I Am Love

When the film opens Emma is the typical wife. She runs the household, interacts with the staff, and takes care of her family. It’s clear that she isn’t happy with her life at the present time. Although she has spent a lot of time planning the party, she arrives late and leaves early. As the movie progresses her character becomes more self-serving and pro-active towards her happiness. She begins by going Sanremo, where she knows Antonio and Edoardo are planning to open their restaurant. This decision changes her relationship with her children. Betta becomes closer to her mother and Edo becomes estranged when he begins to suspect the affair. Emma seems to be happier after she begins her affair—it seems like she has more of a presence.

By the end of the film Emma has chosen the path she wants to follow in the future. She has left her husband to be with Antonio. I don’t think she is necessarily liberated, but she is working towards that goal. I think that she will be able to embrace her Russian heritage more now that she is no longer dominated by Tancredi and his father. I think that Emma has realized that nothing lasts forever, so she minds as well be happy while she can. It seems like she planned on being on her marriage with Tancredi forever, whether or not they were in love. Now she has made a choice to experience all she can.

During the course of the semester we have women from many different angles. I think that this film draws parallels to many of the materials that we have studied. A criticism of this film, and possible of all that we have studied, is that, “the narrative of this slow-paced film is uninteresting and full of cliché.” Merriam Webster dictionary defines cliché as “something that has become overly familiar or commonplace.” The narrative may seem to be full of clichés but the fact is that these situations still exist. If they weren’t real the cliché never would have existed in the first place. I think that part of the reason for this criticism is that people don’t want to admit that women are generally the disadvantaged and unhappy parties because they are seen as less important and less powerful than men.

Simple Passion

Within this text time is only mentioned in regards to her relationship with A. While the author is trying to explain the style of writing used during this text in regards to chronology of events, she wrote, “As far as I was concerned, that notion did not enter into the relationship; I could experience only absence or presence (20).” Time is nothing more than a way for her mark the amount of time that has passed since she has seen or heard from A. She refers to events as “before meeting A” or after “A left France.” The ending of the text doesn’t make it clear that the author has moved past her relationship with A, so there isn’t much hope for her to regain a normal sense of time until this happens. During the span of time immediately after A left France, “all my thoughts and all my actions involved the repetition of history. I wanted to turn the present back into the past, opening on happiness (44).”

I thought that the “simple” in the title implied that the relationship between the author and A would be straightforward, uncomplicated and easy. The “passion” in the title implied strong feelings of desire. It is clear that the author has abundant passion for A, possibly bordering on obsession. A’s feelings for her aren’t clear, but it doesn’t seem as though their relationship is important to him. Even the author isn’t certain about the feelings that A has for her. “I wasn’t quite sure how to qualify his relationship with me. In the beginning I had deduced from certain signs that he experienced the same passion as me… This certainty gradually wavered. He seemed to be more distant… (23).” Their relationship is anything but simple. He is a married man and they are, essentially, meeting in secret to carry on their affair. This relationship dominates her life and seems to be little more than a blip on the radar in his life.

Beyond Silence

While she was growing up Lara lived in two distinct and separate worlds. She was never able to find a balance between the hearing and the deaf world because there wasn’t anyone to show her how. Both her parents were deaf and placed a lot responsibility on her from a young age. They needed her to, essentially, take care of them because they weren’t capable of functioning in the hearing world. It wasn’t until she met the met the hearing teacher who worked with deaf children that she was able to begin to reconcile her two worlds. It seems like she believed that the two worlds couldn’t mix successfully.

The relationships that Lara has with her parents are interesting. It is obvious that the father is the dominant personality in the family. The mother follows his lead for the most part. The only time the viewer sees the mother take a stance against him is when she warns him not to isolate Lara because of her differences, like his family did to him. The father doesn’t listen to this advice. In a way he pushes her towards her new life. Eventually, the mother has had enough of the father’s approach and tries to be more understanding. She even buys tickets so they can go to a concert together, even though she won’t be able to hear the music.

The father’s animosity towards his parents and siblings mixes into his life with his wife and child. He has never been able to let go of the anger he feels towards them and he wants his wife and child to feel the same way. When Lara resists he tries to guilt her into staying away from her aunt and music. Lara doesn’t understand why her father is so against her studying music and he never takes the time to explain it to her. By forbidding music, she has found a way to rebel. She has no other way to disobey them, as long as he doesn’t see her playing the clarinet, he’ll never know.

Like Water for Chocolate III

“Life had taught her that it was not that easy; there are few prepared to fulfill their desires whatever the cost, and the right to determine the course of one’s own life would take more effort than she has imagined (168).” Tita thought this when she wanted desperately to talk to someone about the possibility of being pregnant. Until this point I don’t think she realized what consequences her secret relationship with Pedro would cause. She has realized that even though Mama Elena is gone, there are still obstacles between her being with Pedro. It seems like Tita was living in the moment and was refusing to acknowledge reality until this point.

