La Relacion By Cabeza De Vaca Summary

Personality in Narratives

(In Analysis: Which Writer Shows More Emotion)

“Their eyesight, hearing and senses in general are better, I believe, than those of any other men upon earth. They can stand, and have to stand, much hunger, thirst and cold, being more accustomed and used to it than others. This I wished to state here, since, besides that all men are curious to know the habits and devices of other, such as might come in contact with those people should be informed of their customs and deeds, which will be of no small profit to them.” (Page 507 Paragraph 29). This was the last part of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca’s La Relacion chapter twenty-five. This narrative is about Cabeza De Vaca’s time with the Avavare Indians. He spent eighteen

months with them and witnessed many different things. The events that he wrote down are in great detail and shows personality in some parts. Not only does he share his story of what went on but he writes down the tales that the Indians told to him. It is cool that he can tell a narrative without dialogue. Even though there is no dialogue the story is clear and easy. Herodotus’s Observations on Egypt shows less personality of Herodotus than La Relacion written by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca does of him.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca’s La Relacion shows personality when he is in awe of the way injured and ill people are cured. Chapter twenty-two starts with Indians bringing ill people to be cured. The next morning the people woke up healthy. They paid with their bow and arrow. Once they were cured the Indians took them away. Cabeza De Vaca says that the country doesn’t talk about anything other than the wonderful cures done by God through the people. He has a story written about him and some Indians going to cure a dying man. Cabeza De Vaca inscribes, “When I came close to their ranches I saw that the dying man we had been called to cure was dead, for there were many people around him weeping and his lodge was torn down, which is a sign that the owner has died. I found the Indian with eyes upturned, without pulse and with all the marks of lifelessness. At least so it seemed to me, and Dorantes said the same. I removed a mat with which he was covered and as best I could I prayed to Our Lord to restore his health, as well as that of all the others who might be in need of it.” (Page 501 Paragraph 4). In the next paragraph the Indians that stayed said that the dead man came back to life. This passage shows that part of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca’s personality is that he is caring. He will care for complete strangers. Not to mention dead strangers. This should be a part of everybody’s personality. Sadly, though it is not so Cabeza De Vaca should be proud of that. It was his praying and breathing on the dead man that brought him back to life. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca deserved the bow and arrow and the baskets that the people gave him for payment.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca describes in detail about suffering from hunger in La Relacion.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca was with the Indians for eighteen months. For six of those months he suffered from hunger. The reason being that that there was no fish among many other things. The hunger ended because the tunas began to ripen. Tunas is the Indian name for prickly pear cactus. The fruit of the tunas is edible. Cabeza De Vaca has the personality type to survive. He will do whatever needs to be done to survive. This quality that he has is the reason that he didn’t die of hunger in those six months. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca composes, “At the end of that time the tunas began to ripen, and without their noticing it we left and went to other Indians further ahead, called Maliacones, at a distance of one day’s travel. Three days after I and the Negro reached there I sent him back to get Castillo and Dorantes, and after they rejoined me we all departed in company of the Indians, who went to eat a small fruit of some trees.” (Pages 502-503 Paragraph 10). Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca also shows that he won’t abandon people. He scoped it out then sent the other person back for the rest, when they arrived the crew continued on with more people and together. Cabeza De Vaca has the personality of the need to survive and

togetherness.
Personality is shown in La Relacion written by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca by the way he shares how he gets his injuries. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca devises, “The country is so rough and overgrown that often after we had gathered firewood in the timber and dragged it out, we would bleed freely from the thorns and spines which cut and slashed us wherever they touched. Sometimes it happened that I was unable to carry or drag out the firewood after I had gathered it with much loss of blood. In all that trouble my only relief or consolation was to remember the passion of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the blood He shed for me, and to ponder how much greater His sufferings had been from the thorns, than those I was then enduring.” (Page 503 Paragraph 12). This passage displays that fact that Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca can think of other people’s sufferings even when he is injured himself. He is compassionate and thoughtful. Cabeza De Vaca lost a lot of blood looking for timber to build a fire and he got relief by thinking of Jesus losing blood through the thorn crown and the blood that he shed for everyone. Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca is kind and thoughtful and that is more than you can say about most people.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca’s La Relacion shows more personality than Herodotus does in his narrative Observations on Egypt.

Herodotus does show personality in his narrative but not as much as Cabeza De Vaca. Herodotus pretty much just wrote what the Greeks took from Egypt and tales that he was told. He also analyzed the tales after he wrote them. While Cabeza De Vaca wrote about events that occurred to him when he was with the Indians. He talked about how overjoyed he was with the ill and injured people getting cured, how he suffered from hunger for six months, and the way him and others treated their injuries they got from the country. In paragraph 21 on page 505 Cabeza De Vaca writes, “They are all warriors and so astute in guarding themselves from an enemy as if trained in continuous wars and in Italy. When in places where their enemies can offend them, they set their lodges on the edge of the roughest and densest timber and dig a trench close to it in which they sleep. The men at arms are hidden by brushwood and have their loopholes, and are so well covered and concealed that even at close range they cannot be

seen.”