Like Water for Chocolate

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. What ingredient triggers the narrator’s memory of the story of Tita’s birth?

2. In which room of the house is Tita born?

3. What unanticipated ingredient in the cake’s icing makes Nacha too sick to attend Rosaura’s wedding?

4. What does Pedro give Tita when she becomes the ranch cook?

5. What lie does Tita tell her mother about what happened to Gertrudis?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Nacha end up raising Tita?

2. Why is the sausage for Christmas rolls Tita’s favorite recipe?

3. Why is Tita put in charge of Rosaura and Pedro’s wedding feast preparations?

4. What does Pedro tell Tita about his motive for marrying Rosaura?

5. Why does Tita end up making the quail in rose petal sauce once a year?

Paired Resource

“We Need To Talk About Marianismo”

• In this essay from Luz magazine, Nicaraguan-American author Priscilla Blossom explores the harms of marianismo culture.
• This resource relates to the theme of Repressed Female Desire and Rebellion.
• What is “marianismo,” and how are the expectations of this culture enforced in Like Water for Chocolate? How does marianismo prevent women in the novel from expressing their true selves?

“La Cumbia del Mole”

• In this 4-minute video, Lila Downs performs her hit song “La Cumbia del Mole.” An English translation of the lyrics can be found here.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Intersection of Family and Food.
• What is the central idea of this song? How does it compare to the novel’s portrayal of the relationship between food and emotion? What similar rhetorical strategies do you see in Downs’s song and in Esquivel’s novel?

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. What is the name of Pedro and Rosaura’s son?

2. Where does Mama Elena plan to send Rosaura, Pedro, and their son?

3. What unpleasant things are in Tita and Chencha’s sausage?

4. Where does Dr. Brown take Tita, instead of putting her in the asylum?

5. Who is the elderly woman who takes care of Tita while she is ill?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What causes Pedro to miss the birth of his son?

2. Why does Mama Elena begin hiding the ranch’s food and supplies?

3. What precipitates Mama Elena’s violence that results in Tita’s broken nose?

4. What does Tita spend a night doing that causes her mother to call Dr. Brown?

5. What did John’s grandmother say is the danger of people whose lives lack passion?

Paired Resource

“Song of Myself”

• Walt Whitman’s poem celebrates the life-giving passion found in the union of the material and the immaterial; students need only read Parts 1 and 2 to appreciate its meaning.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Human Experience.
• What point is Whitman making about how the physical world acts on our spirits and emotions? How is this similar to the analogy that John’s grandmother drew between matches, candles, and people?

CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. What smell makes Tita cry when Chencha visits her at Dr. Brown’s house?

2. What kills Mama Elena?

3. What do Rosaura and Pedro name their daughter?

4. Who returns to the ranch with a new husband in Chapter 8?

5. Who curses Tita after warning her to end her affair with Pedro?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Chencha decide to tell Mama Elena instead of Tita’s message?

2. Why does Tita change her mind and return to the ranch?

3. What makes Tita so angry that the bread rises too fast and spills over the sides of the bowl?

4. What worries Tita while she is making the Three Kings’ Day bread?

5. How has Gertrudis’s life changed since she left the ranch?

Paired Resource

“Why Do We Eat Rosca de Reyes on January 6?”

• This article explains the tradition of Three Kings’ Day bread in Mexico.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Intersection of Family and Food.
• What is the history of the rosca de reyes? How does Esquivel’s use of this tradition highlight both the love and dysfunction within Tita’s family?

“Like Sustenance for the Masses: Genre Resistance, Cultural Identity, and the Achievement of Like Water for Chocolate”

• This journal article from Ethnic Studies Review explores the feminist aspect of the novel’s genre-defying composition. (Note: The final paragraphs give away the ending of Esquivel’s novel, so it may be more suited as a teacher-facing resource.)
• This resource relates to the themes of Repressed Female Desire and Rebellion and The Intersection of Family and Food.
• What point does this article make about Esquivel’s novel? How do the three sisters react differently to the repression of women in their society? How does Esquivel develop their characterizations through the emphasis on food and bodily functions?

CHAPTERS 10-12

Reading Check

1. Who causes Pedro’s burns?

2. What does Gertrudis tell Tita how to prevent?

3. When Tita refuses to end her affair with Pedro, how does Rosaura retaliate?

4. What event causes Rosaura to become sick with fury and eventually die?

5. What gift does John give Tita during the wedding preparations?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Gertrudis’s attitude toward Tita’s relationship with Pedro?

2. How does Pedro react to the news of Tita’s pregnancy?

3. What does Pedro believe about Tita’s rejection of him, and what is she really feeling?

4. Why does Tita sing to the beans she is cooking?

5. How do Rosaura and Tita differ in their approaches to Esperanza’s education?

Recommended Next Reads 

Tita’s Diary by Laura Esquivel

• This sequel to Like Water for Chocolate continues the genre-blurring tradition, blending recipes, scrapbooking, and diary entries to reveal Tita’s world—and secrets—in greater detail.
• Shared themes include Repressed Female Desire and Rebellion, The Intersection of Family and Food, and The Human Experience.
• Shared topics include magical realism, genre-blending, cultural expectations of women, romance, Catholicism, cooking, and family dynamics.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

• In this award-winning novel, the protagonist Vianne Rocher brings her delightful—and somewhat magical—chocolate shop to the small, conservative town of Lansquenet. There, she runs afoul of local religious authorities, brings passion and joy into many lives, and even finds a love of her own.
• Shared themes include Repressed Female Desire and Rebellion, The Intersection of Family and Food, and The Human Experience.
• Shared topics include magical realism, cultural expectations of women, romance, Catholicism, and cooking.    
• Chocolat on SuperSummary

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

• Claire Waverley’s catering business serves food with magical effects—perhaps due to the very special garden her family tends. When her sister Sydney returns home after many years, it upsets the balance of Claire’s life, and she finds herself growing and changing in unexpected ways.
• Shared themes include The Intersection of Family and Food and The Human Experience.
• Shared topics include magical realism, romance, cooking, and family dynamics.
• Garden Spells on SuperSummary