How women deal with conflict in The House of The Spirits and Like Water for Chocolate

[r.t.ib]

So I'm writing my World Lit 1 on How women deal with conflict in The House of The Spirits and Like Water for Chocolate.

Obviously I'm going to talk about the relationship, or lack thereof, between Tita and Mama Elena for Like Water for Chocolate - but I also need to talk about how she deals with it. I was thinking she uses cooking as her outlet and to manipulate as once she discovers her powers, she uses them for her own good and often harming and damaging people and their relationships. Do you have any ideas that can contribute to this, as I am kind of stuck!

For The House of The Spirits I am writing about Clara and her relationship with Esteban. After he hits her, she withdrew from the relationship by stopping all verbal communication with him. The conflict is obviously the marriage problems between the two named above, and the way she dealt with it was through withdrawal. I understand all of that, but I need to relate it all to culture as WL1 is mainly based upon culture. The stereotypes of Latin women obviously play a role in this, as Latin women are "expected" to be somewhat housewife like and non-authoritarian, but neither Clara or Tita represent this common stereotype.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can add to this, or explain further, please contribute and help. I am stuck and really have no idea how to put this all down in 1500 words. Also if you can think of any quotations that could help, please say as that would be very helpful and much appreciated.

Thank you !

[sweetnsimple786]

Asking for quotations is a bit too much help, don't you think?

You have a lot going on. Try to narrow it down to one thing--one conflict. Perhaps something like what the women want to do and what is deemed "acceptable" are conflicting. You talk about silence. This is present in both works. The women you're looking at are rebelling, but they're doing so silently/subtly yet effectively, depending on how you look at it. I don't think your essay needs to be about culture, but you should explain the importance of it, like you said. So pick a general point and outline your essay and then run with it =)

[rrswong]

I think you have to narrow down your topic a little more - like sweetnsimple said, you could do 'silence as a way for women to deal with conflict'. You also talk about Tita's cooking - if this really appeals to you, then you could do 'creativity as a way for women to deal with conflict' as Blanca does her creches, Alba her music, Clara her writing.. there's a whole generational thing you could do in THOTS for creativity.