The Motorcycle Diaries, By Ernesto Che Guevara

The nature of discovery is highly impactful when one is confronted with multiple worlds; enabling a physical and spiritual connection to places, ideals and society, transforming one’s perception over-time. Australian poet Robert Gray‘s ‘The Meatworks’, confronts an individual’s beliefs to influence their standpoint on a desensitized society. ‘Journey, North Coast’ introduces the idea that re-awakened realities emancipate one’s connection of the natural world. and Director Daniel Sousa’s ‘Feral’ explores into how being taken into an unfamiliar reality leads to discovering one’s natural world. It is within these poems that uncover the highly impactful nature of discovery.

Throughout the book, Krakauer documents the intoxicating life and death of Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, a young hitchhiker who embarked on an Alaskan Odyssey to explore himself and the wilderness. Like many before him, McCandless thought that he could give his life meaning by pursuing his “impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature” (Krakauer 85). At a young age, Chris lost his habitude for monotonous security and thus adopted an irrational and impulsive style of life. He believed that suppressing human relationships and deserting the materialistic world would strengthen his bond with nature. Christopher once wrote to his close friend that too many people were unwilling to change their troubling life and debatable circumstances because they were “conditioned to a life of security, and conformity, and conservatism.” Following up his conclusion he stated that this type of “secure future” brought peace to their mind, but in reality it was the most damaging thing that they ccould do to the adventurous spirit, being the very basic core of an individual’s passion (Krakauer 57). Christopher McCandless with his astounding spirit, the aspiration to succeed, and the longing to make things happen was determined to be free. He desired to live by his own moral code, without anyone putting shackles on his psyche. His plans went beyond what anyone could ever

The process of discovery refers to the perception created upon experiencing the unfamiliar and redefining what is familiar. Discovery can be achieved through unexpected means or deliberate expeditionary, whether it be tangible or a fragment of our thoughts/imagination/emotions. Poems ‘The Tiger’ and ‘Young Girl At A Window’ by Rosemary Dobson and poem ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley thoroughly explore this concept via their ideology of human nature and its effect on discovery.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” This quote from John Lewis, a former Freedom Rider I believe with those words perfectly describes why these Freedom Riders began their journey. After reading the textbook, Visions of America and watching the video clip from American Experience of Freedom Riders I was able to make myself knowledgeable about Freedom Riders. Both the textbook and the video I thought engaged me into the information I was either reading or listening. So, what exactly are Freedom Riders, what were the impacts of this event and why is this so important to our history?

Methods: This investigation will describe Che Guevara’s involvement in Latin American independence movements, focusing specifically on his involvement with Fidel Castro’s “26th of July” movement. His actions and words will be analyzed, and his conduct this period of political upheaval will be used as evidence in order to answer the investigative question.

Discovery is an innate aspect of what it means to be human. Discovery involves differing contexts and perspectives and in this way it is unavoidably subjective and offers further insights into the human psyche. This can be seen in the 1914 works of Robert Frost, “Home Burial” that tells of the hardship imposed on a mother and father after the loss of a child, and “Mending Wall” exploring the relationship between two neighbours and the wall that divides them, as well as the 1998 picture book, ‘The Rabbits’ by Shaun Tan and John Marsden, an account of colonisation from the viewpoint of the colonised.

When humans realize that they can no longer find a reasonable solution, they turn to violence. Many historical figures as well as people from this era believe that the only way to fix a conflict, is throughout violence. Cesar Chavez believed in spreading awareness towards his supporters and to everyone around him, showing that there are other solutions to problems. Throughout the passage, Chavez uses casual relationship to explain the causes and effects between violence and nonviolence, straightforward language, and repetition to state his perspective on how violence does not resolve anything. Cesar Chavez was a man that helped change the lives of many lower class farmworkers.

Discovery inhibits the ability to embrace new beginnings and accept a sense of change whether it is found or forced upon an individual. The places you travel and the people you meet can emotionally revolutionize a self-discovery through unexpected but anticipated terms evoked from curiosity. ‘Swallow The Air’ written by Tara June Winch and ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie break the inhibitions of vulnerability, as their ideas represented through cultural contexts and values, lead to an overall self-discovery.

