A Venture into Womanhood: The Unveiling of Tita through Rosaura Anonymous College

Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate shows contrasts in many of the characters throughout the lifetime of Tita. Tita’s role as the protagonist reveals her struggle within the family, but also her development as a care-taker and nurturer throughout the novel. Rosaura’s spite for Pedro’s love of Tita causes a rift between the sisters, but also gives the reader a close look at the type of woman she is as compared to Rosaura. Through the pairing of Tita and Rosaura in sisterhood, Tita is revealed to be a more complete woman in physical and nurturing characteristics while Rosaura’s bitterness and spite eat away at her until she passes.

One of the most illustrative comparisons between Tita and Rosaura involves descriptions of physicality, especially towards the end of the novel. Tita is described as the more beautiful of the two sisters, while Rosaura is viewed as more plain and undesirable (Esquivel 67). Tita’s beauty advances as she ages, growing and developing into a very attractive woman. She is the more vivacious and active child from youth, and as she grows she is consistently seen as more attractive than Rosaura physically and emotionally – which is the cause of Pedro’s love for the sweet, caring Tita as opposed to the...