Jane the Virgin series started with Jane, the main character of the series who works at a hotel to finance her studies and saving herself for marriage. She was so passionate about becoming a teacher that she was doing everything steps by step so that nothing ruined her career but her life was turned upside down when she was accidentally artificially inseminated by a distraught doctor. 

The first episode was so good that it made me want to watch the next episode before writing the response but besides watching it as just some enjoyable series there were so many good lessons there.

One of the most iconic scenes from this series would be where Jane’s grandmother taught her how important virginity is for women even as an example she used a white flower to make her understand that once the flower is ruined there is no coming back. I think this scene reminds us a lot about our culture of any nationality and how society thinks about this matter. It is always a big deal in every culture of a woman’s virginity. Even in some cultures, women have a lot to prove that they are virgins to their newlywed husband which is so disrespectful as there’s never any question about a man’s virginity.

This series gives us an important lesson about teen pregnancy also. It is beautiful to have a child but the timeline should be correct because a lot of teen pregnancy puts the teen into losing their career and education. They have to sacrifice their whole career for the baby because in most cases the father does not involve even in some cases the teen mom got kicked out of the house so it becomes hard for them to take care of the baby alone.

Jane and her mother’s relationship is very sweet. They support each other and give each other value but her mother had to give up her career to give Jane her best life. So when Jane got pregnant she had to think over and over again because she did not want to turn like her mother by that she meant she did not want to ruin her career by having a baby! And on the other hand, Petra manipulates Rafael and Jane by having this baby. 

A person should never be addressed as “unwanted” or “a mistake”. Jane is a perfect example of that because her whole life she knew that it was not wanted still she did not give up. She fought for a better life for herself. She had her beliefs. This series teaches us so many valuable life lessons. Not many shows tackle faith the way Jane the Virgin does. Jane the Virgin by no means lacks sauciness, though, but it also shows that sex isn’t the only important thing in a relationship. It exemplifies that preserving your virginity because of your religion is perfectly acceptable and does not define one’s entire identity because if people meant to stay in your life they will stay with you forever no matter what because sex is NOT the most important thing in a relationship, nor will it matter to your partner if you choose to not participate in such activity if they really love you. 

Everyone has their own belief, and they should not let go of that for someone else’s happiness. In this series, Jane showed us how to handle unexpected things in life because life is all about surprise and as humans we have to find a way to live with unexpected things.  So I don’t think it is a great pleasure because it gives us so many life lessons in a way where you would be surprised that you are enjoying it as a random series like any other but these things are actually happening in our society every day.

Discussion Post

In Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, the themes of food, love, and family are explored through the lens of culture. For Mexican culture, in particular, it is customary for the mom to pass down her culinary skills along with recipes to her daughter.  However in Like Water for Chocolate, Tita’s mother is physically present but emotionally absent and so Nacha, the house cook, must step up and play her role as mother, kindling Tita’s love for the kitchen.  Being born on a kitchen table established Tita’s relationship with the kitchen and cemented her belief of it as a sacred place. Unlike her sisters who disregard the divine atmosphere of the kitchen, Tita holds it very close to her heart. And as a result, every meal Tita cooks or helps to cook alongside Nacha has been not only tasty but significant and memorable.

Upon realizing the power her food has on others and how she is able to display her emotions through cooking, she attempts to use it as a means of communication. We are first introduced to a meal with emotions in “February,” as all those who eat the wedding cake seem to have been brought down by the emotion of sorrow – Tita’s sorrow ( Esquivel 39-41) .  However, she gets in trouble by Mama Elena as she accuses her of mixing an emetic, or adding another ingredient, to her sister’s wedding cake. After wondering what else could have caused this reaction, Tita can only assume that it was her tears, the only other ingredient in the wedding cake, that made everyone else feel the emotions of heartbreak and sorrow. As the book goes on, we reach the month of March and find Tita being obliged to cook for Pedro and the rest of her family as Rosaura, her sister, comparatively isn’t the best cook. Although Rosaura tries to cook, everyone subtly diminishes her cooking skills by saying “ for her first time it’s not too bad.”  This mediocre meal consequently had them sick that same afternoon and had them wishing for some of Tita’s cooking.  

Pedro, the man whose love for Tita had been denied for the sake of tradition, tastes Tita’s dish and we see that she is capable of transferring a broader amount of emotion. Although experienced differently by everyone there, the genereal emotion was erotic in nature. On page 52 it says “He[Pedro] let Tita penetrate to the farthest corners of his being, and all the while they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.” From this alone we can assume that Tita will continue to take advantage of her power by adding all her emotions for Pedro into her meals.  That way, she could share herself and he can feel them without having to directly interact or worry about hiding their love. The narrator describes the situation saying “With that meal 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.” (52) And in doing so the author demonstrates that love will always find a way.

Word Count: 524

Watching the first episode did remind me of a telenovela, which is what the producers were aiming for. It was an interesting pilot because so much happened in such little time; although, it did give us the background information on the characters instead of making us wait for it to come out later (such as knowing that cancer was why Rafael had his sperm frozen). I really liked the dynamic between Jane and Xiomara because it shown how Xiomara is more of a go-with-the-flow kind of person and Jane is more responsible and acts as more of an adult. The viewer can still see that they love each other, even though they are different. Petra was surprisingly the best character for me because she was deceiving and smart about what she did. She knew what she had to do to get Rafael to stick with her, she was able to listen to Rafael and his sister talking about her without them realizing, she knew how to play the innocent, loyal wife perfectly and she was able to make manipulate Rafael with how she worded what she said and how she said them. Having someone narrate thought out the episode and having notes write about each character as if they were screenwriting give it an interesting touch because its narrators making comments about the future add suspense to everything and make them viewer more interested and hoping for more. I think that this pilot was good, and it honestly makes me want to continue watching and finishing the season just to see how everything comes together.  The beginning where Jane’s grandmother talks about virginity and how once she loses it, she can’t get it back was hilarious because of the use of a white flower, white being used because white is usually a symbol of purity which virginity supposedly means. When Jane and Michael are on her bed making out, she looks up at the flower, which is supposed to represent her virginity, and sees a petal fall off it is meant to show that she is becoming “unpure” it was interesting to see how they were able to incorporate the flower during her make out scene and make her aware of what was happening. According to the dictionary, a guilty pleasure is something such as a tv show that one enjoys but believes isn’t “held in high regard”. Many people say that Jane the Virgin is their guilty pleasure because of how dramatized it is, with scenes such as when Xiomara starts praying to Jane even though she isn’t shown the be particularly religious or when Jane sees Rafael and jump into the water, and the bright colors that are used, which may be seen as girly, but I don’t think Jane the Virgin should be considered a guilty pleasure because not only is it something which may people enjoy but because its dramatization brings humor to situations that may be hard to process for someone.

Word Count: 501