Walt Disney once said,”We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Attempting to accomplish something unfamiliar isn’t a simple responsibility. It requires a lot of courage, perseverance, and personal motivation. William Bradford’s Journal about the expedition to the new land, “Of Plymouth Plantation” and the excerpt from Tom Wolfe’s book about orbiting around Earth for the first time, “The Right Stuff” both incorporate the theme of adventure and question the boundaries of convenience, but the obstacles faced by the pilgrims were more arduous than those faced by John Glenn.

An individual’s discovery is transformative on their perceptions of the world. This is the case for the book ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Keats’s sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In this book, we are taken on Che’s journey as he travels Latin America as a young man, before the fame. His diary entries lead the reader into his own eyes, as a typical young man on an adventure, not the revolutionary figure we all associate him with. Through his descriptive entries of the landscape he journeys across, we discover his deeper connection to the land of South America and the love he has for its people. As well as the beautiful things that South America has to

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a part of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba. He became a revolutionary leader who inspired many and brought the guerrilla to victory in 1959. He was a part of the eighty-two men who sailed on the Granma from Mexico to Cuba in December of 1956 (Staten 114). The biographical film, Che: Part One directed by Steven Soderbergh, shows the journey of Che and the guerrillas as they attempted to defeat Batista’s military. Che: Part One is not simply just a depiction of Che’s life, but it brings you right into the action of the armed struggle the guerrilla faced. The revolution shaped Che into the leader he became. He started out as a simple doctor who wanted to bring the people of Cuba what they deserved. Che went through changes as the periods of the revolution went on. He grew to be a leader that would bring his people to the victories they achieved. Throughout the portrayal of the revolution, it can be seen how Che changes and adapts based on what situation he is facing and how the movie shows it. The film goes back and forth between the times Che is in Cuba fighting and after he wins the revolution and talks about his experiences.

I decided to write this research paper because we were assigned to find an issue or subject within Latin America to write about. One of the most widely known and influential revolutionary figure in the history of Latin America is Ché Guevara. Ché knew how to use his intelligence and judgment in all the circumstances he encountered taking advantage of each moment as if it was a highly intensive chess game he was sincerely

Like the much used stencil of Guevara's determined visage, the general perception of his life is flat and two-dimensional. No where more so, it seems, then in the country richest in Guevara's history, Cuba. An article printed July 21st 1997 in Newsweek, entitled 'Return Of The Rebel', explored Cuban society in the wake of the long-awaited discovery of Guevara's skeleton in Bolivian town of Vallegrande. In it journalist Brook Lamer explains how 'the Cuban Government played a pivotal role in creating the Che mystique, and it is not about to let its franchise slip away'[2].

It is hard to travel anywhere in the world without seeing somewhere the iconic image of Che Guevara on a T-Shirt, souvenir, or poster. The original photographer, and the Irish artist who turned that photograph into a print, are virtually unknown. However, their image has been redistributed to the point where it can effectively be called an icon or a meme. There is no small amount of irony in the fact that an icon of communism has become an emblem of capitalism: as the image has been bought and sold countless times in countless countries around the world. The iconic image of Che Guevara has a hipster chic to it, but also political panache. To don the Che Guevara image means one does not agree with the establishment and is part of the 99%. However, Che Guevara is a controversial figure too. The image has been banned in some parts of the world, because Che was a radical revolutionary who was not against the use of armed uprisings in communist revolts. Therefore, the iconic Che Guevara image created first in Cuba and turned into pop art by an Irishman is a paradoxical and typically postmodern cultural meme.

In The Motorcycle Diaries, Guevara’s discoveries of the devastating effects of US neo-colonialism in Latin America are only fully understood upon his rediscoveries of the equally harmful nature of not only tourism, but also his own vagabond traveling. Through their encounters with farm labourers, Guevara’s initial discovery of the Araucanian race’s “deep suspicion of the white man who… now continues to exploit them” is shown through the prominent motif of sharing mate, which highlights the early understanding between them. However, this understanding is expanded upon reaching Cuzco, where the symbolic juxtaposition of the three layers of the city emphasises his reassessment of how “a hesitant tourist [also] pass[es] over things superficially”. Even further, in Guevara’s encounter with the Chilean communist couple, graphic imagery accentuates his rediscovery of the “parasitic nature” of not