Knitting- by Karen Chik

Knitting is portrayed in this novel as a motif. However, the bedspread that resulted from knitting can be a symbol.

In the novel, Tita is described several times about how cold she is. Every time she gets cold, Tita uses her bedspread as a means of protection, to try and fight off the cold. The bedspread serves as a symbol of protection, or a “security blanket”. It suggests that no one can nurture and console Tita- therefore, Tita has to knit her own blanket that serves as a nurturing figure. She has to create her own shield. Pg 19 “She had to get rid of that terrible sensation of cold…she decided to use the yarn, not to let it go to waste, and so she worked on the bedspread and wept furiously, weeping and working until dawn.”

Pg 60 “Shivering, she went back to bed… so, pulling up the bedspread…” Pg 107 “A chronic chill kept her from feeling warm, in spite of being covered with her heavy woolen bedspread. One of her greatest interests was still working on the bedspread each night.”

Pg 244 “But first she had to thaw the freezing chill that was beginning to paralyze her. She got up and went running to the enormous bedspread she had woven through night after night of solitude and insomnia, and she threw it over her. It covered the whole ranch, all here hectares.”

Pg 93 “ The only thing she accomplished during this period was to quintuple the size of her enormous bedspread.”

Pg 101 “ …the enormous bedspread Tita had knit during her endless nights of insomnia…Tita grabbed it so tightly that there was no choice but to let it drag behind the carriage like the huge train of a wedding gown that stretched for a full kilometer. Tita used any yarn she happened to have…and it revealed a kaleidoscopic combination of colors, textures, and forms that appeared and disappeared as if magic in the gigantic cloud of dust that rose up behind it.”

The underlined phrases of these quotes show the magical realism aspect of the bedspread. The bedspread is described to be enormous, that “covers the whole ranch”. The size of the bedspread could represent how many problems and insecurities Tita has- the bedspread has to be this large to be able to protect her from the world. Pg 59 “…she started writing that night, after crocheting a big section of bedspread, as she did every night.”

This quote shows Tita’s role as a woman. It suggests that her knitting is almost like a chore- as she did it “every night”. It’s ironic that even though Tita doesn’t want to conform to an archetypical role of a woman (what Mama Elena wants her to be), Tita enjoys cooking and knitting, which are prime chores that women perform.