Aura- AWR

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.

Aura JG

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.

Aura - MRB

The most important systems displayed in the book Aura, by Carlos Fuentes are the binaries between present and past, as well as young and elderly. These devices are fused together by the use of cyclical time in the novel and are represented in many forms. These devices infuse the novel with a sense of magical realism. The first use of the present and past device is when Felipe goes to Consuelo’s house and has trouble finding it because many of these old houses have been redone and their house numbers have been changed. This represents the ancient culture of Mexico that has changed over the years but always keeps its same beliefs and ideals. This sense of cyclical time is displayed in how Aura & Felipe are seen as the reincarnation of Consuelo and General Llorente.
Consuelo uses magic to control what Aura does and it seems to me as though this same magic was used in order to find Felipe using that ad in the newspaper and have him come to the house to discover his past life as General Llorente and his new love in Aura. This magic was also displayed when Felipe found Aura skinning an animal in the kitchen, then very soon after saw Consuelo waving her arms in the same motion that Aura was displaying in the kitchen as if she was controlling when and how Aura moves. Knowing this gave Aura a feeling of mystery because you never really knew whether what she was saying or doing was through her own power, or whether it was Consuelo who was saying and doing these things. In a sense, when Felipe made love to Aura and told her he loved her forever and always, it was as if General Llorente was making love to Consuelo in their past life and the love they shared was reincarnated through Felipe and Aura. This everlasting love is a representation of Mexico’s traditional ways and culture where love actually is meaningful and the love shared between a husband and wife will last forever unlike in America where nearly 1/3 of marriages end in divorce. At first Felip does not like Consuelo and actually tries to escape with Aura on the day that Consuelo is out of the house, but on that same day he discoveries the man he once was and embraces his past and love for Consuelo by kissing and feeling Consuelo under the moonlight that night.

NEB AURA

“Aura” is a book that serves as an example the elements of Magical Realism by developing a cyclical setting and questioning the reader’s substance and existence. Some of the most important binaries throughout the novel are: past and present, real and imaginary, dark and light, old and young, life and death, heaven and hell, and the reader and the protagonist.

The author puts into question the boundaries between the past and the present when Felipe goes to the house that was listed on the newspaper to find out that there are very old and new buildings, with old and new numbers, symbolizing the old and new Mexico. The house represents the idea of Magical Realism by showing the relationship between light and dark. Felipe goes from living in a world full of light to a house where the only room with light is his own everything else is in complete dark. Every little thing in the house has some mystery that makes the reader wonder why is everything so unusual. This adjustment to one’s reality is another important characteristic of Magic Realism that is present in the novel. Moreover, other important example of this past/present binary is when almost at the end of the book Felipe finds out that he is the General Llorente or at least his reincarnation and again the cyclical timing comes to play.

The binary between youth and elderly is probably the most important one in the book relating specifically to Aura and Consuelo. Consuelo uses her niece, Aura, to reflect a younger version of her. The dividing line between past and present is destroyed at the end of the book because the old woman of 109 years of age is actually the same as the young niece. Felipe is tangled between his desire and need for Aura and his rejection towards Consuelo, the same person. The relationship of life and death is very particular, mainly because Consuelo has lost her desire to live as soon as her husband died. Consequently even though she is alive, she wants to die; however, my question is why is she so worried about her youth if what she wants is to be with her husband infinitely in time (heaven). By the same token, the binary of heaven and hell is present as well because despite that she prays to saints throughout the novel and wants to achieve saintliness; by doing magic spells to bring her younger version alive she is being evil and not of God.

At the beginning of the novel the author uses the word ‘’You’re’’ (Fuentes p.3), this was how the binary of reader and protagonist was created. It allowed the reader to imagine that he/she was Felipe, and even though this can get very confusing at times but it force the reader to adjust to the new reality. The idea that it takes only three days for all this history occur seems to be impossible because Felipe and Aura treated each other as if they had long been living together however this is an adjustment to the reality and part of magic realism that gets cleared up at the end of the novel.

Fuentes tries to highlight and expose the importance of religion in Latin America specifically in Mexico. Catholic honoring, worships and glorifications, are very important practices in Mexico before during and after the revolution. Conversely, because I am from Latin America I know that in these countries apart from the extreme religious practices there are also customs to use magic, specifically black magic. The author is making a binary comparison between religion and magic, good and evil in Mexico. Specifically, how a person can worship God and worship the devil. In our culture, it is very common to associate black cats with bad luck, that is to say that Mexico and other Latin American countries have a very superstitious society and Fuentes used cats throughout the book to give the reader a sense of ambiguity.

Aura

Select the important binaries/systems/etc. to which Fuentes has attached magic realist devices. Explain the use of magic realism in Aura. What does Fuentes highlight about Mexico by choosing to highlight systems or binaries or whatever you choose to label them?

Pedro Paramo - SKK

Pedro Paramo

Pedro Paramo is about Juan Preciado who goes out on an adventure to seek his parents, although he was sent on a journey that seems like a twisted fantasy although everything to him seems real. Two entities that were used in the book are the relationship between the living and the dead, and about time. Juan was on his journey to search for his father when he comes across a fellow traveler Abundio who helps Juan find Comala. The story goes from normal to extraordinary and fantastic when he finds out that Abundio is dead. We also find out that everyone in the town is dead as well. The second entity affected is the sense of time. Once Juan has reached Comala the story becomes timeless. Juan gets flashbacks and the story goes back and forth from past to present. The story shifts from the present time while Juan is in Comala, he reminisces back to times with his mother and grandmother. Whenever he hears the stories of the ghost about his father, the time shifts to when he was alive.

Pedro Paramo- AWR

Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo is a novel that clearly demonstrates the themes of magical realism throughout the story. Magical realistic literature attempts to incorporate magical elements with a realistic plot in order to find the deeper meaning of things. By using the themes of life & death and time, Juan Rulfo is able to give the reader a much better understanding of the concept of magical realism, as he uses numerous literary devices throughout the novel.

Life and death is the predominant device used in Rulfo's story in attempt to display magical realism. We notice this as Juan Preciado continues to hear voices and see people in Comala throughout the story even though everybody is actually dead. It's this sixth sense that Juan acquires that shows why this book has magical realism written all over it. He doesn't understand why he's hearing these voices until he hears from Damiana Cisneros that the town is "filled with echoes" (Rulfo 42). The idea of life & death is what allows Juan Preciado to learn about his family's past and untangle the reality that he was seeking to discover in the first place. This theme is a reflection of Mexican culture because the death is more significant in Mexico than it is in America. People of Latino cultures have a holiday that celebrates the dead, and death is much more meaningful to them.

Time is another device used by Juan Rulfo in Pedro Paramo that exemplifies magical realism. Rulfo constantly jumps back and forth in his story, talking about the past at one moment and the present in the next. By referring back to the past and the life of Pedro Paramo, it makes it easier for the reader to understand why he is hearing/seeing the things that he is. Juan Preciado has the ability to see and hear things from Comala's past that eventually gives him a better understanding of Pedro Paramo and his family's past. The concept of time is most likely used by Rulfo in this story because Mexican culture reflects more upon its past. Unlike American culture, Mexican culture is very traditional and doesn't change that much as time goes on.