Due to the use of cyclical time and a number of binaries, Carlos Fuentes' Aura serves as a great example of a magical realism. Some of the predominant binaries in the novel are dark & light, old & young, as well as past & present.
The binary of past & present ties into the idea of cyclical time because it becomes difficult in the novel to tell apart the past from the present. This is because with cyclical time, things keep happening over and over again, making it difficult to define the past and present. The reader becomes more and more aware of this binary as we learn about the connection between Aura and Senora Consuelo. As the story goes on, it becomes more apparent that Aura and Senora Consuelo imitate each other's actions. By the end, the reader learns that the two women are actually one in the same. Senora Consuelo sent out the job advertisement hoping that Felipe would accept and eventually fall in love with Aura, who turns out to be Senora from the past in attempt to reincarnate her love with General Llorente. It makes even more sense once Felipe goes through several pictures of Senora and the General and notices that he actually looks exactly like General Llorente. This is a clear display of magical realism because even though Senora Consuelo is on her deathbed, she is able to reconnect her love with her husband by doing it through Aura and Felipe.
Considering the fact that the binary of past & present is displayed throughout the novel, it is safe to say that the binary of old & young is present as well. The reader learns that Senora Consuelo is 109 years old in the story, which obviously is an extremely old age, and that her husband has been dead for 59 years. Perhaps Senora Consuelo is able to live on and on until she finds that match for Aura (who turns out to be Felipe). Age is really the only things that differentiates Senora Consuelo from Aura and Felipe from General Llorente because they turn out to be the same people in the end.
Another binary displayed in Aura is dark & light. Maybe Carlos Fuentes made the house dark so that Felipe would never be able to catch on to the resemblence between Aura and Senora Consuelo. The darkness of the house set sort of a mysterious and ominous mood because the reader didn't know what to expect a lot of the time. The darkness of the house could symbolize how Felipe was in the dark about this situation the entire time. Then when the light from the moon shined on Aura at the end of the story, Carlos Fuentes describes "You stop kissing those fleshless lips, those toothless gums: the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back" (Fuentes 145).
By using binaries and the concept of cyclical time, Fuentes highlights the themes of love and religion which are two very important aspects of Mexican culture. The entire novel is based off of the idea of love, and Fuentes shows in this story how love lives on forever in Latino cultures and how it ties into spirits. We learned from Pedro Paramo that life & death is an important concept in Mexican culture, so it is no surprise that Carlos Fuentes chooses to re-create Senora Consuelo's love for Gernal Llorente through two other spirits. This idea of spiritualism ties into the theme of religion that we see in the story as well. We see Senora Consuelo praying to her wall of religious figures at some point in the story, and my bet is that she was praying for Felipe (the spirit of General Llorente) to fall in love with Aura (her own spirit). All these examples show how important the concepts of love and religion are in Mexican culture.
Due to the use of cyclical time and a number of binaries, Carlos Fuentes' Aura serves as a great example of a magical realism. Some of the predominant binaries in the novel are dark & light, old & young, as well as past & present.
ReplyDeleteThe binary of past & present ties into the idea of cyclical time because it becomes difficult in the novel to tell apart the past from the present. This is because with cyclical time, things keep happening over and over again, making it difficult to define the past and present. The reader becomes more and more aware of this binary as we learn about the connection between Aura and Senora Consuelo. As the story goes on, it becomes more apparent that Aura and Senora Consuelo imitate each other's actions. By the end, the reader learns that the two women are actually one in the same. Senora Consuelo sent out the job advertisement hoping that Felipe would accept and eventually fall in love with Aura, who turns out to be Senora from the past in attempt to reincarnate her love with General Llorente. It makes even more sense once Felipe goes through several pictures of Senora and the General and notices that he actually looks exactly like General Llorente. This is a clear display of magical realism because even though Senora Consuelo is on her deathbed, she is able to reconnect her love with her husband by doing it through Aura and Felipe.
Considering the fact that the binary of past & present is displayed throughout the novel, it is safe to say that the binary of old & young is present as well. The reader learns that Senora Consuelo is 109 years old in the story, which obviously is an extremely old age, and that her husband has been dead for 59 years. Perhaps Senora Consuelo is able to live on and on until she finds that match for Aura (who turns out to be Felipe). Age is really the only thing that differentiates Senora Consuelo from Aura and Felipe from General Llorente because they turn out to be the same people in the end.
Another binary displayed in Aura is dark & light. Maybe Carlos Fuentes made the house dark so that Felipe would never be able to catch on to the resemblence between Aura and Senora Consuelo. The darkness of the house creates sort of a mysterious and ominous mood because the reader doesn't know what to expect a lot of the time. The darkness of the house could symbolize how Felipe is in the dark about this situation the entire time. Then when the light from the moon shines on Aura at the end of the story, Carlos Fuentes states "You stop kissing those fleshless lips, those toothless gums: the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back" (Fuentes 145).
By using binaries and the concept of cyclical time, Fuentes highlights the themes of love and religion which are two very important aspects of Mexican culture. The entire novel is based off of the idea of love, and Fuentes shows in this story how love lives on forever in Latino cultures and how it ties into spirits. We learned from Pedro Paramo that life & death is an important concept in Mexican culture, so it is no surprise that Carlos Fuentes chooses to re-create Senora Consuelo's love for Gernal Llorente through two other spirits. This idea of spiritualism ties into the theme of religion that we see in the story as well. We see Senora Consuelo praying to her wall of religious figures at some point in the story, and my bet is that she was praying for Felipe (the spirit of General Llorente) to fall in love with Aura (her own spirit). By incorporating all of these binaries, Fuentes is sending a message to the audience that is very similar to that of Juan Rulfo. Fuentes is mourning Mexico in this novel because he is trying to say how there are practically no boundaries between life and death, old and young, and the past and present in Mexico.