Werner Herzog's “Aguirre, The Wrath of God” is a dramatic film that illustrates the attempts of a Spanish expedition to find El Dorado, a South American city of gold and riches. However, the gold in El Dorado was just a legend and Herzog describes how the Indians of the region invented this myth to trick the conquistadores. Herzog’s film is mostly quiet and has long beautiful scenes of the Amazon forest. While the beginning is kind of slow, the movie progresses to show how this beautiful land of jungles and rivers was consuming the conquistadores and taking them to a disastrous destiny.
The film starts in the Andes Mountains with soldiers and Indians walking down into the Amazon jungle to find El Dorado. The film’s landscape gives it a feeling of suspense and fright, which makes it seem that something unexpected is about to happen. Pizarro is in charge of the expedition and he commands a group of men to go down the river to search for El Dorado and return in one week. The first group of men gets in the canoe despite how mighty the river was. This scene was one of the scariest ones for me because it
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was actually a really fast and dangerous river that could have killed the real actors. Moreover, even without using any special effects for it, since this scene was filmed from far away, it made it seem more realistic and frightening. Another scary scene occurs when the Spanish soldiers are walking and one of them gets caught in a trap that takes him up the trees and chokes him. I was surprised that in this scene and in other similar attacks, the native Indians are never shown when they attack the Spaniards. Most of the deaths are quiet and unpredictable. As a result, the Indians demonstrate that they are very skilled at what they do even if they do not have weapons. One of the leaders decides that they should go back to Pizzaro, but Aguirre argues that if they keep going, they will discover El Dorado and become rich like Hernán Cortés. Although Aguirre does not talk much, he does a great job in his role with his expressions that portrays his harshness as a ruler and his disturbed mind. All of the Spaniards had the ambition to find El Dorado; however, Aguirre is the most determined to accomplish anything no matter what nature brought him. He orders the group to go deeper into the jungle even if the crew is starving and dying from disease and attacks by native Indians. As the film comes to an end, it becomes more and more clear for the men that their vision to find El Dorado is not real.
Aguirre became leader through threat, killing and force. All of the men feared him. If the crew could have chosen, the majority would have not want him as their leader. Interestingly, Even in the terrible conditions the crew is in, their bigger concern is in Christian burial and after life. Aguirre only shows love towards his 15-year-old daughter. After, Aguirre has gone completely insane, he says he is in love with his daughter and wants to marry her, adding more creepiness to the already terrifying character. After the natives kill everyone, Aguirre goes on claiming that he is “The Wrath of God”, and says that he will make a dynasty that no one had ever seen before by sleeping with his own daughter who has just
died. Something I did not like was that the sad and dramatic moments are not portrayed as dramatic. For example, one of the slaves tells the story to Aguirre’s daughter of when he was a prince, and how everyone respected and could not even look at him directly at his eyes. He was then converted by the Spaniards and was now in chains and treated terribly, but he could not complain or revolt against their abuses otherwise he would get killed. He says it in an unemotional and monotonic way as if he did not care about his situation. In most of the movie, events like this show little to no emotion from the characters. Maybe Herzog’s intention was to make the film like a documentary; therefore, he does not provide many feelings. The only character that actually shows feelings is Aguirre with his madness. However, the movie makes up for all this by having stunning visuals and music. Right from the first moment over the Andes and along the Amazon, I was able to experience the grandeur of the landscape. Moreover, the haunting music in the film set the tone for the entire movie. And finally the performance of Aguirre was one of the things that made the movie more tragic and entertaining.
...teenth century in South America. His articulation of the disastrous and catastrophic event was detailed, strong, and emotionally invoking. It compelled me to think about how things could have been. What if the viceroy had fully succeeded? What if he had never tried to change Lima’s political, social, or architectural structure? And how might that have affected such a cultural epicenter of that time period? He gives the audience an opportunity to nearly relive the event, but also experience a part of the event aside from the natural disasters that were just as effective to the people of Lima, their future, and the future of their city.
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
In 1949, Dana Gioia reflected on the significance of Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative style when he accurately quoted, “[it] describes the matter-of-fact combination of the fantastic and everyday in Latin American literature” (Gioia). Today, García Márquez’s work is synonymous with magical realism. In “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” the tale begins with be dramatically bleak fairytale introduction:
... A few photos of Tenochtitlan and warriors headdresses, clubs and obsidian blades would increase the pleasure 10 fold. Also in places the author tends to divert to other Ameriindian cultures and use their ritual practices as examples. These comparisons can bring the ritual practices of a 500 year extant culture into modern day belief.
