what a change from facundo! i am enjoying reading this book so far, although there are many different people to keep track of. situations and people are described very well, which is where i feel that theres a lot of metaphors i'm missing. Asturias is trying to prove many points in various ways which i feel guilty for not completely understanding.
on pages 54 and 55 i found it very "interesting" the way the children were being portrayed. page 54 describes the entertainment, and even happiness that children experience at the sight of someone suffering blow, and crying, etc. i'm hopefully understanding this the correct way, as that the youth is already being molded to be insensitive to violence and human suffering, which is what is/would be occuring during the dictatorship.
also, on page 55 it subtly says how groups of boys (implying young people, the youth) "would amuse themselves " waiting anxiously for violence to occur. it is one thing for adults to be violent and entertained by it, but for a young, innocent, girl or boy to already be happy to see suffering, is another huge problem, it is training from the very beginning. to me it seems as though one important point Asturias is proving is how awful a dictatorship is even the youth is taking part in human suffering, when the youth is supposed to be happy, innocent, and not involved in such things.
overall, i'm liking this book, but it's also hard for me to swallow since many scenes are described in such detail that i begin to feel sick because of what is happening.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
facundo
for me it's been a struggle to get through the last part of Facundo. like the first half of the book, i found the second half just as dry. even though it's been difficult to read, i also found myself feeling scared while reading the book. in that sense, Sarmiento is a good writer, because what he was writing felt pretty real to me. i found myself putting myself in the position of the people living at that time, under the influence of Facundo. i cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to live in such fear.
even though it was not actually Facundo, but Rosas who was inflicting such horrors on the people of Argentina, Sarmiento did a good job of making it feel real. as a woman, it is hard to hear that there was not even mercy shown towards the women in the book.
overall, although i did not really enjoy the book, i think it was productive in triggering an emotion in me, which is what i believe Sarmiento wanted to do, because that is what produces change (and acting on that emotion).
even though it was not actually Facundo, but Rosas who was inflicting such horrors on the people of Argentina, Sarmiento did a good job of making it feel real. as a woman, it is hard to hear that there was not even mercy shown towards the women in the book.
overall, although i did not really enjoy the book, i think it was productive in triggering an emotion in me, which is what i believe Sarmiento wanted to do, because that is what produces change (and acting on that emotion).
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
1st half of Facundo
After reading these first chapters, I realized I don't know much about this subject. i did find the first chapters a bit dry for my liking. (sorry my computer had to restart, so now I'm continuing!) however, the first four chapters helped me understand chapter 5 explaining the life of Facundo. i am eager to continue reading to learn more about the life of Facundo.
when talking about poetry in chapter 2, i found it interesting how it talks about how, no matter what the race, origin, or location of a certain people, their natural instincts seem to be the same, as proven in the examples of the different writings, and the assumption of the reader as to what was going to happen next. (this was on page 60). in anthropology i have learned that common sense can, and usually is unique to different cultures and races, so it really stuck out to mean that in this case, it proves that some basic ideas are universal to most cultures. it seems as though these examples are cases in which the character is in great danger, and perhaps that is when human instincts are universal.
i did like how clearly barbarism and civilization where described, although i did not like how they were defined. it just makes me cringe when the indigenous people are negatively labeled, the the "white Europeans" are labeled as superior and "civilized", but i know this is important in what Sarmiento was trying show in his writing.
when talking about poetry in chapter 2, i found it interesting how it talks about how, no matter what the race, origin, or location of a certain people, their natural instincts seem to be the same, as proven in the examples of the different writings, and the assumption of the reader as to what was going to happen next. (this was on page 60). in anthropology i have learned that common sense can, and usually is unique to different cultures and races, so it really stuck out to mean that in this case, it proves that some basic ideas are universal to most cultures. it seems as though these examples are cases in which the character is in great danger, and perhaps that is when human instincts are universal.
i did like how clearly barbarism and civilization where described, although i did not like how they were defined. it just makes me cringe when the indigenous people are negatively labeled, the the "white Europeans" are labeled as superior and "civilized", but i know this is important in what Sarmiento was trying show in his writing.
Monday, January 14, 2008
1st half of Facundo
After reading these first chapters, I realized I don't know much about this subject. i found the first chapters a bit dry f
Thursday, January 10, 2008
1st post!
So, this is my first time using this, and I'm just posting whatever comes to my mind...this is for my spanish 312 class, and I'll be doing this every week! I hope I'm doing it right!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)