" Each person has to discover what will set off these explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul".
Tita, the main character in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate has gone through much pain and suffering in her life. Mama Elena, Tita's mother, has been cruel and ruthless with Tita, causing her great emotional distress. After living many years under Mama Elena's strict rules and harsh treatment, Tita left her home and went to live with John Brown, a respected doctor. John helps rehabilitate Tita's tired, lifeless soul, he helps her became a free woman who could do as she pleased and did not have to answer to her tyrannical mother. One day when John is making matches he tells her a theory his native American grandmother had; she believed everyone was born with a box of matches which are lighted up each time someone experiences a strong emotion. .
It is here when John speaks the passage mentioned above in a loving, sensitive way; he cares a lot for Tita and does not want to upset her in any way. These lines have a very strong effect on Tita, it makes her reflect on her life, on the fact she has never been able to express her love for Pedro, her brother in law, freely. Every time she had felt a strong emotion caused by Pedro, such as the time he confessed to Tita he had married Rosaura just so he could be near her, she had to put and end to her emotion immediately because Mama Elena was always near and vigilant of Tita. Mama Elena made sure Tita was never close to Pedro in any way, she made Tita's life so miserable it is possible she destroyed Tita's box of matches forever. .
Tita realizes what a joyless life she had been leading since Pedro left to America, she had nothing to live for until John rescued her and opened a new door of life and possibilities for her. Tita has had no way to express her feelings openly, she had to express herself through cooking; her clearest expression of feeling is when she cooks the quail in rose petal sauce, all her love, her passion, her desire to be with Pedro is present in this meal, she indirectly lit a match in cooking this meal.
