Magical Realism

The method in which the chief genre of the book, magical realism, is portrayed throughout the chapter “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” is mainly through the character Gertrudis.

The events that take place before magical realism takes place are all conveyed as natural and ordinary such as the cooking of the rose petal sauce and the primitive shower. The point of this helps build suspense as it just gives the reader a natural feeling about the cooking and the shower and that they are nothing special. Magical realism kicks in when Esquivel mentions that the meal that Tita cooks emits a gluttonous sexual desire for all of those that ate it. As magical realism is elements which may be essentially reasonable but are never explained, the sexual desire that runs through the bodies of those that tasted the rose petal sauce becomes accepted rather than questioned.

When the meal is complete, Gertrudis goes and prepares a shower to get rid of the pink sweat and rose-scented aroma she gives off. The strong power of her heat and passion from the arousing meal causes the water from the primitive shower to evaporate without making contact with her making her unable to enjoy the shower drops and eventually sets the shower on fire. Escaping naked from the burning shower, Gertrudis is picked up onto a galloping horse by the soldier in the revolutionary army, who was drawn into the area by her stimulating scent. The method in which Gertrudis is affected by the magical food that Tita cooks, the fact that her sweat is pink, her heat and passion evaporating the shower drops and setting the shower on fire, her stimulating scent diffusing all the way to the revolutionary army are all clearly fantastical and exemplifies the novel's magical realism.