Book Reports / Analysis Essay on Laura Esquivel's Treatment of the Theme of Personal Identity [2]

Hello, could you please critique my essay for grammatical errors and for effectiveness/clarity of ideas. THANK YOU.

An analysis of how Laura Esquivel addresses the struggle of attaining personal identity and freedom through the characterization of Tita De la Garza in Like Water for Chocolate, as compared to Haruki Murakami's treatment through character development in specific stories of The Elephant Vanishes.

Here's the essay:

Like Water for Chocolate-a novel rich in history, culture, food, and scandal; a breathtaking portrayal of a love affair, of the strength of character of desperate women, and of humbling traditions-captivates both the soul and mind, enchanting its readers by way of causing them to become immersed in its story-line. Prominent among its themes is that of finding an identity-or a lack thereof-which seems to pervade the lives of those most engaged in the process of self evaluation and discovery, and as such Laura Esquivel's novel is comparable to Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, in which the characters from several stories seem to be in a state of perpetual dislocation and disconnection from the world around them. Tita in Esquivel's novel, best portrays this struggle of gaining personal identity and freedom amidst repressive, external forces, while specific characters from stories in Murakami's collection such as "Sleep", "The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women", or "A Slow Boat to China", reflect a struggle that arises instead from both external and internal forces. Particularly important however, is Esquivel and Murakami's contrasting approach to addressing the theme-be it through symbolism, language or characterization-that requires close critique.

In Like Water for Chocolate, Tita De la Garza's principle struggle steams from the fact that she has little control over her affairs. From the day she was born, her fate was already sealed, and she would be expected to acknowledge tradition. Her life was not hers to live, for Mama Elena-her mother-dictated everything that she did, for whose house was it if not Mama Elena's, who made it clear that "in the De La Garza family, one obeyed-immediately" (Esquivel 12). There was nothing Tita could say to change anything, and being quite aware she knew that she could never "have even the slightest voice in the unknown forces that" condemned her world (11). Therefore, in order to possess some level of control over herself, she had to forge an identity so that she would also be able to communicate with others in her surrounding without been restricted by Mrs. De la Garza. In order for Tita to achieve this, Laura Esquivel uses food as a means of communication-which affords Tita with a chance to acquire personal identity and freedom-because it becomes a medium through which she can conceal her emotions and express herself more liberally. Thus, Laura Esquivel employs food as a symbol to articulate Tita's struggle to gain identity, because food represents both what Tita desires and her emotions, which define her character.

Arguably, Murakami's approach to the theme of attaining personal identity and freedom is best exemplified in the short story "sleep", which by no surprise-considering its storyline and syntax-also reflects the author's crafty, mysterious, out-of-this-world style. The female narrator in the story is an ordinary housewife who does everything that she's supposes to do-except to tend to herself. She becomes increasingly intolerant of her surrounding; more specifically she can no longer bear to remain aloof and to pretend to suppress her inner desires and ambitions. She realizes that the only way to break free is to forge an identity of her own. To achieve this, Murakami describes the narrator as having a "wakefulness [that] was always...beside..." her when she stopped sleeping (Murakami 75). Not sleeping was a way of her expressing her rejection of traditions and conformity, and a representation of her transition to individuality and personal freedom. The narrator was no longer part of the "life that had swallowed [her] up so completely..." that she felt as if her footprints were being flown away "...before she even had a chance to turn and look at them"(Murakami 81). Reality became an object, a simple thing to manipulate, and she remarked "...how easy it is to make it work" for her benefit, for her to explore and accentuate her passions (Murakami 96). It was this same passion that allowed Tita to realize her destiny and to experience romance with Pedro. In the novel, Laura Esquivel describes how those who ate Tita's food were "flooded with a great wave of longing", and how it kindled within people a renewed passion for their inner desires (Esquivel 39). Thus, Esquivel employs magic realism to illustrate how Tita's emotions and passions transcended into the food and into everyone who ate her food; which reinforces Tita's desire to acquire freedom and individuality.

