Some say that the relationship a mother has with her daughter is the strongest bond in the world. However, this strong relationship can either be empowering or detrimental to the daughter’s life. In Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, we see how a mother’s overbearing and dominating ideas about how her daughter should live creates tension and hostility between the two. Contrasting this, the women in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, regard motherhood so highly that they would never jeopardize their relationship with their daughters. Both of these novels also demonstrate how a mother-daughter bond can exist between two people who are not biologically mother and daughter. In Herland, childbirth and mothering is the highest calling. One woman of Herland explains, "Here we have Human Motherhood--in full working use." When Herland women bear children, it is the result of "a great tender limitless uplifting force" and "a period of utter exaltation [when] the whole being is uplifted and filled with concentrated desire." Birth, to them becomes a central experience that forms the core of their religious belief. Therefore, motherhood in Herland was not a chore or something forced upon women by the norms of society, but a way of living. The women of Herland believed that every child should have the ability to live in an equal and positive nurturing and learning environment. Their decisions were not based on what must be done to make sure all the children are raised appropriately. Despite the centrality of motherhood, a different philosophy of child care is practiced by the women. As Vandyck Jennings came to discover, "You see, children were the--the raison d'etre in this country" and all women in Herland shared child-raising duties. Children were not considered property of the mother alone, but rather, the responsibility of the community. As children grew, they were taught "...Peace, Beauty, Order, Safety, Love, Wisdom, Justice, Patience, and Plenty. "The big difference," as Jennings describes, "... our children grow up in private homes and families, with every effort made to protect and seclude them from a dangerous world, here they grew up in a wide, friendly world, and knew it for theirs, from the first." Herland babies stayed with their mothers for the first year, but were thereafter cared for by the rest of the community. Herland spaces were also designed to be safe for infants and children. "The houses and gardens, planned for babies, had in them nothing to hurt--no stairs, no corners, no small loose objects to swallow, no fire--just a babies' paradise." Women of the utopia in Herland wanted to make sure that the children of had a unique and special bond to every woman who helped them develop. Every woman played the role of mother to each young girl until she became an adult. Through this they were able to have another familial bond of sisterhood. In Like Water For Chocolate, the role Tita’s mother, Mama Elena, plays is significantly less nurturing and caring than the mothers in Herland. For Tita, family tradition requires that she reject her suitor Pedro’s marriage proposal so she can stay at home and take care of her widowed mother for the rest of her life. If she turns her back on this tradition, not only will she damage the ties she is forced to create with her mother, but she will not fulfill what society considers her responsibility to her mother. Family in her culture is everything, and to go against her mother’s wishes is to go against the rest of her family. In order to fulfill her responsibilities toward her mother, Tita must obey her. Mama Elena makes harsh demands on Tita throughout her life and expects her to obey without question. Tita has never had the “proper deference” towards her mother, Mama Elena feels, and so she is particularly harsh on her youngest daughter. Even when Tita sews “perfect creation” for the wedding, Mama Elena makes her rip out the seam and do it over because she did not baste it first, as Mama instructed. Mama Elena abuses her dominate role as Tita’s mother when she decides that Pedro will marry Rosaura. Unfortunately for Tita’s her true mother figure, Nacha, dies. The death of Nacha leaves Tita alone and without a confidant in the domain of the family kitchen. She cannot look to her mother for comfort and support, like most daughters do. Tita knew but couldn’t understand why her mother was so cruel to her, “Mama Elena was merciless, killing with a single blow. But then again, not always. For Tita she had made an exception; she had been killing her a little at a time since she was a child, and she still hadn’t finished her off.” Tita soon learns what it feels like to have a maternal bond to a child with her sister’s baby boy. Tita develops a special bond with Roberto right from the beginning. When Rosaura goes into labour, Tita is the only one around and she is forced to help deliver him. She is forever touched by this moment, as she describes her emotions, "The baby’s cries filled all the empty space in Tita’s heart. She realized that she was feeling a new love: for life, for this child, for Pedro, even for he sister she had despised for so long". Her attachment even becomes stronger when Rosaura is unable to produce milk and the wet nurse dies. Miraculously, Tita is able to feed Roberto by herself. Tita is able to take the infant and nurse him in spite of the fact that she has not given birth. Her breasts are filled with milk not because she wishes she were the other of the child, but because the child needs to eat and she is the provider of food. Tita shares the same role of provider and nurturer as Nacha did, despite not being the biological mother. Tita begins to rely on Roberto for unconditional love, and in turn, Roberto becomes strongly attached to Tita. Realizing this ever deepening connection, Mama Elena put’s a stop to it by sending Rosaura, Pedro and Roberto off to San Antonio. The distance that is put between Tita and Roberto propels Tita into a deep depression. She is no longer able to provide for the infant. The effect is even worse on Roberto and he dies as a result of the separation. The infant won’t eat and dies of physical and emotional starvation. Roberto has no ties to Rosaura, and can not live. Tita’s motherly instincts also take control when Rosaura gives birth to her second child, Esperanza. Tita and Esperanza have even a stronger bond than Roberto and Tita shared. This is due to the fact that they have much in common from the beginning. Esperanza is born three months premature, like Tita. Esperanza, also being the only daughter, is forced to take care of her mother, following in the footsteps of Tita and. This greatly upsets Tita and she is furious at her sister for following the absurd tradition and will do anything to stop her from following it. Due to the bad shape that Rosaura was in after giving birth, Tita once again was left to take care of the baby. Esperanza spent most of her time with Tita in the kitchen. She grew up surrounded by the same smells and the warmth of the kitchen. Despite all the commonalities Esperanza and Tita have, Esperanza’s life takes all of the good turns that Tita’s was unable to take. She does not have to experience the type of mother that Mama Elena was because of Rosaura’s early death. Esperanza’s destiny is the one that Tita should have had, but due to an unloving mother, one that she was unable to experience. Tita didn’t miss out completely though, through her strong love for Esperanza she lived through Esperanza’s experiences.

Works Cited
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate: a Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies. New York: Anchor, 1995. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, and Denise D. Knight. Herland, The Yellow Wall-paper, and Selected Writings. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.