is its own reasoning is the very idea of magical realism, and is produced many times throughout her novel and many other Latin American novelist. Laura Esquivel does a magnificent creating supernatural views of reality for readers when creating magical realism references.
One question readers may have when interpreting Like Water for Chocolate is what might magical realism be exactly and how it might pertain to the novel itself. When answering this question it might be helpful to know what exactly the definition of magical realism is. Most would express it as being two conflicting perspectives, one based on a rational view of reality and the other based on a supernatural view of reality. Magical realism is often expressed through many types of cultures, but now of days the big relevant novelist that create a huge phenomenon of magical realism exist mostly in Latin American society far more than any other culture. The idea of magical realism came into play as an art movement in the years following World War I, and at first artist used the idea as being representational art while being mixed with fantasy, creating mystery and question in the artwork of many artist. In the article, “The Ultimate Guide to Great Online Artcyclopedia” it expresses how the artist that is “most commonly associated with the style are Paul Cadmus, Ivan Albright, Philip Evergood, and George Tooker.” The idea of magical realism being, Roger expresses in his article a¬¬¬¬, “a branch of serious fiction” in which writers create magical realism to attract readers into their writing skill and by doing they trigger the reader’s emotions and feeling by inviting the reader to experience the world as many human being may already see it but few interpret into their own experiences by placing their own emotions into the story. What might be some examples of writers using the techniques of magical realism, or being known for their use of magical realism? Besides Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel there is an author known as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author to One Hundred Years of Solitude, he is also known for being more common for working with the technique magical realism. Gabriel Marquez uses his characters throughout his novel to see the world through eyes that recognize it through “mystical and spiritual eye”. Other less known authors such as, Salman Rushdie, who wrote Midnight’s Children, or Isabel Allende, who wrote The House of the Spirits. These artist most often used the technique of magical realism throughout their books. Isabel Allende use the technique magical realism throughout her novel through Clara’s clairvoyance which, as Sparknotes describe as being “often employ strategies of foreshadowing and repetition Now that we have learned about what exactly magical realism, you might be questioning of how it relates to the novel. Like Water for Chocolate has many of examples of the type of writing that explores a different type of style to express the author. One idea of magical realism is the love at first sight idea that is portrayed throughout the book. As Karasa describes in his article when Tita and Pedro meet at a party he “immediately falls in love with her to the extent that would bring marriage”. In the sense of the book is representing they are put in a time where they will fall in love or marry the first person they meet. As Jason Gong explained in his article, as another example is the idea of food being magical, one thing they mention is Tita using food as “the medium to express her feelings”. By using food as a medium, Gong describes Esquivel’s writing as being able to “smoothly meld together the magical and real aspects of each chapter” by