Verbal and visual representation of the matriarchal rule.
             Ursula Buendia in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Mama Elena in Like Water for Chocolate are two of the prominent and powerful female characters in the novels. No less important than men, these women assume the leading roles in the families; through their verbal and visual representation they exhibit their leadership qualities in some similarities and contrasted way .
             Though the settings of two novels situate in different places and different times- One Hundred Years of Solitude depicts the Buendia family in a mythical and Eden-like town where exists the patriarchal domination, and Like Water for Chocolate set in modern life where matriarchal rule of mother Elena control the family- Ursula and Mama Elena are bound to have some similarities. Behind the simple episodic plots, there was history of life as it was lived, with all its multiple restrictions for women of social class. Their characterizations followed the forms of life of these women rather than their unique individuality. They live out a full life in institution of marriage, which was a form of indentured slavery for life in which a woman serve father, then to husband as they're married, and to the sons as father and husband has passed. Encased in this foundation, these women, Ursula and Mama Elena, for the most part, are firmly anchored in daily reality, obsessively, with the routines of daily living. Therefore cooking, sewing, decorations were the creative outlets for them.
             Although Buendias family is under patriarchal dominance, the power behind it locates in hand of Ursula, who often engages in duty of operating the house, even taking care of the man of the house. In like manner, Elena as well as Ursula overwhelms themselves into a role model of matriarchal ruling. Mama Elena emerges in an image of a strong, middle-class woman and far more clever than the men who supposedly prot...