1. Aim: How does Tita’s food affect people? Do Now: Write about a time where a smell, a sound, or a sight brought you back to another time. What was the memory that came to you?

2. “The revolution made it impossible to travel in safety…” p. 32 What is going on in the outside world? How does what is going on in the outside world relate to what is going on with Tita? Microcosm vs. Macrocosm Microcosm: small world Macrocosm: large world

3. Microcosm vs. Macrocosm

4. “The moment they took their first bite of cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing.” p. 39 Magical Realism makes it possible for the senses to be highly sensitive to the emotions Tita has put in her food. People have literal reactions to her food as if the her emotions are actual ingredients.

5. “…she burst into tears and ran from the room.” p. 48 Why did Rosaura run out of the room in tears when Pedro presented Tita with a bouquet of flowers? What did she realize? What else about Rosaura makes her sensitive about Tita and Pedro? Will it be possible for Tita and Pedro to pursue their love with the situation they are in? Do you think Pedro made the right choice? What is an alternative?

6. “Rosaura, saying she was feeling sick and getting nauseous, barely took three bites. But something strange was happening to Gertrudis.” p. 51 What was happening to Gertrudis in the quote? How do we explain why Rosaura and Gertrudis had different reactions to Tita’s dish? How does Pedro react to Tita’s dish? What is the line from the text that indicates the answer? “It is a dish from the gods.” p.51

7. “With that meal it seemed they had discovered a new system of communication, in which Tita was the transmitter, Pedro the receiver, and poor Gertrudis the medium, the conducting body through which the singular sexual message was passed.” p. 52 How are Tita and Pedro able to communicate intimately?

8. “Her body was giving off so much heat that the wooden walls began to split and burst into flame.” – p. 54 How is Magical Realism used in the description of Gertrudis’s reaction to Tita’s dish? How can we compare the use of hot and cold in this novel? If Gertrudis feels heat in this moment, can you find the moment in the same chapter where a character feels cold? “Tita therefore began to hope that if she could find the one star amount all the stars in the sky – that her sister was watching right this minute, it might reflect a little leftover heat onto her.” – p. 60