Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s No One Writes to the Colonel is the story of a poor, retired colonel, a veteran of the Thousand Days' War, who still optimes to receive the pension he was promised some fifteen years earlier. The novel is set during the years of "La Violencia" in Colombia, when martial law and censorship exist. Despite the martial law that is oppressing the country, the Colonel remains hopeful that his pension will come, and is a beacon of hope for the village. The Colonel is worthy of admiration because of the way he represents hope while also struggling with poverty and political oppression. Several months prior to the opening of the story, the Colonel’s son, Agustín, had been killed at a cockfight for distributing secret political literature. The Colonel is torn between his desire to keep his son’s prizefighting cock in order to enter it into the cockfights in January and his need to sell it to provide food for himself and his wife. The story focuses primarily on the Colonel’s pride in trying to conceal his poverty-stricken state and his ironic and humorous outlook to his situation. The central metaphors in the story are the pension, which never arrives, but for which the colonel never ceases to hope, and the fighting cock, which also represents hope, as well as his son’s, and therefore the whole village’s, political rebellion. Although at the time, he was under political oppression he keeps his pride and dignity. The colonel has kept the rooster from his dead son and hopes …show more content…
Despite his stubbornness about selling the rooster, and treating the rooster better than his own wife, his hope and the routine he keeps in his everyday life make him admirable. He had no doubts that someday he and his wife would have food, despite her arguments. He and the rooster represented hope in a time of war, poverty, and political
The situation with Mandy in Ed Vega’s short story “Spanish Roulette”, portrays a young women’s innocence being stolen and the distress that was brought upon the family thereafter. The narrator focuses on Sixto Andrade, the brother of Mandy, and how he deals with the situation. Although Mandy’s character is not directly introduced, she is significant because she is the purpose of the plot and she impacts the actions of her brother.
¡Diles que no me maten! A short story by Juan Rulfo, which depicts the reality of a peasant’s life in rural Mexico. This short story is about a farmer who had a disagreement with the landowner after asking if he would be able to share his animals’ food. Due to the refusal the farmer sneaked his animals at night to feed them; however, when the landowner found out he killed one of the farmer’s cattle. As a result, the farmer killed his landowner; consequently he had to hide for over 40 years only to be murdered later on by the landowner’s son. This paper will discuss the following ideas; themes explored in the short story such as family, death and revenge. Then, an analysis of the strong need of survival and the symbolism of corn crops. Continuing to the structure of the short story and what it adds up to the overall understanding of the story. Finally, there will be a conclusion of all the aspects and what findings are reached after reading this short story.
A theme evident in the play Seven Guitars was the African-American man’s struggle for dignity and self-awareness against society and its malevolence. The rooster representing the average African-American man and Canewell and Hedley’s encounters with the rooster in the play depict this. Canewell talks about how roosters down south are different from the roosters up north. He says that the roosters did not crow during times of slavery. Crowing symbolizes waking up, with no crowing no one ...
Black Hearts tells the story of a few bad soldiers from 1st platoon, Bravo company of the 1-502nd Infantry Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, that was plagued with toxic leadership and lack of control over soldiers. The book documents the events that led to the ultimate demise of the soldiers involved in the horrific incident that occurred on March 12, 2006. Four soldiers were arrested in the brutal murder of an Iraqi family, which was a result of the lack of leadership and structure these soldiers received. Black Hearts takes a deep look into what happened to this troubled platoon and what unfortunate events occurred during their deployment.
Throughout an individual’s life-time, he/she has a vision as o what his/her should be. But when things do not go as planned and the unexpected occurs, does that person face it, or run away? In “An Act of Vengeance” by Isabel Allende, running away is not an option at well. Through the usage of plot, character and irony, Allende illustrates the cost of war.
