This book took place during the Renaissance. The renaissance were considered to be the cultural rebirth of Europe. The many arts of life were important including, painting and literature. This really shows in the book because it is very focused on painting and art. Juan expresses many times that painting is interesting to him, but never was supposed to do it, due to slavery.
She poses more questions and introduces more concepts which leave the reader with this bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. In part three she touches on the subjects of genealogy as it pertains to desire. She extrapolates form the ideas of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Psyche to argue how the Oedipus complex has left its imprint on Chicano/a cultures. She juxtaposes four “cultural bodies”, Selena, La Malinche, Delgadina, and Silent Tongue, which if read from a third space feminist interpretation shifts the perspective to unveil women’s desires through their own agency. She analyses the Oedipus complex and introduce the Oedipal conquest triangle.
“Power is one of the themes in Fuentes’ short story, “Chac-mool”. The symbolic use of water supports this theme as does the evolution of both characters, the Chac-mool and Filiberto.” While some think this statement is invalid, it is the complete opposite. For example, according to Fuentes, “At some times like a child, .. at others, nervous, to the point of declining into unintelligibility.” (Fuentes, p. 4)
Aristotle wrote, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light (Aristotle)”. The Holocaust was one of the darkest times humanity has ever seen. A machination brewed by an extraordinarily perverse man that resulted in the deaths of millions, and robbed millions more of their faith and hope. Families were torn apart, towns were destroyed, and humanity lost, all to satisfy one man’s extreme racism and psychotic agenda. If however, one only chooses to focus on the darkness, they might overlook the light, specifically in the two stories of boys who survived against all odds and shared their tales years after defying death.
In the article “The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol” by Eric R. Wolf, the facts are given about the history of the symbol as well as the importance that it plays in the lives of the people of Mexico. This Wolf applies the agnostic approach in his article by the language that he uses. He does not attempt to persuade or dissuade from believing in the Virgin of Guadalupe. Wolf starts out by explaining that the terms he uses do no represent the Mexican people as a whole, “In this paper, I should like to discuss this [Virgin of Guadalupe] Mexican master symbol, and the ideology which surrounds it. In making use of the term ‘master symbol,’ I do not wish to imply that belief in the symbol is common to all Mexicans” (Wolf 2).
Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo revolves around the life of Pedro Páramo. Juan Preciado goes to Comala to fulfill his mother’s dying wish by finding his father Pedro Páramo . When he arrives in Comala he does not find Comala as the lush, lively town town his mother talked of but a desolate town filled with ghosts. The ghosts tell him the story of Pedro Páramo life and of Comala’s past. The character of Pedro Páramo reveals that corruption is contagious.
Marco Pérez Dr. Rony Garrido The short novel, Aura, by Carlos Fuentes creates a mythical reality to reference Mexican history. He uses Aura, Felipe Montero, and Consuelo as a reflection of the past and the present, where for example, Consuelo represents the past and Felipe the present. In this paper I will explain how the love story of Felipe, Aura, and Consuelo represent Mexican history. In addition this paper will explain how myth breaks down into different elements, such as religion, legends, traditions, and beliefs, all of which are manifested in the different characters and their actions within this novel.
Mexican society tends to be religious, that is why the elements of Catholicism can be observed in many areas of Mexican’s life. This essay will investigate the Christian motives in Mexican literature, namely, the novel by Juan Rulfo “Pedro Paramo”. In this paper I will argue that the novel “Pedro Paramo” shows a typical view of Mexican Catholicism by focusing on Mexican beliefs of purgatory and ghosts, its role and image in the novel. Investigating its influence on plot and characters and making a comparison with The Bible and Catholic Doctrine of Purgatory’s description of these terms are crucial parts of the essay. Latin American society is strictly Catholic due to historical reasons of being colonies of Catholic Spain and Portugal, therefore the influence of Catholic Church is very sensible, especially in literature.
This novel was written based on the Mexican revolution, which was an important event in history for the people of Mexico. The author of this novel, Juan Rulfo portrays the characters as being lost in purgatory to show how the people of Mexico felt during the time of Porfirio Diaz. Juan Rulfo used his experiences and suffering during the revolution and turned it into literature. During the Mexican revolution, there were situations in which men were more powerful and played a more important role in society than women. The use of descriptive language and imagery in the novel allows readers to understand how horrific the time period was and how the people felt.
Written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez in 1958 as part of Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande, Un Día de Éstos is a short story addressing a vast theme; that of power and how it is balanced. By constructing the narrative primarily around the two characters of Don Aurelio Escovar, an unqualified dentist, and the mayor who is suffering of toothache, Márquez uses their reactions towards each other to guide the reader into understanding how easy it is to become vulnerable, notwithstanding their social class. CHARACTERISATION The theme of power is explored through the characterisations of the two men in the story and it could be said that this done primarily through continuous contrasts between them. To start with, the vocabulary that surrounds Escovar
In the poem “You bring out the Mexican in me” by Sandra Cisneros, she begins to create a close relation with the reader by addressing the nameless lover as “you”. As Cisneros begins to utilize amplification by repeating “you” in every stanza; she makes an emphasis of the importance that the nameless lover has over her. To begin, by reading the title “You bring out the Mexican in me,” it can be interpreted that the deep emotions of passion that are perhaps hidden, are inevitably brought out to the light by the nameless lover. In the first stanza the word in italics “lagrimas” written in Spanish, translation in English for “tears,” makes the emphasis on the emotional aspect of crying for love.
Throughout Miguel de Cervantes novel, Don Quixote, there is a fine line between reality and illusion that seems to vanish portraying a prominent theme in the novel. Don Quixote de La Mancha, a fifty-year-old man, has an insane obsession in reading chivalry books; he is so absorbed in reading these books that he decides to become a knight-errant himself that will set off on adventures for his eternal glory. These books of chivalry have left Don Quixote so deep within his fantasy that there is no risk of him perceiving true reality. There are a plethora of examples where Don Quixote 's perceived reality is his idealistic fantasies. Cervantes expresses these complexities so much that we begin to notice the social criticism Don Quixote receives from people he encounters.
In the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the narrator sets out on a journey to assemble the remaining pieces of truth surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar, twenty-seven years after incident. As the narrator recounts the series of facts relating to Santiago’s death, the reader becomes aware of the emptiness, as an accumulation of these informations can’t recreate the event itself. Judging both the narrator’s desire to revisit the past and the foretold events leading up to Santiago’s death, the narrative explores the ways in which the past and the future have an effect upon the present state. The narrator uses the form of a chronicle to organize time into a confined segment, he engages in the nature of time itself and the analysis of the murder. Captivated by the murder that occurred nearly 30 years ago, the narrator continues to look for the truth surrounding Santiago’s death out of desire secure the past.
“Modernism in the play Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca brought out through theme of Fate and Nature.” The play Blood wedding, set in the city of Spain during the age of modernism dating back to the 1930’s is written by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. The beauty of the time has been brought out in the form of nature and appallingly chronological events of destiny. It talks about the time when adultery and abortion were considered evils and women were chastised for obliging but men were acquitted for the same. This implies the making of a very misogynistic society with philosophies of modernism touching the Spanish ethos.
Sebastião and the subject of the original portrait, Jean Paul Marat, share a fair amount in common. Marat was a political revolutionist known for taking a stand against oppressive leadership stripping away human rights from the poor. With inspiration from political texts found in the dump, Sebastião created a union for catadores, looking to improve the lives of poor, underprivileged people. Along with this, Marat had a skin disease which disgusted people of his time and forced him to spend most of his life in a bathtub. This is similar to Sebastião’s situation as Brazilian society is disgusted by the work that Catadores do.
