Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate is a wonderful novel that shows the a different perspective of love in a Mexican context. The protagonist, Tita falls for an American named John but also loves her sister's husband, Pedro. From an American standpoint, John embodies what is an ideal marriage partner: safe, caring, considerate, stable. Pedro, on the other hand, is essentially the opposite of who John is. He's rash, harsh, and lustful. From an American perspective, they would see Pedro as someone you have a good time with for a little bit, maybe have a wild weekend. However, he's not someone you fall in love with.

However, Mexicans see this differently. From their perspective, John is a horrible partner; he's boring and un-passionate. How can love blossom if the lovers don't fight for it? John gave up Tita to Pedro without a fight. Regardless of how much he cares for Tita, if he isn't going to show it, then he is wasting both his and Tita's time. Love that is fought for passionately is how true love is found. As John M. Perkins once said, "Love is the final fight."

We see something similar to this in the movie Outsourced. Asha, a worker in telephone sales, falls in love with Todd. The viewer sees her fighting her traditional values as an Indian woman arranged to a marriage. She has a few days of fun with Todd but doesn't talk to him when Todd heads back to America. The end of the movie shows Todd receiving a phone call from Asha and it is assumed that the two get together. Like in Like Water for Chocolate, Outsourced shows that love fought for leads to the most fulfilling and passionate love.

Zorro

The graphic novel Zorro was something I found very interesting. The art, story, and character development of the story were really well done. This was the first graphic novel I've ever read and I found it to be great. I hadn't read any comics of any sort since the fifth grade. However, after reading Zorro, I will likely start reading more graphics novels. (Thank you Dr. B for expanding my horizons) There were many elements of the story I enjoyed; what stood out the most though, was the art. 

Zorro was not as detailed as other characters in the story. The artist wanted to make Zorro a general and vague character that the reader could easily relate to. You can see that emphasis when comparing Zorro to the characters. Often times, Zorro is just a blur or shadow, while the other characters are highly detailed and personalized. One can see the fear coming from the victims of Zorro. The contrast of character detail really stood to me and caused a greater emotional reaction.

Zorro

Furthermore, the story in a parallel timeline. This is something that is popular in many movies today and I felt that Zorro did that well. In Zorro, past events are colored in a sepia-like tone while present day events are more sparsely colored. In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, the viewer sees a sequence of interrogation for the protagonists and flashbacks that show his experiences in his life. Zorro essentially did the same thing and allowed for a greater back story that displayed why de La Vega had to become Zorro. 

While reading, I could especially relate with Zorro's undying thirst for justice. In one scene, he stole money from the Spanish soldiers who had taken taxes from people in an unjust manner. For instance, they cut off a man's finger because he didn't have enough money. The money that Zorro stole was given back to a family that was poor. This is like a Latin version of Robin Hood. With that, I find myself wanting to read more works of Wagner.

Borges

Jorge Luis Borges is another author who wrote in the magical realism genre of literature. However, unlike the other authors I've written about, Borges talks about how you can change your reality if you really believe that your past events have changed. For example, in "Emma Zunz", Borges tells a story of a young girl out for revenge. Emma plans to murder Loewenthal, a man who caused Emma's father to commit suicide and go to prison. So in order to proceed with her plan, she has sex with a very unpleasant man (a generous way of putting it) and then goes to Loewenthal to have him killed. But after she kills him and calls the cops, she tells the officers that he had raped her and she killed him because of it.

This is a pretty standard story structure until the end when Borges says, "True was Emma Zunz' tone, true was her shame, true was her hate. True also was the outrage she had suffered: only the circumstances were false, the time, and one or two proper name." Emma Zunz didn't just do those things and moved on with her life; she actually believed that Loewenthal raped her and that was the reason he had to die. Because she believed her reality had changed, so did her path in life. She went from murderer to victim because she actually believed she was a victim. Emma went from William Wallace to Princess Peach because she believed it to be true. This is similar to perspectives from Alfred Adler. He believed that prior experiences weren't as important as how we perceived them. I can relate to that seeing as, when I was five years old, I cut my own hair. However, to make myself avoid trouble, I blamed my brothers for it and I actually believed that to be true. I changed my reality by believing that different sets of events had happened in my life, and not what was true.

Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia is another Latin American author who used magical realism in his writing. Unlike Cortazar, his use of bending reality was more subtle. When I was reading his literature, I was expecting a similar experience when I read Cortazar. In his story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", Marquez slowly works the reader into a state of frustration. The story starts out with crabs that have, for lack of a better word, infested a city. Then, a man with wings is found and he's placed in a chicken coop. The man is sick but a baby who was sick prior to his arrival heals. The man with wings is said to be angel and people pay money to see him. Eventually, he gets better and flies away. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" was a very tough story to grasp. However, it has come to my attention that this story is a meant to speak about the Catholic Church. A priest in the story judges the angel as unfit to be holy because he doesn't fit into his criteria for holy and mythical Our ideas of human faith blinds us. When people think of angels, they expect mystical, beautiful beings. This angel was old and ugly. If one were to look at this being with no assumptions of how angels are supposed to look like, they might find such a being to be beautiful and mythical. People limit themselves when they put God in a box. 

The other Marquez story I read was "The Handsomest Drowned Man". This story involved a drowned man who was taller, stronger, and more beautiful than any other person the people of the island had ever seen. He came to them by the current and was dressed by the women in fine clothing and was essentially worshiped for a time. The women were in awe of him and eventually started calling him Esteban. In addition, the men of the island fell into infatuation when they saw his face as well. He was given a raft so that he could be buried in the ocean but the people put a sail on his raft, in case he ever wanted to come back. Also, their houses were adjusted so that everything was bigger and preserved in the man's honor so that future generations could learn about Esteban. I interpreted this story as rising above contentment. The people seemed to be satisfied with where they were and when that happens, life can become stagnant. They realized that beauty could inspire and will people to want to make more of themselves. This is similar to the movie Garden State where the main character was trying to fight the same thing. 

Cortazar

The works of Julio Cortazar are brilliant and, at times, mind-blowing works of literature. The first story, "The Continuity of Parks", was completely surprising. The story goes from an innocent escape from reality to a sinister betrayal of trust. This was my first experience with magical realism in literature and, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The way that Cortazar bended what is true and what is fantasy completely caught me off guard and I felt betrayed as a reader. It is apparent that magical realism is used in movies today. The concept of reality being challenged is not something new. An example of this would be the movie Fight Club, in which the viewer doesn't find out what reality is until the end of the movie. "The Continuity of Parks" follows a similar format. The reader doesn't find out that the story has been twisted until the end.

The second story by Cortazar, "Axolotl", he tells a story of a man who becomes obsessed with the axolotl and becomes the animal. The axolotl are trapped in an unnatural environment and aren't free to move within their cramped tank. The story is representative of the man feeling trapped within his circumstances. Similarly, I can relate to feeling trapped within my circumstances. When I was in high school, my parents banned me from going to a separate youth group that I had found my identity in. My parents essentially took away the most important thing I valued and, as a teenager, that was very hard to take. I felt trapped and cramped. The notion of feeling trapped and stuck is something I can relate to very well. In Jon Foreman's article, "What's in a Word", he talks about a group of people in India known as the Dalit. These people have been oppressed for over 3000 years and are viewed as lower people in India. They relate closely to the Axolotl in that both the Dalit and Axolotl are cramped and trapped in their circumstances.

The final story that I read by Cortazar was "Our Demeanor at Wakes". This story caused many emotions in me ranging from confusion, anger, and laughter. The whole concept of the story is absolutely absurd in that a family takes over an entire funeral and removes the host family from participating in the funeral. When I was reading this, I imagined this happening to someone I care about and the rage I would feel whilst laughing at the thought of crying over a stranger. However, I can appreciate their attack on hypocrisy and lying. Their approach may have been a terrible way to do so, but the idea behind it wasn't. I feel like I take a bad response to hypocrisy by being sarcastic and, at times, mean about it. I'm fixing that but an occasional, brutal comment will sometimes come from me. With that in mind, I found Cortazar's stories to be brilliant and very enjoyable.

Popol Vuh Reader Response

Popol Vuh is the story of creation of the Maya. The story was transcribed by a Catholic priest in Spain. Because of that, it contains similarities to the Torah's version of creation. As a Christian, I could relate to a lot of the points of creation stated. For example, the gods declared humans to be protectors of the Earth and animals, similar to what God did in the Book of Genesis. Overall, I found the writing style of the Mayans really wordy. They aren't very concise with their wording and often speak in circles. For instance, when Vucub-Caquix was hit with the blowpipe, he sought aid but instead of receiving it, he was given wordy responses that didn't help him. However, I feel like I learned a lot about the Mayans. They believe in humility and giving thanks to the Gods; something that I found refreshing. Humility is one aspect that I constantly try to work on and Popol Vuh showed me a different perspective on how to work on it.