Though the story is subjective, it also questions the mind of the reader in terms of critical thought. Diaz highlights how an person is reduced to just social class and race and by doing so asking a question relating to the authority or accuracy of the decrease of social beings. Though the story is subjective, it also questions the mind of the reader in terms of critical thought. The story fails on the moral side as it gives inferences on physical emotions and sexual relations. An curious reader should consider the ways a person manipulates their appearances within all the contexts that the writer discusses. A reader should also review own beliefs on expectations, stereotypes, biases and social and racial divisions in the determination of…
1. “She kneels and kisses Belky and hugs her tightly… But Lourdes cannot face Enrique… His mother steps off the porch. She walks away. ’¿Dónde está mi mami?’ Enrique cries, over and over. ‘Where is my mom?’ His mother never returns, and that decides Enrique’s fate.”…
Everyone is unique and different in their own way, and that makes them beautiful. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” Gabriel García Márquez gives the reader distractions from the basic story line to make the reader focus more on the other characters, such as the villagers and other situations throughout the story, other than our main character. These techniques then create the main idea of the story to be intertwined, within each description and situation. Although the old man is our main character, and almost every event focuses on him - his appearance, behavior, identity, and fate - the attention focused on the old man is more than likely often interrupted by the change of the reader’s focus to other characters, who are sometimes created and included in the story to distract the reader. The story, in fact, changes between the perspective of the narrator and the perspective of the villagers, individually. When Father Gonzaga enters the story, he explains and shows his suspicions about the old man, his observations, and promises the villagers to acquire advice from higher authorities such as the pope of the main church. Later, the pope approaches the old man, and after another few details and situations, the descent of the old man’s popularity and attention rids Father Gonzaga of his insomnia. Then the old…
The book Zoot Suit has symbolic significance for Mexican Americans and tells about the riots during the World War II. The Sleepy Lagoon Murder was one-step in the fight for the rights and respect of Mexicans American's. In the play El Pachuco wearing an elegant long zoot suit, and is the centerpiece of the play where he is able to pause time and take Henry to the past. El Pachuco symbolizes Mexican American youths who fought for nationalism, family, and equality. Throughout the play, it is clear to say that the Pachuco represents all Chicanos both male and female. This statement true in the way that all Chicanos have the same problems and are fighting for the same rights. El Pachuco also shows a fine connection to the Chicano Nationalist Paradigm and the model of obligatory heterosexuality. For instance, his personality is very masculine and proceeds himself to be a tough person because traditionally been defined as a queer or gay would be considered outside of la familia. In addition, El Pachuco shows Henry his devotion, and loyalty when he express his patriotism of being a pachuco. In addition, El Pachuco describes the relationship between a father and son in a ideal Mexican family. Lastly, El Pachuco symbolizes how equality played a significant part for many Chicanos that were set aside and treated differently by their race, language, culture, and eventually where not assimilated as equal citizens.…
Here, the novel reveals the unequal friendship between Don Chipote and Pitacio by displaying Pitacio’s exploitment of his host’s generosity. For example, Don Chipote offers his friend hospitality along with food and shelter as a testament to his kindness. Instead of expressing appreciation for this gracious gesture, Pitacio takes advantage of the situation in order to benefit himself. The fact that he tells lies to his friend in order to receive food for the coming days makes matters worse since he intentionally misleads Don Chipote. This dishonesty damages the friendship between the two characters because one side is using the other person for personal gain. In this example, the text highlights the negative trait of dishonesty and manipulation that constitute a faulty and unequal friendship. In addition to the negative traits of dishonesty and manipulation, Pitacio exhibits unreliability in keeping his promises. One could argue that by Pitacio staying behind in Mexico to help Don Chipote’s family while Don Chipote is away, he exhibits good friend characteristics. However, the text undermines this opinion when it notes that “[g]ood buddy Pitacio was more than happy to do this—for the first few months” (Venegas 129). In this moment, the text…
The author’s narrative, ripe with horrifying descriptions, is nonetheless told with compassion appealing to the emotions of the audience in his argument. The greater part of the book follows these men on their unlucky journey through the desert, and how each one is drained of their money, water, hopes and dreams, and for some, life. The author uses compelling descriptions of imagery; the taste of urine, the sight of mummified corpses, and the anguish of losing one's son are all strikingly portrayed. The reader finds themselves horrified each time death reaches another victim of the Devil’s Highway, forcing you to think about the family waiting in Mexico dreaming of a better life. At the beginning of the book Urrea lists the possessions of the dead (“John Doe # 37: no effects, John Doe # 44: Mexican bills in back pocket, a letter in right front pocket, a brown wallet in left front pocket”) these specific details provided are emotional responses to give the readers every last detail of the man and his possessions. Another technique Urrea uses that affects the audiences emotions is grammatical persons, Urrea often switches into second-person point-of-view so the reader imagines that he or she is going through the stages of hypothermia themselves. “Your muscles, lacking water, feed on themselves. They break down and start to rot. Once rotting in you, they dump rafts of…
