When Tita heard that Mama Elena asks Pedro and his family to move to San Antonio, it repress her. Tita does not want to separate with her nephew. It is shown
in the novel, “Those words echoed like cannons inside Tita’s head. She couldn’t let it
happen. They couldn’t take the child away from her now. She had to keep that from ever happening.” p.80.
Tita’s pain that she has to be separated with her nephew, is shown when the milk in Tita’s breasts was dry up, and she wonders who was feeding Roberto in San
Antonio, and also when Tita cannot sleep, because Tita always thought about Roberto. It is shown in the novel,
The milk in her breasts had dried up overnight from the pain of her separation from her nephew. As she looked for worms, she kept wondering who was
feeding Roberto and how he was eating. Those thoughts tortured her night and day. She hadn’t been able to sleep, for a whole month p.93.
Tita’s pain when she has to be separated with her nephew, Roberto, shows that Tita subconsciously keep anxious thought, because she cannot take care of her
nephew anymore, which is same with the definition of repression based on Freudian Repression Definition and Overview
that repression refers to subconsciously keep anxious thoughts and impulses out of consciousness.
When Tita heard that her nephew, Roberto, was died in San Antonio. After Tita heard it, the anxious thought which is Tita keeps in her unconscious, it impulses
out of consciousness through blaming Mama Elena, who killed Roberto, and also saying to her mother that she feels sick of obeying her mother, which become her
first reaction against her mother’s rule. It is shown in the novel, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Tita felt a violent agitation take possession of her being: still fingering the sausage, she calmly met her mother’s gaze and then, instead of obeying her
order, she started to tear apart all the sausages she could reach, screaming wildly. “Here’s what I do with your orders I’m sick of them I’m sick of
obeying you” “You did it, you killed Roberto” screamed Tita p.99.
Mama Elena’s rule of marriage for Tita can be categorized as the third part of psyche, the superego. According to Bressler 1998:31, the superego serves as
filtering agent, suppressing the desires forbidden by society and thrusting them back into the unconscious. Overall, superego manifests itself through punishment.
Therefore, in the novel Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena gives the rule of marriage for Tita in order to suppress the id or the desire of Tita to get married to
her lover, Pedro Muzquiz, which then thrusting them back into the unconscious mind of Tita.
According to Carl Jung 1951:104, the personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences of one particular
individual. Therefore, those third rules which are not related to the rule of marriage can be concluded as personal unconscious, because those third rules are formed by
Tita’s personal experiences, which made by Mama Elena herself.
C. The Reactions of Tita against Her Mother’s Rules
According to Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist in Theories of Personality Seventh Edition
2008:24 states that the unconscious process often enter into consciousness but only after being disguised or distorted enough to elude
censorship. To enter the conscious level of the mind, these unconscious images, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
first past the primary censor, then they enter to the conscious. These unconscious images have strong sexual or aggressive motifs, because childhood sexual and
aggressive behaviors are frequently punished or suppressed. Punishment and suppression often create feelings of anxiety, and the anxiety in turn stimulates
repression. Based on Feist-Feist in Theories of Personality Seventh Edition 2008:24,
the unconscious of Tita is her disguised desire to get married to Pedro that want to be revealed in and through the conscious. However, to enter the the conscious level
of the mind, Tita’s disguised desire past the primary censor, which can be represented as the food. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate
, Tita’s desire to get married to Pedro is hindered
by her mother through her mother’s rule of marriage. Consequently, Tita disguise her desire in the form of food to express her emotions,
because it serves as a medium which emotions can be transmitted. For example, Tita makes a wedding cake in
Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding, which describes her sorrow towards Pedro and also Tita makes a quail in rose petal sauce, which is the
quail itself symbolizes Tita’s broken heart towards Pedro. Those foods can be
represented as the primary censor, because the aim of the primary censor is to prevent the unconscious desire of Tita become preconscious by throwing the
unconscious desire of Tita back into the unconscious. Those foods, which both of them show Tita’s sorrow towards Pedro, can prevent the strong childhood sexual
of Tita or the unconscious desire of Tita to be with Pedro become preconscious by throwing them back into the unconscious. The unconscious desire of Tita has a
strong childhood sexual, because when Tita was fifteen years old, she wants to get PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
married to Pedro. However, the childhood sexual of Tita is suppressed through her mother’s rule of marriage, which can make Tita feels anxiety, especially when she
has to be separated with her nephew, Roberto. Therefore, Tita ’s anxiety come into
the conscious level of mind, especially through her first reactions that she feels sick of obeying her mother.
