As many writers do, both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Laura Esquivel utilize a biased speaker in order to manipulate the reader’s interpretation of certain characters. In her novel, Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel’s narrator shows a sympathetic bias towards Tita, and leads the reader to condemn Mama Elena, the force which acts upon Tita. Similarly, the speaker in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter evokes sympathy in the reader for Hester, and establishes within the reader a sense of dislike for the Puritan officials. The bias of these narrators causes the novels to be alike in that the reader finds him or herself anticipating the downfall of the antagonizing force and the rise of the main character, who until the turning point is the subordinated force in the novel. Throughout Like Water for Chocolate, the narrator establishes a sense of
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One instance of this is the reader’s reaction to Mama Elena’s death in Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel describes the deceased as “the major obstacle to [Tita and Pedro’s] union” (139). At this point in the text the reader may find him or herself a bit ashamed of being so enthusiastic over a character’s death; however this is the author’s intent: to lead the reader to side with the protagonist of the story. The reader experiences another moment of victory in Chapter 13 of The Scarlet Letter, when the authors writes that “[Hester] cast away the fragments of a broken chain”(113), a symbol that Hester is distancing herself from the Puritan community’s scorn. In Like Water for Chocolate and The Scarlet Letter, the reader anxiously awaits the moment when the main character will rise up against the antagonizing force; this is an effect of the narrator’s bias which results in the strong similarities between the two
One instance of this is the reader’s reaction to Mama Elena’s death in Like Water for Chocolate, Esquivel describes the deceased as “the major obstacle to [Tita and Pedro’s] union” (139). At this point in the text the reader may find him or herself a bit ashamed of being so enthusiastic over a character’s death; however this is the author’s intent: to lead the reader to side with the protagonist of the story. The reader experiences another moment of victory in Chapter 13 of The Scarlet Letter, when the authors writes that “[Hester] cast away the fragments of a broken chain”(113), a symbol that Hester is distancing herself from the Puritan community’s scorn. In Like Water for Chocolate and The Scarlet Letter, the reader anxiously awaits the moment when the main character will rise up against the antagonizing force; this is an effect of the narrator’s bias which results in the strong similarities between the two