The Kick Essays

The Kick Essays The Kick Essay The Kick Essay Essay Topic: Like Water for Chocolate Immortality Through Stories Stories allow people to continue living after death. Story telling is often how people remember someone who has passed away. In both the novel Like Water for Chocolate and the film Big Fish, magical realism is used for story telling to make the stories more engaging and entertaining, which make them more likely to be told again. People live on through their stories and in this way can become immortal because of the use of magical realism in storying telling. Esquivel relies on magical realism to tell the stories of Tita and this allows Titas ookbook to be read and remembered by Esperanzas daughter. The cookbook could easily be seen as Just a book of recipes but the use of magical realism transforms the recipes into telling the story of Titas interred love. Each recipe recounts a different incident in Titas dramatic life describing her forbidden love for Pedro and the satanic Mama Elena. There is an art to how magical realism is used and Chencha understands this when she says Anything could be true or false, depending on whether one believed it (Esquivel 127). This sums up Chenchas reasoning for aking up stories. Chencha is known for her tendency to embellish stories and tell half-truths. Burdened by the responsibility of telling Mama Elena that Tita refuses to return home, Chencha considers whether she must tell Mama Elena the truth. She decides to tell Mama Elena a different version of the truth instead so as not to be the bearer of bad news. Esquivel uses magical realism to alter the truths of stories and make the more interesting to whoever listens to the stories. Esperanza keeps Tita alive when she reads her cook book, which is full of recipes that can be understood s stories with the use of magical realism. Similar to Like Water for Chocolate, the film Big Fish relies on magical realism in storytelling. Big Fish mainly describes the life of Edward Bloom by recounting the stories of his life. Edwards life has consisted primarily of unbelievable and convoluted stories, which rely on magical realism, that his son Will finds hard to believe. Will is trying to identify with his father and find out who he really is before he dies. Will becomes frustrated because he thinks his father has made up all of hese stories and he doesnt know what his father is really like. Edward Bloom repeatedly tells Will he has not made up any of the stories and doesnt know what Will wants from him. However, when Will is visiting his father on his deathbed, he has a sudden epiphany realizing that his father uses magical realism in his stories to make them more entertaining and give them a better chance to be told again. Wills last words to his dad are youre a big fish in a small pond (Big Fish). Will understands that his dad didnt do exactly everything he said in his stories but there s a truth in all of them. His dad is a big fish but in a small pond. Edward wants to be remembered for his stories and magical realism makes that possible. When people pass away, they are often remembered in stories told about them. Storytelling can allow people to become immortal because they live on through their stories. Both Tita and Edward Bloom are remembered in the stories told about them magical realism are more likely to be told again, keeping the subject of the story alive. In this way, storytelling with magical realism will allow people to become immortal.