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
Junot Diaz's short story “Fiesta, 1980” gives an insight into the everyday life of a lower class family, a family with a troubled young boy, Yunior and a strong, abusive father, Papi. The conflict, man vs. man is one of the central themes of this story. This theme is portrayed through the conflicts between Papi and his son. Papi asserts his dominance in what can be considered unfashionable ways. Unconsciously, every action Papi makes yields negative reactions for his family. Yunior simply yearns for a tighter bond with his father, but knows-just like many other members of his family-Papi’s outlandish ways hurts him. As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the conflicts between Papi and himself-along with conflicts between Yunior and himself-affect not only them as individuals, but their family as a whole.
In “The Fortune Teller,” the author, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, uses symbolism to prove to one that an affair is not worth a person’s life. He uses the letter to symbolize hate between Villela and Camillo regarding the affair. This very ambiguous letter has terrified Camillo and put an end to his life. The letter enhances the theme of the short story by showing the anger and hate that Villela now had for Camillo. This hate is a focal point in the short story that leads to ending the affair along with Camillo and Rita’s life. Ultimately, the affair caused a large amount of tension between the three. However, the author was successful in grabbing the reader’s attention with the letter as the turning point of the short story.
Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to
In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the combination of the carnival and the catacomb settings contribute to the themes of revenge, and deception which the protagonist takes responsibility in. Because the story takes place during the carnival, the protagonist, Montressor, has an easier time plotting against Fortunato:
Hemingway presents takes the several literary styles to present this short story. Hemingway’s use of Foreshadowing, Pathos, Imagery and Personification allows the reader to enter the true context of the frustration and struggle that the couples face. Although written in the 1920’s it the presents a modern day conflict of communication that millions of couples face. At first glance the beautiful landscape of the Barcelonian hillside in which Jig refers to frequently throughout the text appears to have taken the form of White Elephants. The Americans’ response to Jigs’ observation was less than enthusiastic as he provides a brief comment and continues on with his cerveza. This was but the first of the many verbal jousts to come between Jig and the American. The metaphorical inferences in those verbal confrontations slowly uncover the couple’s dilemma and why they may be on the waiting for the train to Madrid.
Edgar Allen Poe’s tale of murder and revenge, “The Cask of Amontillado”, offers a unique perspective into the mind of a deranged murderer. The effectiveness of the story is largely due to its first person point of view, which allows the reader a deeper involvement into the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, Montresor. The first person narration results in an unbalanced viewpoint on the central conflict of the story, man versus man, because the reader knows very little about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato. The setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, in the dark catacombs of Montresor’s wine cellar, contributes to the story’s theme that some people will go to great lengths to fanatically defend their honor.
Honor is a concept that is held true and dear to the residents of the Columbian town depicted in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Honor can represent the status of one’s family, it can determine whether a person is fit for marriage and, if stolen, can resort to violent consequences. In the Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold honor is a prominent theme that is underscored through a major symbol as well as various characters throughout the novel. Each character displays their respect towards honor in different ways.
In the Carpenter’s Pencil, Herbal, a Nationalist guard, narrates the traumatic story of the Civil War through the account of a Republican doctor, Daniel Da Barcas, to Maria Davisitaçåo, a Portuguese-speaking African prostitute. This narrative counteracts the Spanish collective memory of rebel Galicia (Hirsch, 109) by vindicating the memory of Galician resistance, it also fuels the collective memory of Republican values as progressive and enlightened and Nationalists ones as conservative and ruthless, while at the same time providing an alternative to the collective memory of the triumphant Rebels through illustrating some of the atrocities committed by the Nationalists against the Republicans in Galicia, and the consequent guilt that some Rebels
Gabriel García Márquez is arguably Latin America’s most well known writer and socialist with Marxist ideals. His short story, Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon, is one that well exemplifies a few ideals of Marxism, without enforcing a political agenda, something only the greatest writers can achieve. One concept of Marxism is that capitalism can only thrive on the exploitation of the working class. This leads to economic conflict which creates class tension, this type of disputation is prevalent within Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon. To begin, the setting of the story is not clear, it is assumably in a small town since everyone is familiar with one another and the titles and careers of the characters are exposed in the story. One can also assume