Emotional journeys also create feelings of entertainment, passion, growth, and critical thinking. In the highly praised book made up of a compilation of essays titled Darling by Richard Rodriguez the normal system of human social elements and emotional responses are assessed and analyzed. The book Darling despite its subtitle as a spiritual autobiography is more so an account of a spiritual journey and not so much a biography of one idea. In fact, it is more so a biography of multiple intertwining thoughts and ideas that range from the relationship between different landscapes, the rights of women and gay peoples, as well as the struggle of sexual orientation and religion. These ideas are conveyed during different historical points in history. From the era of Cesar Chavez to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas and the stressful endless traffic jams of California highways. A careful reading of the book shows that Rodriguez incorporated a number of different themes to add to the overall theme of the book which can first be seen in the title essay.
First, the greatest part about the book is that it pushes controversial themes aggressively. For example, in one part of the book Rodriguez seems to suggest that Jerusalem is not as important as a historical site as many claim it is. Rather, it is its astounding construction that draws people’s attentions. This can be seen in Rodriguez quote on the second page of chapter two, “Jerusalem is as condensed as self-referential, as Rubik’s cube” (pg. 26). The title essay, Chapter 5, centers on an intimate conversation with a heterosexual divorced woman who tells Rodriguez about her life long journey to understand her emotional need of intimacy, or lack thereof. The women, who is later identifie...
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... It is in these final chapters that the audience is able to understand that they will not truly know if Rodriguez is yet able to find out how religion will fit into his future or whether any of Rodriguez will ever truly answer all the questions he has been pondering.
In all, it appears that it is the willingness to go against the norm, to think outside the box, and to accept controversy that enables Richard Rodriguez’s book Darling to be truly ingenious. Controversies reject solutions just as Rodriguez claims the desert says no to tranquility. Rodriquez’s compilation of essays sheds a great deal of light about the interworking’s of an intellectual individual that has encountered and continues to seek such encounters that seem to go against his religious views, decisions, and thoughts.
Works Cited
Rodriguez, R. (2013). Darling: A spiritual autobiography.
Gabriel García Márquez, 1982 Nobel Laureate, is well known for using el realismo magical, magical realism, in his novels and short stories. In García Márquez’s cuento “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” García Márquez tactfully conflates fairytale and folklore with el realismo magical. García Márquez couples his mastery of magical realism with satire to construct a comprehensive narrative that unites the supernatural with the mundane. García Márquez’s not only criticizes the Catholic Church and the fickleness of human nature, but he also subliminally relates his themes—suffering is impartial, religion is faulty by practice, and filial piety—through the third-person omniscient narration of “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes.” In addition to García Márquez’s narrative style, the author employs the use of literary devices such as irony, anthropomorphism, and a melancholic tone to condense his narrative into a common plane. García Márquez’s narrative style and techniques combine to create a linear plot that connects holy with homely.
Throughout the life cycle, a person undergoes many changes. One matures both physically and emotionally as time passes. Emotional growth is quite often more difficult than physical growth. A person must realize his faults and admit to them before he can develop emotionally, while one does not need any self-analyzation to develop physically. In her book Ordinary People, Judith Guest depicts the struggles man must experience in order to reach his ideal emotional perfection. Conrad, the book's protagonist, and his father Calvin, were both searching for higher levels of emotional health. Conrad had to let out and face all the feelings he had repressed, while Calvin had to correct his confused perspectives on life.
...eedom was found and cultural boundaries were not shattered, simply battered, the narrator’s path was much preferable to that of her sisters (those who conformed to cultural boundaries). Through this story we can see how oppression in certain cultures changes individuals differently, creates tension between those who do not wish to be subjugated and those doing the subjugating, and we see the integral opposition between the path of Catholicism and that of curandismo.
The California that the Joads knew was both an environmental and spiritual desert. Man against man, brother against brother, all everything conspired against happiness in favor of bitter reality. The mournful tone brings the prose along like a dirge. However, there is dignity in suffering together, a dignity that the Joads possessed in spades. In simply surviving and doing the best they could, this family was sanctified. In carrying on and recognizing their value, they transformed their own lives and the lives of many of those whose paths they crossed. When facing endless animosity, Tom sought togetherness, to improve a situation. A transformation began inside of him, and he transferred it to his fellow man.
Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.
Most individuals have experienced the everlasting joy and love that comes with caring family and friends, but the realization is that agony and despair will always win the war of light and dark, and family and friends are simply just impeding the end result. When a child is born, agony is already set in place, for screaming and crying will commence as soon as the child feels hands clasped on to him. However, this agony is soon met with joy as the child is met with his mother’s soothing heartbeat. Moreover, sometimes this heartbeat never comes, and thus, agony and despair stay within this child’s heart forever. Jimmy Baca, a lost young man who has only witnessed pain in his life, is this child. Furthermore, there comes a time in every individual’s
...tyle that alludes to the multitude of constantly changing and sometimes even contradictory elements in each characters journey to racially and sexually define themselves. Audre, Miguel and Leticia hold multiple racial and sexual identities in a fluid constant that change depending on their location and social context. Instead of serving as a bridge for their families, these characters break free of their place of origin and connect the multiple elements that inform their realities in order to adapt them to their present. Race and sexuality are inextricably linked. To believe in one true sexual or racial identity allows for a feeling of safety, as the aim is then find a definable, core sense of self; however, these three texts illustrate that a singular form of identity is insufficient at defining the complexity of human racial and sexual experiences.
It has been said that there are only about 18 or so themes that describe the human condition. This quote was made in reference to Shakespeare, and posited that all of the books and movies that we digest and assimilate can be shown to have their roots in these canonical themes. In Cien Anos, Marquez addresses several of these themes in the subtle and interlocking ways that they deserve. This paper will concentrate on two interrelated themes: progress and innocence. In its exploration of these concerns, this novel provides no less than a rendering of the trajectory of human evolution.
Bergmann, Emilie. "Abjection and Ambiguity: Lesbian Desire in Bemberg's "Yo, la peor de todas." Hispanisms and Homosexualities. Ed. Sylvia Molloy and Robert McKee Irwin. Durham: Duke UP, 1998.
The quote “Enrique cannot see blood, but he senses it everywhere. It runs in gooey dribbles down his face and out his ears and nose. It tastes bitter in his mouth….The sun is high and hot. Enriques left eyelid won't open. His battered knees don't want to bend” is a great example of how the author gets our attention by appealing to our emotions (Nazario 61). In Sonia Nazarios book “Enrique's Journey,” the author does a great job of using all three of the Aristotelian appeals. The one that stands out the most is pathos, the appeal to emotion. In this novel, the author uses pathos to better the story; and try to change the minds of Americans about immigration by using many different techniques such as
In the novel, Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a boy goes through many more experiences than any child in the hot summer days in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. He witnesses the deaths of his close friends and family. This boy expresses his emotions and grief through his dreams, only to wake up with fear and confusion in his mind. Antonio’s life is filled with dreams that foreshadow future incidents, as well as influences Antonio’s beliefs of religion and ideas of innocence.
People thrived to experience life, and to seek out emotions, whether they were good or bad. This emotion and imagination of th...
First given as a speech, this article is written as an attack on human emotion.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of “Avery Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a well-known Colombian author “that has been considered one of the best writers of the 20th century”(Macondo). He published his first collection of short stories in 1955, which included the fictional short story written for children, called the “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” In his work, he expresses that it is possible that he may have experienced similar cruelty within his life and the life of others. ‘We've entered a cultural realm in our own collective history where it has become necessary to question what's real.”(Sellman) It is Marquez's purpose to make individuals aware of the harm that is inflicted on others. He demonstrates how awful people can act around those who are different from what society considers as normal.
Probably the most important issue in the novel, and certainly the one which has received the most attention on our campus, is the question of whether, in the final analysis, Rodrigues did the "right thing" in choosing to apostatize. I will leave this question for later, however, as I believe that its significance is such that it can only be done justice once all the surrou...