The South ': Jorge Borges And The Kabbalah'

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a happy book. The Author, Junot Diaz, does a great job fooling the reader into believing the story is about the De Leon family, specifically Oscar who is an over weight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family “fuku” or curse Oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. Instead, the story actually portrays the dark history of the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Upon reading the stories of Oscar’s relatives the reader feels a powerful message of fear and oppression due to the actions of the Trujillo regime. Even after the demise of

Although Mary describes him as someone who has “actually done something with his life, tried to become a “subject, not an object, in history” (p. 39), yet, her observation is superficial in the sense that she refuses to acknowledge the very history that is his identity, the one that turned him into an exiled person. José Luis’s story reaches the audiences through Mary’s translation; however, she is incapable of understanding José Luis; since on the one hand she is limited by the language and on the other hand she does not feel as a part of his history. She describes her Spanish as “an old car, parts missing or held together with clothes hanger wire’’ (MT, 11) and admits “I couldn’t have cared less for politics.” (p. 50) Despite the fact that it is José Lius’s account that shapes his present status, she reveals how at one point “[she] caught[s] a word or two that [she] knew had to do with his past. Cell. Water. Cry. [but she] didn’t dare climb the fence to find out what was on the

This will be as much a tale about the Venezuelan people as it is about a returning immigrant who knows his homeland largely from memories and media. Though my experiences have shaped my outlook, my intention is to enter the country as a neutral and impartial writer, cognizant of daily life, yet oblivious to the fiery political discourse which consumes too many discussions.

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is arguably the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution because of how it profoundly captures the atmosphere and intricacies of the occasion. Although the immediate subject of the novel is Demetrio Macias - a peasant supporter of the Mexican Revolution -, one of its extensive themes is the ambivalence surrounding the revolution in reality as seen from a broader perspective. Although often poetically revered as a ‘beautiful’ revolution, scenes throughout the novel paint the lack of overall benevolence even among the protagonist revolutionaries during the tumultuous days of the revolution. This paper will analyze certain brash characteristics of the venerated revolution as represented by Azuela’s

Before Night Falls tells the story of Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban writer who suffered for many years and dealt with tragic circumstances all throughout his life. Living during Fidel Castro’s harsh regime as a homosexual male led to several years of torture, for he was imprisoned, but ultimately set free. Additionally, his writing was bold and went against everything that Castro represented, and he took extreme risks to get his work published in other countries. The world heard the prolific voice of Arenas, while the Cuban government, his fellow writers, and even his lovers tried to silence him. Arenas was an extremely important figure in Latin culture. This is not simply because his work was profound; his life gives us a deeper look at the difficulties of struggling with homosexuality, masculinity, and finding freedom. He embodies resilience, charisma, determination, and at the same time fragility, weakness and pain.

Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz: “Reply To Sor Filotea De La Cruz” Reflection paper

. . one can’t help but wonder what form the author/protagonist’s life will take in the aftermath of his exorcism” (261). In this quote, Gonzales-Berry asserts that Miguel Chico’s has been exonerated of his repression through the art of writing. As stated by Marquez, serving as an inner historian has provided Miguel Chico a different perspective on life. Moreover, Gonzales-Berry’s curiosity is insightful because now that Miguel Chico has released his repression, he can now enjoy what he was encouraged to repress—his body. Lastly, in the article, “Sinners Among Angels, or Family History and the Ethnic Narrator in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God” written by David Rice, adheres to the idea of repression as he writes, “Through his vision of Felix’s return, Miguel Chico realizes that the family can only be saved if it is reconnected to the past which it represses and denies” (184). In this quote, Rice claims that the Angel family suffers from repression. His viewpoint is coming from the inner historian—Miguel Chico—as Marquez refers in his article. He refers to the salvation of the Angel family because the burden of their past is preventing the family from living their lives, hence not function as a family. In order to proceed, Rice suggests that the Angel family must acknowledge the past and learn to accept it.

In his collection of short stories, Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges uses dreams, imagination and fantasy to establish ambiguity in his stories. With the use of juxtaposition and symbols, Borges blends a realm of dreams and imagination into the individual’s everyday worldly experiences. Through these devices, Borges commonly blurs the line between aspects of reality for his characters versus the constructs of his or her mind. By combining the real with the fictitious, Borges incorporates ambiguity into his stories and introduces his readers to new perspectives of world around them.

