Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter have many similarities. Specifically, Mama Elena and the Puritan community share a common theme: adhering to tradition. Therefore, hurting people in the community was a result of their reluctance to change. To suffer through tradition and power are both effects caused by the antagonists’ actions. Suffering through tradition and power appears in both novels through the personalities of Mama Elena and the Puritan Community. Mama Elena prevented Tita from marrying Pedro. She did this out of tradition, and she said, “You don’t have an opinion, and that’s all I want to hear about it. For generations, not a single person in my family has ever questioned this tradition, and no
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Mama Elena offered Pedro to marry Rosaura instead. Tita and Pedro were saddened by Mama Elena’s actions. Tita was not accepting of this incident, as “the realization of her fate struck her as forcibly as her tears struck the table”[ch.1,11]. Similarly in The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan community followed a strict set of rules passed down from their customs. Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale, and was publically condemned for her actions. The antagonists both share legitimate power. Legitimate power is power that is derived from a formal position or office held in the organization's hierarchy of authority. In other words, the higher the rank, the greater the power. Because tradition was the foundation around the antagonists’ beliefs, Elena assumed power over Tita; similarly, the Puritan community over Hester and Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale was described as being tremulous throughout the novel. He was nervous because he committed adultery with Hester, and hoped that the community will not find out. However, Roger Chillingworth attempted to find out the other adulterer’s identity, and inquired him on confession, as he stated, “Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of
Mama Elena offered Pedro to marry Rosaura instead. Tita and Pedro were saddened by Mama Elena’s actions. Tita was not accepting of this incident, as “the realization of her fate struck her as forcibly as her tears struck the table”[ch.1,11]. Similarly in The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan community followed a strict set of rules passed down from their customs. Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale, and was publically condemned for her actions. The antagonists both share legitimate power. Legitimate power is power that is derived from a formal position or office held in the organization's hierarchy of authority. In other words, the higher the rank, the greater the power. Because tradition was the foundation around the antagonists’ beliefs, Elena assumed power over Tita; similarly, the Puritan community over Hester and Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale was described as being tremulous throughout the novel. He was nervous because he committed adultery with Hester, and hoped that the community will not find out. However, Roger Chillingworth attempted to find out the other adulterer’s identity, and inquired him on confession, as he stated, “Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of