Blog 5 - Revision

Isn’t it magical how some of the best home remedies come from natural foods and herbs? But, is it really magic? In the stories The Book of J, The Odyssey, and the novel Like Water for Chocolate, the authors use food and magic to connect to emotions. The “magic” in the foods affect the characters depending on how they are feeling before or while they eat. Whether the feeling is curiosity, nostalgia, or desire, these characters experience changes after they eat.
In the Book of J we learn about the story of Adam and Hava. Adam was brought to this earth first and created by god himself. He then had the companionship of Hava. They were both warned about eating from the Tree of Knowledge; if they did something really bad would occur. “The god knows on the day you eat from it your eyes will fall open like gods, knowing good and bad.” (Rosenberg 63) As Hava disobeyed the gods she went ahead and ate a fruit from the tree of knowledge sharing it with Adam. When they both ate from this delicious fruit they realized something they were blind to before. Soon after eating the fruit they were aware of how abnormal it was to walk around naked, and were then punished. Hava would now know the pain of labor when having children, and Adam would have to work for his food. It is unreal that by eating a fruit one is now aware of all these things and must be punished. Since Hava was so curious and unaware of many things, eating the fruit answered all of her questions unintentionally.
In The Odyssey by Homer, there are also many examples in which food is known to have magic. One of them is when Odysseus and his men arrive to the land of the lotus eaters. When he and his men arrived to this land they were given a delicious lotus fruit. “Whoever ate that sweet fruit lose the will to report back, preferring instead to stay there, munching lotus, oblivious of home.” (Homer 127) The lotus fruit had something in it that made these men forget about homesickness. The way they felt before eating the fruit was nostalgic. After eating they would put aside all of their pain and desire to return home. To forget home it takes much more than eating a simple fruit, yet these people believed it was the fruit that made it happen.
In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, the main character, Tita, has a great way of meeting people’s emotions through her food. One of the many occasions was when she prepared a quail in rose petal sauce. This delicious meal had an affect on everyone at the table, but for her sister Gertrudis it had a very special effect. “On her the food seemed to act as an aphrodisiac; she began to feel an intense heat pulsing through her limbs.” (Esquivel 51) When Tita prepared the meal she used the roses the love of her life had given her in the recipe. Therefore, some of what she felt for this man was passed on to Gertrudis as she ate. It was so intense her sister ran across the field naked to climb into her desired lover’s arms. Though it may seem unreal and exaggerated for this to occur, it shows how food can have such magic in it. Whether it is to act as aphrodisiac or allow someone to have the passion inside to commit such actions.
In these stories, the magic in food comes from the heart. It may come from how the person making the food feels, or from how one feels before eating the food. Though some of these characters believed it was real magic, it is very unrealistic. It is only an idea that there is magic in food, but when is comes to matters of the heart we have no control. We believe what we see and feel no matter how unrealistic it may be. Most of the magic from food in the stories link to the emotions the characters already feel as they eat.

Some what like me....

To start, I really enjoyed watching the movie “Tortilla Soup”. The whole idea of how close a family can be really moved me. Getting to know the three sisters was interesting because I tried to read each one of them before it went into details. The character which caught my attention immediately was Maribel, The youngest of the three daughters in this movie. Her free spirited way of living, and the way she won her way into Andy’s heart reminds me of myself. Also the fact that she was pretty confused about her life and which way to go after high school relates to me. In the very beginning I assumed she was all into love and finding out how it works. I also saw she was kind of the small rebel in the family when she got home late for dinner. She was, but she was not ashamed of it. She was willing to stand up for her own choices.
Maribel kept me going, but after a while my attention moved over to Carmen. In the beginning of the film she comes off as a professional business woman and very flirtatious. It seemed she knew what she wanted and was sure about the way she chose to live. As the movie continued I realized I was wrong. What she really wanted was to follow her dad’s footsteps and become a chef. Cooking was her passion but she did not choose to pursue a career in it to respect her father’s decisions. She also didn’t believe in being married to a man, nor depend on one to live her life. Those two details caught my attention because I can also relate to it. Both characters are different yet similar in the fact that they did not know exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. The only difference was that Maribel was not afraid to show her true self to her father, and Carmen was. I cannot choose a favorite yet because I fell in love with both their attitudes and when I put it all in one it reminds me a lot of myself. But for the most part I can say the characterization on Maribel’s part was great, they way she spoke, dressed and acted at home all gave away some sort of hint on how she really was within.