Rain of Gold, is a true story about the history of Mexican people, their culture, traditions and customs that were passed down from the Euro-Indian heritage of Mexico. Rain of Gold was written by Juan Villasenor in search for his ancestral roots. The people of this story are real and not fiction. The places that are discussed are true. And the incidents did actually happen to his family. There are several underlying themes that need addressing. Such as: the importance of family, the importance of religion and spiritualism, woman as center of home and family, respect--protection of woman's virtue; ideal of women as pure, power of the woman--the mother, being a man-man as protector of the family, pride of man to be a provider, importance of traditions, respect for life, work and education/learning, death as part of life, honor, dignity, and finally discrimination and prejudice. I will be using this book as a reference and as a guide throughout this review to discuss the themes that are stated above.
...survival. Cabeza de Vaca cannot thank God enough for carrying him through the terrible times that he and the few remaining Spaniards went through as captives of the Indians. He feels a sort of accomplishment for making it through and comes out with a better appreciation for life. After experiencing what it was like to have been an Indian and a slave, and after being on the verge of death several times, the fact that Cabeza de Vaca was able to keep his composure and take each day at a time is astonishing. Of course, like a worthy Christian, Cabeza de Vaca gives God all of the credit in the world for his survival and success. However, it is Cabeza de Vaca’s faith in himself and determination that allow him to survive and go through the changes that he makes. It is almost a riches to rags, and back to riches story. However, the riches at the outcome of the expedition are far different from the riches going in. These new riches are not measured in gold or land, but in the appreciation for human life and the struggle for survival which made a better man out of him.
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
Bowden’s idea of why this happened focused mainly on the old misunderstood traditions of the tribes living in Mexico. He shows how the friars, churches and icons took the blunt of the revolts force. Bowden points out the religious differences and similarities be...
The main characters in the film include Sebastian and Costa, who happen to be lifelong friends. Sebastian is a compulsive visionary who strives to direct controversial a film about one of history’s most influential figures, Christopher Columbus. He is determined to escalate the “myth” that western civilization's arrival in the Americas was a force for good. Instead, his story is about what Columbus set in motion; the hunt for gold, captivity of, and penal violence to those Indians who fought back. His story is counteracted by the radical priests Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos, the first people to ra...
In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas vividly describes the brutality wrought on the natives in the Americas by the Europeans primarily for the purpose of proclaiming and spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas originally intended this account to reach the royal administration of Spain; however, it soon found its way into the hands of many international readers, especially after translation. Bartolomé de Las Casas illustrates an extremely graphic and grim reality to his readers using literary methods such as characterization, imagery, amplification, authorial intrusion and the invocation of providence while trying to appeal to the sympathies of his audience about such atrocities.
When I began this assignment, I set out to read each and every page of this book. Unfortunately, it is not an easy book to read and due to time limitations as well as a curiosity to “peek ahead” to further chapters, I was subsequently constrained to skim the entire book. From what I did gather this is a very well written book, incredibly detailed, by someone who is clearly well educated in Latin American History as well as military tactics and it seems as though, geology and geography as well. The amount of imagery and detail that was put into the chapter on land alone was enough to fill it’s own book. “…an unlooked-for picture awaits the traveler … all of which confers upon the landscape in a fuse in a distant and amazing blend of color.” The physical descriptions of the land were beautiful and vivid, but what really interested me was the chapter entitled “Man”.
Style: The typical Magical- Realistic story of García Márquez placed in a familiar environment where supernatural things take place as if they were everyday occurrences. Main use of long and simple sentences with quite a lot of detail. "There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away and sense of grandeur he might have had" (589).
García Márquez’s story originally published in his collection of short stories, Leaf Storm, was an immediate hit and to this day continues to be a defining piece of literature in Latin-American culture. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez, he uses his upbringing and past occupations to illuminate the tone and mood through eccentric word choice and character relationships, in which the effect of Gabriel García Marquez’s legacy lives
Pablo Neruda is from Chile and gives a voice to Latin America in his poetry (Bleiker 1129). “The United Fruit Co.,” the poem by Pablo Neruda that will be analyzed in this essay, is enriched with symbolism, metaphors, and allusions. These allusions have great emphasis to the Christian religion, but some allusions are used to evoke negative emotions towards the United States (Fernandez 1; Hawkins 42). Personification and imagery along with onomatopoeia and metonymy are also found in “The United Fruit Co.” Neruda’s use of these literary devices makes his messages of imperialism, Marxism, and consumerism understandable (Fernandez 4). In this essay each of these literary devices with its proper meaning will be further analyzed in the hope of achieving a more complex understanding of Neruda’s message.
The film Apocalypto directed by Mel Gibson is a depiction on how the Mayan and other mesoamerican tribes conflicted throughout time. The movie opens with Jaguar Paw the main protagonist who is on a hunt with his fellow tribesmen for food. Throughout this sequence they show teamwork and acrobatic skills showing off the dynamics of hunting. After they hunt they encounter a passing tribe whose village was just raided telling Jaguar that they are coming creating fear which is essentially the theme of the movie. Upon return we see a warm family like feel that everyone in the tribe has. Everyone knows and loves each other expressing the love between family, that night they feast and pray that fear does not exist and no one should be afraid. The next