Critical Analysis: Like Water For Chocolate

                  "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquirel is an emotional novel filled with dilemmas. Tita the main character whom is affected by her mothers decisions expresses herself through cooking. Although Tita is the main character, I found it interesting that her great-niece is the narrating the novel. The novel contains tradition among family, food, and how both woman and men were raised. 

                   Food is an important significance in this novel. Food can signify events throughout the book. For example, all twelve chapters have a recipe that represent something meaningful. Food can also symbolize emotions. For instance, when Tita is making Rosaura's wedding cake she starts crying and this causes "a strange intoxication-an acute attack of pain and frustration-that seized the guest" (Esquirel 39). Food can also stand for tradition. Since Tita was the youngest daughter she couldn't marry Pedro Muzquiz, but her older sister Rosaura could and did. The meaning of food or what it represents can be numerous things. 

Sorry Fugu Review

           The word for word of Sorry Fugu was an enjoyable production that had people laughing almost every minute. There was seduction, persuasion and above all food that was critiqued. At first I didn’t make a connection between the play and “Food Porn”, but once it got to the final scene I knew something was different. The actress of the playing the food critic was enjoying her food a little too much and making inappropriate noises. This reminded me of the woman on youtube; “The Food Porn Queen” and the comments she used to make about her own food. Not only was that a similarity, but the way they dressed was seductive and intimidating.

                    Overall the play was amazing and not one moment was boring. The actors knew how to play everything out and when they made a mistake they just went along with it as if were part of the production. The play is for I would say couples or a young adult audience, but it can also be for families. In my opinion the objective of the story wasn’t really known until the end of the story or you have to pay attention to small details. I would recommend this play in the future to anyone who wants to laugh for a bit.

Eating Animals Review

        Books involving vegetarianism and factory farming seem to inform the reader right away of the issue, instead of entering the topic one step at a time. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer not only gives information about certain topics, but it’s also a mixture of personal stories. There is a great experience to learn from someone like this author who has switched from being a meat eater to being a vegetarian. The author did do his research and did go to farms, but he was mostly a city boy who wouldn’t understand the hard labor put into that kind of work. His lack of experience makes me doubt what he was able accomplish when going to these farms. Many have critiqued his work, like Jay Rayner and Jennifer Resse by naming numerous flaws Foer makes throughout the book. Resse questions Foer's knowledge about meat as well as farming. She takes it as an insult that Foer is "[telling] the rest of us what meat is," she believes he is "less qualified" ( Reese 2).

        Admires of Foer such as Natalie Portman were greatly influenced by the novel. Portman turned into a vegan activist after reading Eating Animals. She believes in the well being of not only the animal of humans as Foer brings to our attention various times. There are countless examples of pathos within this book that make a reader feel either guilty or cherish the personal stories the author had with his family. One main example, was when Foer goes to a chick farm and he realizes all their beaks are cut off. I believe his main purpose is not to pursue the reader into vegetarianism, but inform them of factory farming. As he was entering this topic and starting his research he wanted to know, “ for [himself] and [his] family-what meat is” (Foer). He wanted the public to be aware of what they were consuming and how this meat would affect their health.

       If I were to choose to recommend this book to someone, I would. I enjoyed reading Foer’s personal stories and liked his writing style. It didn’t seem like he was forcing information or pursuing me to choose one side of the topic. His only purpose was letting people know about factory farming and what most of us eat is not what we think it is.