Water by the Spoonful

In Water By The Spoonful, author Quiara Alegrìa Hudes separates the world of the play into several different areas. Each area then becomes its own little world. On occasion the separate worlds start to intersect with each other.  One particular instance is at the end of Act 1 when the Internet world and Elliot Ortiz’s world intersect.  As Haikumom is giving advice, through the use of Haikus, to his fellow addicts; Hudes decides to include Elliot Ortiz’s world into the scene. The reasoning behind allowing Elliot’s world to bleed into the Internet world is for two reasons. The first is that Elliot and Haikumom are both portrayed as strong individuals, despite their past difficulties, Haikumom’s crack addiction and Elliot’s war injury. In this scene a hardening blow, Elliot’s leg giving in under pressure and Haikumom finding out that her sister has died, strikes both Elliot and Haikumom. The second reason for the intersection is that even though the characters cannot see each other Hudes sets up a curtain line for the end of the act. The curtain line is the revelation that Haikumom is Elliot’s aunt. Through this revelation, Hudes shows that even though both Elliot and Haikumom have separate difficulties; they share the same pain of losing someone they both loved and cared about deeply. By sharing the pain of losing someone, a bond is formed between Elliot and Haikumom. Even though Elliot holds Haikumom responsible for the death of her own daughter, there is still a connection present between the two of them. However, the hatred Elliot has for Haikumom is not reveled to the audience until later on in the play.