Like Water for Chocolate: Chapter 6: June Summary & Analysis

Tita is with Dr. Brown in his laboratory, watching as he makes matches from wood strips and phosphorous. Instead of obeying Mama Elena, John Brown brought Tita to live with him and his small child, Alex. John had been married before, but his wife died. Tita feels grateful to John for rescuing and caring for her, but she has chosen to remain silent so that she can think about everything that has happened. When she first arrived, she spent hours staring at her hands, stunned to realize that they belonged to her and not Mama Elena. After a life of endless work, Tita doesn’t know what to do with them now. Each day, she would crochet the bedspread with the yarns John bought her. One day, she wandered into a room outside, where an old Indian woman was making tea. She went each day to sit with the old woman, who reminded her of Nacha.

Slowly as Tita regains her lucidity, the room where Tita watched the old woman cook transforms into the laboratory where she watches John perform his experiments. Tita doesn’t question this transformation in her perception of reality. John tells Tita that his interest in science came from his grandmother, Morning Light, a Kikapu Indian who loved to study the medicinal properties of plants. During battle, his grandfather had kidnapped Morning Light and made her his wife. His North-American family despised Morning Light and took no interest in her culture. This changed when John’s great-grandfather got sick with lung disease. After his great-grandmother Mary worsened his condition by applying leeches, Morning Light saved him with her healing powers and herbal remedies. She earned the respect of the family, who treated her thereafter as their “family doctor.”

While teaching Tita to make matches using phosphorous, John explains the philosophy of Morning Light. Everyone has a box of matches inside their soul. A loved one’s breath is the “oxygen.” Music, food, or any sensory experience that kindles emotion is the candle. When a loved one’s nearness is combined with one of these experiences, an inner match is lit. Left unlit, the matches will dampen, and the soul will leave. If lit all at once, the explosion creates a bright tunnel that carries the soul away. People with cold breath can kill the flame. Tita cries, and John wipes her tears. Tita then realizes that the old woman from before is Morning Light’s ghost. John asks Tita to write the cause for her silence on the wall with her fingers, claiming he will later divine her words. In reality, phosphorous (which John has just been working with to make matches) leaves behind a powder that glows in the dark. That night, John smiles when he sneaks into the lab to read her words: “Because I don’t want to.” Tita wonders if her matches will ever be lit again.