Like Water for Chocolate: Ending

During the second half of the book, the dramatic action intensifies. Pedro ends up moving to San Antonio with his wife. Eventually, Tita’s work ethic declines as her despair takes over. She neglects the routine that Mama Elena has established, even going as far as having the water boiling hot and making her shirt wrinkled. Mama Elena is very picky about how she wants her chores done, and since she dislikes Tita, she always finds something to pick on her about. However, Tita’s newborn nephew, Roberto, dies from being unable to drink anything but his Aunt’s breast milk. Tita becomes incredibly depressed and Mama Elena comes and strikes her with a wooden spoon and tells her essentially to get over it. Mama Elena sends Tita to a dovecote where she becomes so beside herself with grief that Mama Elena had her sent to an insane asylum. This is the first time we see Tita stand up for herself, since the reason why Mama Elena struck her with the wooden spoon is because Tita had accused Mama Elena of Roberto’s death. The next chapter diverts from the typical recipes we see at the beginning of each chapter. At the beginning of one chapter, she depicts the outline for the ingredients of matches. In this chapter, she meets a man named John and they hit it off. He shares the recipe to matches, describing that a fire is within each person. Since she’s unwilling to speak, John asks her to write on the wall to communicate with him, she writes on t

Here, Tita asserts herself again, a symbol of her growing inner strength.
In the end, Pedro and Tita are able to express their true love for each other… I saw that one coming because no good book would have ended without true love coming to make a comeback.  

he wall, “Because I don’t want to.”