“Tita would love to be a simple seed, not to have to explain to anyone what was growing inside her, to show her fertile belly to the world without laying herself open to society’s disapproval. Seeds didn’t have that kind of problem, they didn’t have a mother to be afraid of or a fear of those who would judge them (198).” I think it’s interesting that Tita finds it easier to identify with food, animals, and plants rather than with people. She knows that her situation with Pedro will cause all sorts of problems and is dreading what is to come. It seems that she craves the simplicity that they bring to her life. People are deceitful and love to create problems for others, but plants can’t.

“Now it would never again be possible to see that light, because she could no longer feel anything. She would but wander through the shadows for eternity, alone, all alone. She would have to find some way, even if it was an artificial one, of striking a fire that would light the way back to her origin and to Pedro (244).” By this point Tita has realized that her life isn’t worth living without Pedro. Although she was afraid and didn’t want to die, when she realized that Pedro had, she wanted nothing more than to die so she could be with him.

Like Water for Chocolate II

“…in short, it seemed Mama Elena’s genius was for finding fault (94-95).” This explains Mama Elena’s character perfectly. Throughout the reading Mama Elena has found fault with everyone and everything, except Rosaura. The only reason that Mama Elena didn’t find fault is because Rosaura is going to end up being exactly like her. She demands perfection and refuses to acknowledge that perfection isn’t possible. A little further into the reading the story mentions that Mama Elena must have made a mistake while making the sausages but she refused to admit it—she blamed it on other people.

“That is but one small example of the huge difference in ideas and opinions that existed between the representatives of these two very different cultures… (111).” Since beginning the book I have thought that if the author left out certain details that this book could be set during any time period. I think this quote further emphasizes my idea because it still applies today. For the most part, people are still ignorant of other cultures. In a way this part of the book stresses the importance of understanding, or attempting to understand, other people because more interaction between cultures and people is necessary.

“For her, lying was a survival skill that she had picked up as soon as she arrived at the ranch… Anything could be true or false, depending on whether one believed it (127).” I thought this was interesting because it showed a side of the characters that hasn’t been introduced before now. This is brought up when Chencha fears telling Mama Elena that she has seen Tita. It seems like many of the characters are so afraid of her that they willing lie to her. As the head of the family Mama Elena should be encouraging them to lead a pious life that fits the ideals of their religion. Instead she is, in a way, forcing them to choose self-preservation over religion.

Like Water for Chocolate I

It’s interesting that the text is presented as both a book and a cookbook but not entirely unexpected. In a cultural anthropology class I took we read an article that argued that women and food complement of each other. Because women are seen as the caretakers of the family and are responsible for feeding everyone, food becomes a vital part of their life. This book reinforces this idea. In a way the recipes make it obvious that Tita doesn’t know how to process her emotions and the events that happen around her. Whenever the emotions and events become too much for her to handle, the focus returns to the recipe.

The story centers on Tita and her interactions with the other characters. I think that from the beginning she has been represented as an inconvenience to her mother. This begins during the description of her birth and continues throughout her life. It seems like many of her family members take her fore granted and wish that she wasn’t around. They don’t realize that she is the only thing keeping the family and ranch intact.  I don’t think Tita realizes her importance either.

Mama Elena is an overbearing, controlling mother figure. In many situations her word becomes law. Arguing with her serves no purpose other than to further cement her position of the subject. During the reading I noticed that Tita seems to be her least favorite child although she does the most for the family. I think this is partly because she doesn’t really know Tita. Her husband died shortly after Tita’s birth and she essentially gave the responsibility of raising Tita to Nacha. She is very demanding of other people. She expects people to behave within the standards she has set or to suffer the consequences she decides upon.

Volver

Men don’t play an integral role in this film. It seems like all the men were nothing more than temporary characters that were needed to bring the women together. Raimunda’s father ruins her relationship with her mother. It is implied that Raimunda needed another man to betray her trust so she would reunite with her mother. The men should make the women’s lives easier, but they just add complications. Raimunda’s conversation with Emilio implies that Emilio has previously expressed a romantic interest in her, which would have had an adverse effect on her relationship with her husband. Raimuda’s husband caused nothing but problems for her. It seemed as though Paco was seldom employed and Raimunda had to work to provide for the family. Irene, Raimunda, and Sole would have been better off if the father hadn’t remained with them. It seems like his presence drove them apart instead of keeping them together.

The idea of “return” is an important part of this movie. The film opens with Sole and Raimunda returning to their home town. It’s obvious that none of them want to be there. They only return because they feel obligated. “Return” is also noticeable with other characters. It was often said that Paco left them and they didn’t think he would ever return. Agustina has been waiting four years for her mother to return from wherever she disappeared to. There is also a fear of returning to the place they are originally from. Sole doesn’t want to go back to the small town alone. The neighbor that works as a prostitute is an illegal immigrant that is afraid of being sent back home. She feels that her life is better in Spain, even if she is a prostitute.

I think the emphasis on the windmills in interesting. It reminded me of Don Quixote. I think the quintessential scene from Don Quixote is when he is racing towards the moving windmills with his lance. Perhaps this is used to emphasize the idea that the small town is full of crazy people who don’t realize they are out of touch with reality.