Fuentes has used cyclical time, removed the boundaries between past, present and future, the theme of youth and beauty and blurs the fine line between the real and imaginary as magic realist devices. We learn in the novel that Aura is actually a projection of the 109 year old widow when she was young and beautiful. Her beauty and green eyes were so memorizing to Felipe it was almost unreal, she is somewhat “fantastic”. Once we figured out that Aura was in fact the older woman we see the system of cyclical time. We see the old women weak and fragile meanwhile we see the young and beautiful Aura in the same setting. They move in unison when together as if mimicking each other “the girl nods and at the same instant the old lady imitates her gestures.” Also, Felipe sees a garden from his window, but when he asks the widow about the garden she says that they do not have a garden and haven’t for quite some a while, so does this mean in this scene we have the present Felipe seeing the a garden from the past? The past present and the future are all blended together. It is hard to distinguish what is what and what is real or imagined. Once Felipe realized that Aura is the older woman we begin to question whether she exists at all of if he has been engaging with the elderly widow all along. Also, when he finds the photos of the widow dating back long ago it is then we see Aura, and Felipe mentions that if he covers the beard of General LLorente, he says it looks exactly like him which makes the reader wonder if he is too just a projection of his youth. Everything in the novel seems to be unreal, starting early in the novel with the advertisement in a newspaper that is seemed “to be addressed to you and nobody else.” Then there is also the house, which is filled with darkness and mystery, Felipe has to create a world that is based on his senses and experiences in the dark world of the house.
There are many mentions of religion and prayer throughout the story. The widow’s room has a wall of religious objects. Felipe sees the woman in front of it kneeled down. This elderly woman is 109 and hunched over very old and very fragile but she finds the strength to get herself up out of her bed to pray and almost did not have enough strength to get back to bed. “You realize that without your assistance she would have to get back to bed on her hands and knees.” There is also a black crucifix in the Aura’s room. Fuentes highlights religion to show how important religion and worship is in the Mexican culture. the Catholic Church has been a very powerful institution in Mexican history. Mexicans are mostly Catholic, and religious symbolism and meaning have an important place in their day to day lives.
Fuentes has used cyclical time, removed the boundaries between past, present and future, the theme of youth and beauty and he blurs the line between real and imaginary as magic realist devices in this novel. We learn that Aura is actually a projection of the 109 year old widow when she was young and beautiful. Her beauty and green eyes were so memorizing to Felipe it was almost unreal, she was “fantastic”. Once we figured out that Aura was in fact the older woman we see the system of cyclical time. We see the old weak and fragle woman living in the same house as the young and beautiful Aura. They move in unison as if mimicking each other “the girl nods and at the same instant the old lady imitates her gestures.” Also, Felipe sees a garden from his window, but when he asks the widow about the garden he is told that there is no garden and hasn’t been for quite some time. Does this mean that in this scene we have the present Felipe seeing the a garden from the past? The past present and the future are all blended together. It is hard to distinguish what is what and what is real or imagined. Once Felipe realized that Aura is actually the older woman we begin to question whether she exists at all or if he has been engaging with the elderly widow all along. Also, when he finds the photos of the widow dating back long ago it is then we see Aura, and Felipe mentions that if he covers the beard of General LLorente, it looks exactly like him. This makes the reader wonder if he is too just a projection of his youth. Everything in the novel seems to be unreal, starting early in the novel with the advertisement in a newspaper that is seemed “to be addressed to you and nobody else.” Then there is also the house, which is filled with darkness and mystery, Felipe has to create a world that is based on his senses and experiences in the dark world of the house.
ReplyDeleteThere are many mentions of religion and prayer throughout the story. The widow’s room has a wall of religious objects where Felipe sees the woman in front of it kneeled down. She is a very old and fragile woman but she finds the strength to get herself up out of her bed to pray and almost did not have enough strength to get back to bed. “You realize that without your assistance she would have to get back to bed on her hands and knees.” There is also a black crucifix in the Aura’s room. Fuentes highlights religion to show how important religion and worship is in the Mexican culture. The Catholic Church has been a very powerful institution in Mexican history. Mexicans are mostly Catholic, and religious symbolism and meaning have an important place in their day to day lives.