One of the chief aspects that authors take into account when constructing their stories are relationships.  Relationships between characters, in some way, either add to or take away from tension within the text.  The main characters from each novel, Laura Esquivel's Tita of Like Water for Chocolate and Isabel Allende's Blanca of The House of the Spirits, are both being suffocated by an authoritative parent.  However, there is a mother figure present in each text that balances out this friction.  Thusly, for every negative aspect resulting from a hazardous relationship between characters there is a mother-daughter relationship that balances it out and brings affection and understanding to the certain character's life.

    The dominating parental figure in Like Water for Chocolate is Mama Elena, Tita's mother.  Mama Elena destroys many of Tita's hopes and dreams.  The hope...