Power and resistance of women as the head of family in Laura Esquivel’s like water for chocolate

ABSTRACT

As Faucault said: “Where there is power, there is resistance …” Power is a technique or action which individual can engage in because it is not possessed, it is exercised. Indeed, power itself lacks any concrete form, occurring as a locus of struggle. Resistance, through defiance, defines power and hence becomes possible through power. Without resistance, power is absent.

While a woman has a power to be the ruler, there will be a resistance of it. In this research, a woman became a central character as the head of the family. That is why this research focuses on Power and Resistance of a Woman as the Head of Family in Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, this novel shows that a woman able to change the role of a man or father as the head of the family. And resistance cannot be separated from the reaction of power. Thus, this study is aimed at finding the kind of power and resistance if a family led by a woman or mother. Then, the researcher uses appropriate theory to analyze the object. The theory used is feminist literary criticism.

The researcher divided the analysis into two points. Based on the first statement of the problem, describing power of woman as the head of the family in Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. Woman’s power which belongs to Mama Elena as the head of the family since the death of her husband. The indications are three kind, Mama Elena as the Manager, leader or breadwinner, as the Protector, when she protect her family from a troop of revolutionists and bandits, and the last is her power of being the leader is as ruler or decision maker which is related to making rules in household, rules in managing her daughters’ love and life.

The result of the second question shows the resistance of Mama Elena’s power as the head of the family. The researcher found it in rebellion which indicates in three kinds, protest, disobedience and love affair. Almost of these resistance is done by the youngest daughter of Mama Elena, Tita, who often refuses or disobeys the rules that Mama Elena held in the ranch.