By making Tita creative by very nature, as in her "creation was...the most perfect..." (12), Laura Esquivel was able to distinguish her from the other characters because it was another avenue for which Tita could move towards individuality. Had Esquivel not added creativity to Tita's character, she would not have been successful at illustrating the effects that Tita's food had on people, as well as to effectively develop the character into a motherly figure-something that brought her close to attaining a personal identity as she grew closer to Pedro. Pedro was part of what defined Tita's identity-he was not only her love, but her life-that is why it was imperative that Esquivel characterized Tita as creative in order to demonstrate her move towards gaining freedom and an identity. While creativity is employed as a character trait as well in Murakami's "Kangaroo Communiqué", his approach is different from Esquivel in that he manipulates diction and takes advantage of a first person narration to relate the protagonist's true feelings. For example, in the narrator's letter to a woman who visited the store he works in, he talks more about himself and about his random theories, than what he actually intended-to reply to the woman's complaint. Although, this may seem futile on the surface, this style works because Murakami is able to reveal more about the character and his struggle for an identity, while pretending to at the seem time. This fits in well with the character's desire to "...lead a general existence and yet be a distinct, separate entity", as he shows readers his general discontent with his present life, and his desire to attain a personal identity (Murakami 65).

Also effective is Laura Esquivel's use of a simple bedspread as symbolism to show all of Tita's struggles and anxieties that had accumulated over the years. It was another way that Tita could express herself, considering that she was constantly under Mama Elena's authoritarian power. It's important to point out this fact because in many of Murakami's stories the characters, to a certain extent, express their desire for personal freedom and individuality in a bolder manner than Tita in Like Water for Chocolate, as a result of the differences between both authors' approach to the theme. For example, in The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women the narrator attempts to create his own identity in a seemingly mundane world of his by breaking free from the norm. To illustrate his move towards individuality, Murakami describes the character as not been able to remember things well as if there was a hole in his memory; as in "...no matter how I rack my brains, I can't place her voice" (Murakami 13). Instead of using indirect objects such as food, or bedspread-as Esquivel does-to address a character's move towards freedom and individuality, Murakami characterizes his protagonists in a way that reflect their inner desire to be different-they do not flow with the tide, so to speak.

The themes of personal identity and freedom is prevalent throughout both Like water for Chocolate and The Elephant Vanishes stories. To illustrate the theme, Esquivel primarily utilizes symbolism, as suppose to Murakami who incorporates diction and language. Despite these differences, both effectively engage their readers through their creative use of literary devices to convey a particular message.

Writing Feedback / 'This Little Box of Ours' - essay competition [4]

This Little Box of Ours

"Sleep" by Murakami Haruki is a great story with metaphorical elements that questions our preconceived perceptions of the role that individuals play in society. It's a story that raises the question of whether life is a never-ending cycle; a routine; an exercise of some sort that involves the repetition of daily activities. Going by this chain of thought, we can say that everyone is thus susceptible to going with the mundane; what is socially acceptable or what will foster our image to a heightened level, thereby altering the way in which society views us. Murakami does not merely portray the life of a woman who cannot sleep, but in effectually, he presents a dilemma that we find various societies facing, including Japanese society. That dilemma is the product of conformity.

It is through conformity that the narrator found herself in the position she's in; after all, she sacrificed her own hopes and dreams to best cater to her husband and child. In so doing, she lost a part of herself, a sense of her individuality and personal freedom, to family duty and tradition. Over time she feels the walls of society crushing over her, she cannot bear to remain aloof any longer, and finally she gives in to her inner desires and ambitions. She dares to stand against tradition and conformity when she no longer finds herself able to sustain her own life. It was a bold step against a life that had swallowed her up so completely to the point that her "footprints were being blown away before [she] even had a chance to turn and look at them" (81). This motioned to her that it was important to take control of her being, choose her own path, and do as she pleased. What better way is there to do so than to stop sleeping?

In order to break free from conformity she had to prepare herself mentally and physically for the task. She had to stop thinking in the terms of reality; she had to let go of old ways and values to embrace the new, exciting, and unexplored path. She could feel her thinking transforming "in its own room, on the other side of a transformed wall..." while her "physical self was drifting through" just as before, only now it could restrain from sleep (75). In other words, she had taking control of her mind and body, and did not allow society to dictate how she behaved or felt about herself any longer. No one else could do this for her; not even her husband, because he could not understand, after all he was just a man as well. There is "some element that makes his face have no distinguishing features", because he was part of all the eternal forces that kept her in her prescribed place. Therefore once she had broken free from those forces, it is not surprising that she found it difficult to "remember what he looked like" (77).

She had wanted to forget all about her past, and instead become immersed in her new self. She was well aware that "you can't have everything your own way", and so she was going to embrace this little victory of hers (79). She felt bigger and more awesome than reality, because she thought "what a simple thing reality is; how easy it is to make it work" (96). She felt as if it was at her finger tips and she could manipulate it any which way. This explains why she could not recognize characters, plots or anything from a book she had been reading, and felt as if she had "been reading a whole new book" (90). She had desired so much to make her dreams a reality that when it happened she was incapable of recognizing fiction.