The reactions of Tita against her mother’s rule can be categorized as the ego, because according to Abrams in
“Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism. A Glossary of Literary Terms
1999:248, when Mama Elena forbids Tita’s sexual
libidinal wishes to be with Pedro, it comes into the conflict with, and repressed into the unconscious realm of the artist’s mind, therefore Tita makes some efforts
to be with Pedro. For instance, even though the love between Tita and Pedro is forbidden by Mama Elena, but it never stopped them to communicate each other.
They takes every opportunity they can in order to communicate each other. Besides, Tita also gave big efforts to be with Pedro through her four reactions in order to
break her mother’s rules. In addition, Hall in his book A Primer of Freudian Psychology 1954:31
gives an example that when the id imagines some food because the individual is hungry, the ego tries to motivate the individual to get some food to eat. Based on
this theory, in the novel Like Water for Chocolate, the writer wants to show that when Tita wants to be with Pedro, she has some motivations to be with Pedro by
breaking her mother’s rule. There are four actions, which described as the motivations of Tita to be with Pedro.
The first reaction of Tita is caused by the death of her nephew, Roberto. It is proven in the novel that when she heard that Mama Elena asks Pedro and his family
to move to San Antonio. The separation between Tita De la Garza and her nephew, Roberto, devastates her. A short time later, news arrives that Roberto has died, most
likely due to his removal from Tita’s care. The death of her nephew causes Tita to have a breakdown. It is shown in the novel,
“Tita felt a violent agitation take possession of her being: still fingering the sausage, she calmly met her mother’s gaze and then, instead of obeying her
order, she started to tear apart all the sausages she could reach, screaming wildly. “Here’s what I do with your orders I’m sick of them I’m sick of
obeying y ou”p.99.
This is the boiling point of Tita’s action which is same with the meaning of the title phrase ‘like water for chocolate’, which may be used to refer to anger, such
as being ‘boiling mad’. The
‘boiling point’ of Tita’s action in disobeying her mother’s rule is that finally she can not say anything and got naked in the dovecote and holding the
pigeon. It is shown in the novel, Dr Brown found Tita naked, her nose broken, her whole body with pigeon
droppings. A few feathers were clinging to her skin and hair. As soon as she saw the doctor, she ran to the corner and curled up in a fetal position p.100.
This first reaction is made by Tita after she feels anxiety that she has to be separated with her nephew, Rober
to, and Tita’s anxiety comes into her unconscious mind, then it is impulsed out of consciousness through this first action. This first
reaction also shows that Tita already wants to break her mother’s rules.
The second reaction of Tita is after her mother sends her away, Tita experiences a life of freedom and love from Dr. John Brown. She gains the strength
to oppose her mother. During the time that she spends with Dr. John Brown, she gains her own outlook on life and the ability to make her own decision. Tita stands
up for herself and claims her independence by declaring the only thing that she really wants is to be free from Mama Elena. She reacts against her mother’s rule by
eventually refusing to stay with her mother. It is shown in page 118, “The only
thing she was absolutely sure about was that she did not want to return to the ranch. She never wanted to live near Mama Elena again.”
In addition, she also hopes her mother dead. It is shown in the novel, While she was in her hiding place, she had prayed that nothing bad would
happen to Mama Elena, but unconsciously, she had hoped that when she got out she would find her mother dead. p.92.
The third reaction of Tita is when Mama Elena falls ill and Tita returns to the ranch to take care of her. Although Tita
’s return seems like she is fulfilling the tradition that her mother dooms her to, Tita ensures that she remains in control of
her life and holds no obligation to her mother. While at the ranch, It was a relief to delegate to Chencha the painful duty of caring for her mother,
so that she was free to start embroidering the bedsheets for her trousseau. She had decided to marry John as soon as her mother was better p.133.
Tita stays true to her new found independence and proceeds with her plans to wed Dr. John Brown. It is shown in the novel
