Vargas Llosa

Adolescents in the Cubs

Mario Vargas Llosa in his book “The Cubs” tells us the faithful reproduction of the life of a group of young people that grew up in Peruvian society. The author was describing how difficult it is living in macho society. Vargas Llosa exposes and criticizes the agony of the castration of that boy. The readers have an idea of how the adolescents think at that moment and how his medical condition affected him, and how this boy deals with his problem.

Latin American culture is too restricted and the taboo is always in the conscience of the people, then, it is very difficult for the adolescent to stop criticizing and reprimanding the people around them. “The Cubs” is the book that gives the readers many outside and inside examples of the Peruvian society; and the author presents his idea with a group of adolescents that try to help but at the same time oppressed and putting down the boy that is castrated. Vargas Llosa describes the world of these teenagers how it is and how human feelings are affected when society pressures them to be different, and do not accept them the way they are.

However, in his book, the author has not created something that he cannot perceive in the Latin American world because the cruelty of the human being is noticeable in every part of our lives. The author does not create a fancy picture; he gives us the reality of the group of teenagers that grew up together, and they discovered their world at the same time. Also, their experiences of their development and the way they think too. Their different ages give them a different perspective and idea of life and in addition their future and behaviors are changing day by day.

Aime Cesaire

When our eyes start to read this poem, those can feel the nostalgia of the author. Also his words give us what Aimé Césaire considered one of the founders of the Negritude literary movement because he anticipated the Civil rights movement in the decade of the 1950’s. “Nor with the liberator fixed in his whitewashed stone liberation. Nor with the conquistador. Nor with this contempt, with freedom, with this audacity” (3), for example this phrase gives us an idea of how the African people felt about slavery and not living in their own country. Also, the oppression and violation of their human rights puts them in the path of forgetting their culture and idiosyncrasy because they become someone else, something that they do not want. At this time white society restrains their freedom and imposes their way of thinking. Then, the readers can figure out that the black people want their own life, they do not want anybody telling them what they need to do.

“I have assassinated God with my laziness with my words with my gesture with my obscene songs.”(19), this ironical phrase tells us of how black people feel about themselves because society has always put in their minds that they are nothing that they are the social plague. But this ironic phrase “I have assassinated God with my laziness” is killing the logical thought, the truth, and history because it tells us different things. For example, Black people were sacrificing their life everyday in the cane camp, working very hard without any kind of job protection. Also, they were working as hard as the animals because they were working for 14 hours a day, and living in inhuman and infrahuman conditions. Black people lost everything that they had, when they were brought to
Latin America because they lost their culture and their idiosyncrasy. 

Césaire explains us the truth about how humans are looking for their own identity, and the place they come from. These aspects and melancholy never leaves their mind. In his prose Césaire criticized society, looking for the identity, and condemning his words that it is a violation of the human rights act.

           

Magic Realism

Magic Realism

 

            The story of Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo show us the period in
Mexico between the Mexican Revolution in 1919-1920, and after the Cristero Revolt of 1926 through 1926. Juan Rulfo is a magical realist author because his story could be played as fiction, but his realism opposes the fantasy because he never explains the fiction world to us. Rulfo leaves the readers to determine whether the plot is magical or the plot is more truthful according to the world as
Mexico in this period. At this time Mexico had many economical, social and political problems because after the dictatorship of Porfilio Díaz, the traditional rural
Mexico had been ruined. Juan Rulfo wants to tell us about many things, but in my analysis I want to explain, the dramatic exodus from the countryside to the city, the real event (Cristero War), and the memories (yellow color).

            Pedro Paramo wrote a book that gives the readers many ideas about thousands of rural people going to the cities during the Mexican Revolution because the economic and insecurity situation were an important issue at this time. Also, the countryside was abandoned by the government and the country areas did not have rules or organization by law. Then, Rulfo in his story tells us about the Comala town. When Juan Preciado, son of Pedro Paramo arrived there, Comala was deserted; only in this town there are ghosts. For example, the exodus, Pedro Paramo, “Recuerdo días en que Comala se llenó de adioses, y hasta nos parecía cosa alegre ir a despedir a los que se iban, es que se iban con intenciones de volver.” (103); the author expressed his feeling in the way the readers can see the crises of rural Mexico, and how the people have to move to the cities because they cannot support their families economically and protect them from the war and necessities, as well, the readers perceives the melancholy and the agony of the Mexican people at this period of time.

            Death to Mexican people is not something that they cannot understand because it is part of Mexican tradition. Then, Juan Rulfo gives his short story of Pedro Paramo a way of magical realism. But the author has created ghosts to describe something he was perceived because he rejected any imaginative way the readers have to doubts and vacillation the world that he is describing; but this world is real. For example, Cristero Revolt of 1926 through 1929 was a real event. Pedro Paramo, “Y ya cuando le faltaba poco para morir vinieron las guerras esas de los ‘cristeros’…Fue cuando comencé a morirme de hambre…” (104), the ghost tells us the truth because Cristero Revolt was a real event. Rulfo wants that his fictional story to show to the readers a historical real event and he wants to share the relationship between fictional characters, the events, and memories.

            It is important to know that the memories of magical realist work distorts time and collapses with the order. Then, the short story of Pedro Paramo explores Mexican social history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But the narration is not chronological because this is an important part of the memories reconstruction. “¿Te acuerdas? Aquí cambio no se sentirá sino ese olor
Amarillo y acedo que parece destilar por todas partes. Y es que éste pueblo desdichado; untado todo de desdicha…” (107), strong phrase about what happened in Comala. The past and present of this town are horrible. The people leave and never come in back. The only way to return is when they are dead. Yellow color means, melancholy, agony, sadness, and nostalgia. The memories want us to forget the past because these memories brought to them loneliness and solitude.

            In conclusion, Juan Rulfo in Pedro Paramo shows us the reality of
Mexico and explores Mexican social history of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He illustrated to us the exodus from the rural areas to the cities, the realism of
Mexico at this period of time as Cristero War, and the memories.