Horacio Quiroga and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the most influential writers in history. They both wrote disturbing stories that are based upon their similarly rough lives. In fact, Quiroga has been referred to as “The Poe of Latin America” (Niece 1). However, it is important to note that although these authors have many similarities, they also have several significant differences, both in their writing and in their personal life stories.

Although Azuela leaves out some true historical events, the appendix comments on how Azuela’s unique and descriptive style of writing still leaves a meaningful connection between the novel and the reader. For example, in one passage, Azuela describes the Villista airplanes in action, referring to them as something the peasants in Mexico can relate to. He first compares them to a canoe, then to an automobile, and then to bombs to the act of feeding chickens. However, it is important to note that Villa and his legendary Division del Norte are never seen in the novel, but the

The border between the United States of America and Mexico always had been always a theme for a lot of discussions. And, in the book “Sunshine/Noir II” Juanita Lopez and Michael Cheno described, through texts, their point of view about the topic. Both authors represent that the control of the border has become way more restrict and militarized. In that sense, Michael Wickert presents his idea in a poem form, text named “The border Is a Fight”, that describes the dramas of a Mexican family that has to cross the border every day in a hope to get a better future. Whereas, Juanita Lopez demonstrates it through an essay that uses personal narratives of the author’s relatives to illustrate her point of view. Therefore, the both authors exploit their point of views using different text forms, and figurative images, like metaphors and personification, for delivering their ideas in the way they do.

Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote is a masterpiece in many senses of the word: at the time of its conception, it was hailed as a revolutionary work of literature that defined a genre, in later centuries regarded as an acerbic social commentary, a slightly misshapen romantic tragedy, and even as a synthesis of existentialist and post-modernist features. At the centre of this Spanish satirical chronicle is the perplexing character Don Quixote. Don Quixote’s personality and perspective is rapidly established fromsince the beginning of the novel, revealing unabashedly to readers that he is mad. The source of his madness lies in the extent to which Don Quixote acts on his delusions and projections unto reality as he saunters through Cervantes’ Andalusia. Don Quixote’s delusions have two primary functions in the novel: demonstrating the reality and tragedy of Cervantes’ manifestation of idyllic themes of love and chivalry, and revealing certain characteristics about narration.

Pedro Paramo is a novel that cannot be fully understood without consideration of its rich cultural background. It is this Mexican background, which informs so much of the novel, providing the main conflict. The narrator of the tale remarks “some villages have the smell of misfortune” while describing the locale of Pedro Parámo, the small Mexican town of Comala where the story plays out on many levels (83). On the surface level, this story is merely about a tyranical man who ruins his hometown of Comala. But in reality he does much more than that, his presence detroys the town completely, driving everyone out and converting the town to a type of purgatory. This deeper harm that he causes, by damning the rest of his townsmen is the evil

From the perspective and point of view of a westerner, it can at times be extremely difficult to understand the cultural and religious beliefs of others; in the fiction novel Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa, the reader is emerged into a thrilling mystery involving the strange disappearances of three mountain men. It is important to note, that the setting of the story takes place in the rural parts of Peru; in which the author, Llosa, through the disappearances of the three individuals reveals the separation and differences between the “mountain people” and the individuals referred to as the “coastal people”. In accordance to the novel Death in the Andes, the rural areas of Peru are the home of the believers; people who often believe in superstitions regarding the existence of the mountain gods.” In the Indian community here they sometimes kill a sheep, a vicuna” (PAGE #).

The concept of unreality can be defined as ‘something that is unreal, invalid, imaginary, or illusory:’ (Dictionary.com). At one time or another we have all fantasized about different things. However, have any of us ever attempted to incorporate those fantasies into the real world? The following paper will attempt to analyse how narratives of Julio Cortázar push the boundaries of reality and unreality. This essay will focus on the works of Cortázar and will particularly focus on two of his stories Las babas del diablo and Queremos tanto a Glenda. It will discuss how these narratives tests the boundaries of unreality and reality and will analyse Cortázars ability to make his readers question what is real and what is not. This essay will focus