Name ______Period______
Literary Lens Focus Questions
(Questions 1-3 formalist, 4-6 psychological, 7-9 feminist, 10-12 archetypal)
1. What do the kitchen and food preparation symbolize for Tita? List two examples of food/cooking being used to describe Tita's feelings.
2. What is the significance of white in chapter 2?
3. Contrast Tita's image at the beginning of chapter 4 (pages 66-67) with the image of her in the dovecote at the end of page 100. Why is she defeated? What has she lost?
4. On pages 26-27, what psychological effect does the egg beating have on Tita? What psychological effect does the castration of the chicken have on Tita?
5. What did Tita think about being the only one present for Roberto's birth? Why did it make her think of Nacha (pages 70-71)?
6. Why does Chenca find Tita holding a dead pigeon (page 100)?
7. What adjectives would you use to describe Mama Elena, Tita, Gertrudis, and Rosaura? Use textual evidence to support your answer.
8. How can we understand Gertrudis' behavior in chapter 3 as feminist, rather than patriarchal?
9. What could be a feminist explanation of the breastfeeding in chapter 4?
10. Esquivel writes, “unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro. After she died, no one ever came close to accomplishing the same feats, with the watermelon” (page 97). Does Mama Elena remind you of anyone you have seen in history, movies, television, or works of literature?
11. Why did Tita take a pigeon and a pail of worms and crawl into the dovecote? How do you think this will affect her future?
12. What is the significance of Chencha running alongside the carriage and tossing Tita her “enormous bedspread” (page 101) as Dr. Brown took her away?