Descripción de personajes en ‘Como agua para chocolate’.
Guía para describir a los personajes con mejores mátices para
mejorar las habilidades de análisis crítico.
Knowing the names and who is who in a novel seems good enough.
However, when engaging in the complex task of structuring a critical
essay analyzing and contrasting their personalities, sometimes, even
though we are very aware and feel of several layers and shades of a
character, we lose precision and instead resort to overgeneralizations or
simplistic, pedestrian vocabulary that doesn’t really reflect the
complexity of their personalities, as none of them are entirely either
‘bad’ or ‘good’ characters.
So, it can prove to be a difficult task to pinpoint them with precision if
we lack the vocabulary, risking our good ideas or insights not to be fairly
recognized. Therefore, it is essential that you have in your inventory, not
only a good application of grammar structures, or sentence starters, but
also more speficic adjectives which, not only gives the characters a
greater dimension but also describe with more nuanced details. Writers,
novelists have the gift of knowing how the careful choice of words,
adjectives, verb, etc can describe a character with more depth and
precision or add greater poignancy to a given situation (and this is at the
core of Laura Esquivel’s literary tecniques, her Even the characters
themselves exhibits opposite emotions, which makes the dynamics
between them more complex to navigate as human emotions are very
rarely fixed and stable. Below I show a list (by no means exhaustive)
with some examples that you should regularly use when drafting your
essays.
Task 1. Translate the adjectives into English and then decide which fit
which character allocating numbers (1-4) for the level to which an
individual displays this characteristic. See the examples I’ve done already.
Fuerte – strong, strong-willed
temeroso/a cariñoso/a -
Mamá Elena-4
Tita-4
Nacha-4
1
valiente resoluto/a iluso/a –
supersticioso/a –
protector/a desconcertado/a ingenioso/a –
desaliñado/a frágil avispado/a seductor/a estoico/a autoritario/a vengativo/a prepotente tétrico/a coqueto/a puro/a astuto/a –
bondadoso/a superficial rebelde realista solidario/a –
autosuficiente –
justo/a práctico/a Inteligente –
luchador/a –
cauteloso/a –
ingenuo/a –
traumatizado/a –
descarada arcaica arriesgado/a coherente progresista Íntegra Add some more adjectives that provide
more poignancy when struc
Gertrudis-4
Pedro-4
Rosaura-3
Chencha-4
John-3
2
Task 2. Ejemplos de cómo describir y contrastar la dualidad de la
personalidad de un personaje.
(Translate the following examples into English)
1. Descubrimos que Tita es coherente en todo cuando vemos lo
rebelde que se muestra tanto con su madre, como con Pedro.
2. Gertrudis, la hermana de Tita, demuestra que es valiente y
descarada cuando se marcha del rancho con el hombre que quiere
y regresa más tarde como generala.
3. Al comienzo de la novela, tenemos la impresión de que Rosaura es
solamente ilusa, pero a medida que avanza nos damos cuenta de
que, además, es vengativa.
4. Al conocer el pasado de Mamá Elena, nos damos cuenta de las
causas que la llevaron a ser tan astuta y autoritaria.
5.
6. Cuando Mamá Elena se le aparece, podemos ver hasta qué punto
Tita está traumatizada.
7.
8. Por un lado, el personaje de John parece demasiado bondadoso,
pero si consideramos su estilo de vida más detenidamente vemos
lo progresista que es.
9.
10.Aunque Pedro parece sobradamente seductor, sus actuaciones
demuestran que sus sentimientos por Tita son resolutos.
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Task 3. Escribe tus propios ejemplos para demostrar el carácter de
estos protagonistas.
Task 4. Translate the following examples into Spanish
1. In spite of the fact that Mamá Elena bears some trauma, she is
also incredibly feisty.
2. Throughout the novel, Rosaura appears to be traditional and
naïve. And yet, she is also considerably vindictive, as shown by the
life arrangements she puts in place for all of them.
3. Although Gertrudis’s behaviour is undoubtedly questionable, we
soon grow to like her for being so brave and self-sufficient.
4. John shows us that he, too, is protective of Tita by always being
kind to her.
4