Missy Schreiber Reader Response to Laura Esquivel Like Water for Chocolate

Melissa Schreiber

Professor: Dr. R.E. Benander

ENGL222

21 Feb 11

            Laura Esquivel’s first novel Like Water for Chocolate is a fiction novel based on real recipes. Esquivel reveals her genre of magical realism through the love of food, and the heat given off from the De la Garza ranch. I love her incorporation of women searching for individualism, and the strength all the women in the house hold. Magical realism is a literary work of art that allows the outside reader an escape from reality. Magical realism is when the natural order of things becomes unnatural and or extraordinary. The combination of the natural and supernatural allows authors to express great emotions they may have not been able to discuss. The style of magical realism is confusing and trying to understand how parallel realities are created is intense for an uneducated reader. This novel must be understood to appreciate it as a work of art, and Esquivel demands that the reader enjoy the aroma while they divulge into every chapter. Chapter one makes Christmas Rolls, these rolls are warmth that Tita would normally receive from her favorite food and even they cannot overcome the coldness induced by her starved love. Tita's understanding of life through food fails to comfort her, and the inadequacy of food as a substitute for love is demonstrated.

The recipes title each chapter and the ingredients are overwhelming, as are the De la Garza sisters and their passion for life. The more heat they conjure up the more food that needs preparing. Each delicious recipe is an outlet for Tita the protagonist, to express her emptions. Tita’s life is real and the obstacles she must face are greater than mine, and therefore this novel allows me to escape and pray Tita finds herself as well as her freedom. To be educated is to be empowered and I am wiser as a woman for having read Laura Esquivel's first novel Magical realism provides the 21^st century with a historical yet magical escape to understand the past and never take the future for granted.

Missy Schreiber Reader Response to Allende et al. Zorro

Melissa Schreiber

Professor: Dr. R.E. Benander

ENGL222

14 February 11

Zorro, the graphic novel by Isabel Allende, Wagner, and Francavilla is brought to life for the 21^st century.  Zorro, the Mestizo hero represents diversity and this hero is relatable with today’s audience. Zorro has class mobility as well as compassion for the poor. This novel describes the vivid life of a young boy who becomes a man right before our eyes. Diego de la Vega is both a member of the Spanish aristocracy as well as a crusader for the native people. The graphics are emotionally drawn, enticing and sometimes fearful, because the outside reader has become active within the drawing. The novel creates a young boy we know will become Zorro, and we the outside reader begin our relationship with Diego eager to see him succeed. The young men in the novel build a friendship, deal without parents, journey from home, true to the archetype, and experience the world mostly through oppression and horror. A hero needs to have qualities that are similar yet they must stand out to be remembered.

 In chapter six, the young boys are drawn as young men, and they are back in California, home. The graphic I chose is that of a waterfall, bright and blue, the waterfall symbolized, for me, these men reaching their enlightenment. The young men stand off to the left in the shadows of the falls, and they present a sense of accomplishment. The waterfall was normal and yet behind it was the secret to Zorro. The next graphic, “My brother realized that, to be most effective in his crusade for justice, he would need to re-enter the very society that he hoped to overthrow.” This waterfall is the beginning of the boys becoming men and the limitless possibilities yet to come. The realization of their duty as men makes the friends real heroes and they will be remembered as standing up for justice and all who interfere.