After her transformation, she becomes more interested in the little pleasures of life. At one point she craved for chocolate so much so that she "couldn't bear to be denied it for another moment" (90). She began to take more interest in her looks, and she even discovered that her "body appeared to be almost bursting with vitality", and that her "...skin had far more glow, far more tautness, than it had before" (97). At this point, she no longer cared that her "...body had no more feeling than a drowned corpse", or that her "...life in the world, seemed like a hallucination" (75).

Sleep did not matter to her anymore, because sleep brought her back to reality, and in reality she was "consumed by...tendencies and then sleeping to repair the damage"; her "life was nothing but a repetition of this cycle" (99). The part of her "...in existence that was not being consumed..." gave her "...this intensely real feeling of being alive" (100). The part of her being consumed was the part of her that suffered the consequences of deviating from the norm, from a line of demarcation between her and tradition. Nevertheless, she took joy in the little part of her not consumed, because it gave her "the power to concentrate" on the things that mattered the most-liberty and choice-and to expand herself (100). "Living without this power would be like opening one's eyes without seeing anything", because it would mean living as before as if everything was right, without ever looking inwardly at herself and her desires instead of looking externally to please everyone (102). Indeed, as her world was changing, changing all too fast as if "it would never be the same again" (102), she became extremely bothered by those who were still engaged with reality-especially by her "son's sleeping face..." which looked "exactly like [her] husband's (102).

Their faces reminded her of the frightful reality that was beckoning around her existence. But, she had become "a priori...An evolutionary leap...A women who never sleeps...An expansion of consciousness", therefore who or what could make her return to her societal role when in fact she was well "beyond that"? (107). In the end, the truth was that she was only beyond so much as the walls of society would allow, because sooner or later, she would have to conform to something again. In due time, she would be "locked inside this little box", like the rest of us (109).

Undergraduate / "History did condemn those who kept quiet" - Princeton University [7]

Hi everyone. I'm new here, and I just need some opinions on my Princeton essay in response to the following prompt on the supplement.

Thanks in advance1

***Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation at the beginning of your essay.****

"History did condemn those who kept quiet" in Ten Boys Who Didn't Give In by Irene Howat, and will continue to do so in this world now and in the future.

Whenever I feel like I am stepping in a different direction or I am having a difficult time believing in myself, I think about this quote, and then I remember. I remember that a step is better than none at all; just like the boys in the novel. These ten boys were courageous in calamity, and took great strides to overcome the situation they found themselves in. They refused to keep quiet so that history would not look down upon them. Hence, in persecution for their beliefs, they took hope in the faith they had, and never once, did they imagine giving up for the sake of the suffering they were experiencing. Notwithstanding, their horrendous fate brought upon by those conspiring their downfall, they bestowed upon them benevolence, and leading by love, were able to forgive these people.

The strength of character posed by these young men is extraordinary, and praiseworthy. From their decisions and actions I was able to understand the true meaning of good character, and the above quote makes more patent, the necessity and value of character. I am reminded to do the right things regardless of the consequences; to have strength in the face of adversity; that life is, as much if not more, about others than it is about oneself; and finally to be an honest leader. There is more to be gained in making a difference, and helping those in need, then there is in sitting idly by. Passion in following their faiths was a foundation of the rectitude of these boys. Likewise, I am determined to follow my passions and interests even if they are inconvenient; even if they do not make me wealthy; cost money or friendships; even if no one understands; for there is good in having strength of character.

But my learning experience did not end here. My career aspirations changed slightly at a university's information session, one of several seminars I attended as part of a research program I participated in during the summer. In the past, whenever I was asked what I desired for a future profession, I would respond by saying I wanted to be a doctor. But that changed on this particular occasion because I added international health policy. What uprooted this change was a desire to make a change in the world. Remembering to take courage, and to value taking one little step for a cause just like the boys in the novel, for there's no value in doing nothing; I concluded that since it would be my duty as a medical doctor to serve my community, my perspective of 'community' should now come to include the rest of the world. The world can no longer be thought of as separate, but rather as connected and intertwined. I realized my generation as well as future generations, will never again have the luxury of just looking inwards. We will have to learn new languages, and seek an understanding of different cultures. Not all happenings or events are confined to one region or country. Therefore, I am certain the wise course of direction pertaining to my explorations, should encompass the globe, and that I should seek to educate myself in matters that concern the welfare of those less fortunate, underserved, and neglected.

Why am I so concerned about being condemned by history? After all, it is not as though anyone will be studying my life after I am gone. The reason is that, while no one will be studying my life to find out if it was a good one or not; I will. I will continue to evaluate and learn from my mistakes, because I am determined to lead a noble life for myself and community.