Sublime Elements in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura...

The novel Like Water for Chocolate, published in 1989, was written by Laura Esquivel who is of Spanish heritage. She lives in Mexico, and Like Water for Chocolate was her first novel. I feel that in the story Laura Esquivel gives a lot of magical elements that are treated as real in order to evoke emotions about love, but it also employs many features of sublime literature. In Like Water for Chocolate, a girl named Tita was born. When she was first born, it mentions that she was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor (6). This occurrence appears to be a magical element rather than the sublime. A baby cannot be washed into the world.†¦show more content†¦By crying one tear into the wedding cake, Tita ruined the whole wedding cake and affected a multitude of people. Another magical characteristic in the story is that Gertrudiss body was giving off so much heat that the wooden walls of the shower began to split and burst into flame (54). Terrified, she thought that she would be burnt to death, and she ran out of the little enclosure just as she was, completely naked (54). This happening is a magical element; however, it also could be linked to the sublime literature as well because it is an example of Longinus notion of intensification using sublime language. Also, the scent of roses given off by Gertrudiss body a long, long way (54), all the way to town, where the rebel forces and the federal troops were engaged in a fierce battle is a magical realist element as well as an example of the intensification accomplished by sublime language (Longinus). Further into the story, Tita removed the boy from her breast: a thin stream of milk sprayed out. Tita could not understand it. It was not possible for an unmarried woman to have milk, short of a supernatural act, unheard of in these times (76). This occurrence is both magical and sublime. Something like this can not happen and, therefore, is magical, yet it also presents a lofty image of lone, which is keeping with Longinus notion of theShow MoreRelated Magical Realism and Fantastic Sublime in Laura Esquivels Like Water for Chocolate989 Words   |  4 PagesMagical Realism and Fantastic Sublime in Laura Esquivels Like Water for Chocolate The different elements of the story Like Water for Chocolate are amazing. The feelings that go through a person upon listening, watching, and tasting events that happen during this story of the Spanish familys lives. The customs of this family were so unorthodox. This story is fantastic sublime and magical realism combined. Laura Esquivel wrote this novel in 1992. The nationality of the people in the novel wasRead More Relationship between Sublime and Magical Realism Explored in The Monkey1435 Words   |  6 PagesRelationship between Sublime and Magical Realism Explored in The Monkey      Ã‚   From the beginning of The Monkey, a short story located within Isak Dinesens anthology Seven Gothic Tales, the reader is taken back to a â€Å"storytime† world he or she may remember from childhood. Dinesens 1934 example of what has been identified as the Gothic Sublime sets the stage for analysis of its relationship to other types of literature. What constitutes Sublime literature? More importantly, how may sublime literature