Contrary to his belief or “version” of masculinity holding the key to his dreams, it was his genuine personality and gentle character that attracted his crush Blanca Saldivia. Blanca, a Pentecostal girl who was praised by all those who knew her due to the pureness and beauty she possessed, was captivated by Julio’s non-violent nature. It separated Chino from the rest of the young hooligans like his best friend or “pana” Sapo. His dream of…
The Life and Adventures of Lazarillo de Tormes is a picaresque and a satire that introduces us to a life of an impoverished protagonist from unheroic upbringings, perpetually moving from one outlandish circumstance to the next. Lazarillo transitions from master to master, and each one undermines our expectations of the good people that they should embody. Readers learn quickly that their appearances are deceiving. Each master instead exemplifies one of the seven deadly sins. The interactions that Lazarillo has with each master and the vices he carries with him in order to climb a weighted social hierarchy emphasize the hypocrisy of people and the corrupt religious institutions that they claim to serve. These experiences leave Lazarillo jaded and present his relationship with…
Diego Rivera México (1886-1957) Diego Rivera's art was one of the columns on which one of the strongest movements in American painting was to find support: Mexican muralism. His art rests on a foundation from a mixture of Gauguin, Aztec, and Mayan sculpture. Diego Rivera, used simplified forms and vivid colors. He brilliantly rescued the pre-Colombian past, as well as the cornerstones of Mexico's history: the land, the factory and land workers, the customs and the popular way of life.…
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, nearly everyone in the novel seems to know of Santiago Nasar’s impending murder, but almost no one takes action to stop the crime. Each witness has a ready excuse or simply expects someone else to take action. Marquez implies that people must be compelled to take risk on behalf of another person.…
Juan Rulfo provides a critical view of gender roles in rural Mexico during the time of the book because the characters must fill social positions that they are assigned merely because of their gender. For example, women are expected to take care of the household, while men can do almost whatever they want. In the case of Pedro Paramo, he has an entire town of sex workers at his disposal, many of whom are not willing to do that job. His rape of Margareta further cements his belief that women are merely sex objects for his pleasure and Pedro is so powerful that he can merely pay them for their “service” or kill them for disobedience to hush them up. Even his son, Miguel, who commits many acts of rape is allowed to go free. While this inequality may be attributed to wealth…
The author starts out say "Poor Juan!" you know that something bad has happened to the man, this attracts your attention and leads you to keep reading. She says that fate caught him with one of its dirty tricks while had his guard down, and then proceeds to tell the tale. She vaguely hints of the doom that lies ahead of Juan and you have to know what horror awaits him. It is organized as a story, told in chronological order; this is effective in showing you the steps to his demise as he steps up the ladder. It is sad, ironic and somewhat humorous; her tone is somewhat playful as she portrays Juan as naïve and hopeful. This really helps you feel sorry for him, you see him start out as an innocent victim and watch him rise (or fall) to the position of the person who is harming the victim.…
“Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.” Miguel de Cervantes was considered the person to write the first “modern novel”. He was a very intelligent man. He is well known for his book “Don Quixote” when he died. Miguel de Cervantes was born near Madrid, Spain in 1547.…
At first glance, Garcia Marquez's novella appears to be just another murder mystery. This, however, is not the case (pun intended). The story opens with a declaration that the main character, Santiago Nasar, will ultimately meet his end. Garcia Marquez employs a very matter-of-fact tone throughout the novel. By stating the facts in such a way, he is able to create a narrator whose attitude mimics that of a journalist. The narrator remains anonymous throughout the entire novella, leaving it up to the reader to form opinions regarding the true motivations of the characters within it. Garcia Marquez paints a meaningful image of 20th century Colombia by employing several literary techniques that enhance the meaning of the text.…
PEDRO PARAMO This novel was written by Juan Rulfo a pre eminent Mexican writer who was raised in an orphanage. The central vehicle of the novel is that spirits are here with us if we care to listen, many dialogues and situations in the book have characters who are dead and speak from the beyond. The author purposefully blends the dead with the living in an effort to place them as what they are, a continuum of each other. Mexicans and their relationship with death is a well known phenomenon where the famous old song says :Life is not worth anything. The root of this concept lies in the beliefs of the ancient Mexican Indians that professed we are all a leaf in the tree of La Ceiba where there is a place for everyone. Rulfo is able to communicate with the dead in the same manner that us readers, through the pen of Rulfo can talk to the spirits of the inhabitants of small towns in the Mexico of the times of the revolution, 1920 – 1935; where the left-overs of the feudal systems had entire townships under the control of a few all powerful men. Juan Preciado is sent to look for his father by a posthumous wish of his mother with the intent to collect his dues because he had abandoned them. The novel begins its surrealism when the first peasant Juan meets and asks for directions to his father’s town, Comala, confesses that He too is a son of Paramo, and that the old Paramo has long been dead. This should be the end of the novel if it weren’t for all the spirits and talkative dead people that are Rulfo’s characters and tell us the story of the town in a disorderly fashion, but yet one gets the picture. Many incredible characters appear, like the one of the crazy horse galloping in the night, his spirit desolated because he killed one of Paramo’s sons in a riding accident. Even the horses have spirits that converse here. As Preciado waks through the town and stays in various destitute lodgings, in the night, he can hear the whisperings of the dead people of this ghost town,…