This was a very interesting and enjoyable read. The story delves into the psychological torture that the innocent and timid Agostino must endure as he accompanies his mother on her boat rides. Growing up in a sheltered and conservative household, I saw myself empathizing with him. I felt as if I was right there with […]
In Alberto Moravia’s Agostino, the titular character of Agostino spends his childhood days surrounded by his Mother and his world is dominated by his relationship to her. Agostino’s life growing is complex as he has his Mother’s love, however there is only so much love that she can give him. Agostino’s growth in society never […]
While reading, ‘Nada’, by Carmen Laforet, I was by far the most emotionally involved I have been since beginning this course. Because of this, I have a lot of different thoughts about this story, and thus my blog post will probably be more disorga…
While reading, ‘Nada’, by Carmen Laforet, I was by far the most emotionally involved I have been since beginning this course. Because of this, I have a lot of different thoughts about this story, and thus my blog post will probably be more disorga…
The story first starts with Andrea, leaving on her own for school. She seems excited and she “carried herself with…
While reading “Agostino,” I was struck by a distinct tone of the Freudian; the ways in which maturing from the child to the teenager–and various ventures into adulthood in-between–are contrasted with a love, innocent or otherwise, of a maternal figure central to one’s life. Although one may be tempted to refer to the relationship between […]
Moravia’s Agostino This week the reading was a linear storyline which I can say was actually enjoyable as it makes it easier to read. I enjoyed the fact that it was a linear story, as I am not a big reader and reading like last week can get me a little bit confused. […]
Carmen Laforet’s Nada felt very modern, and others might disagree with me but I thought it even felt somewhat contemporary. Sure, that might be because the translation was done relatively recently (2008), but I think it’s more so to do with its timelessness. The story has so many themes that are fundamentally about people and their relationships to each other; I don’t think humans change all that much from one generation to the next, and I reckon many of our problems are the same as they were centuries ago, and will continue to be centuries from now.
I hesitate to delve into these topics too deeply, but two themes that really resonated with me in this book were those surrounding Andrea and Ena’s friendship, more specifically the way that Andrea views Ena and puts her on a pedestal, and that of a mother’s love.
These two themes fascinate me in different ways. The former reminds me of a friendship that I once experienced a few years ago and so I felt a little uncomfortable seeing a semi-similar dynamic play out on the pages of a novel. Not to get too vulnerable up in here, but I was especially struck by the power dynamics between Andrea and Ena. Ena clearly has more status, in a social and economic sense, and so Andrea often implies a sense of inferiority and admiration, almost worship. I do feel that the relationship between the two is more exaggerated than my own has been, but sometimes it takes a more extreme example to make the subtleties and nuances of people’s characters and relationships to become visible.
In this novel, there are two mother figures that particularly caught my attention. Ena’s mother, and Andrea’s grandmother. Yes, there are others such as Gloria, and Ena’s dead mother, but they didn’t pique my interest like the other two did. These two characters are very different in many ways, including with social standing, financial status, but especially in the way they view their daughters. Ena’s mother confesses on p197 that Ena holds a particularly special place in her heart, more than her sons. Andrea’s grandmother is accused later on in the book (p234) of having always preferred her sons to her daughters, and is therefore blamed for the consequences.
The dynamics of motherhood and fatherhood, alongside daughterhood and sonhood are things that I have thought about a considerable amount over the past few years, having listened to different conversations and experiences. I have heard both perspectives (not within my family); parents who especially value the firstborn daughter, and parents who prefer their sons. I think both perspectives are interesting, though not necessarily correct, and am aware of the damage they can have on the non-preferred children. This novel merely showed me more examples from a different time, place, and culture than those I have personally been exposed to, and I am grateful for that.
I now pose the question: what might Andrea’s life look like in Madrid, now that she has left her dysfunctional family behind? Do we think she might feel any abandonment guilt?
Carmen Laforet’s Nada felt very modern, and others might disagree with me but I thought it even felt somewhat contemporary. Sure, that might be because the translation was done relatively recently (2008), but I think it’s more so to do with its timelessness. The story has so many themes that are fundamentally about people and their relationships to each other; I don’t think humans change all that much from one generation to the next, and I reckon many of our problems are the same as they were centuries ago, and will continue to be centuries from now.
I hesitate to delve into these topics too deeply, but two themes that really resonated with me in this book were those surrounding Andrea and Ena’s friendship, more specifically the way that Andrea views Ena and puts her on a pedestal, and that of a mother’s love.
These two themes fascinate me in different ways. The former reminds me of a friendship that I once experienced a few years ago and so I felt a little uncomfortable seeing a semi-similar dynamic play out on the pages of a novel. Not to get too vulnerable up in here, but I was especially struck by the power dynamics between Andrea and Ena. Ena clearly has more status, in a social and economic sense, and so Andrea often implies a sense of inferiority and admiration, almost worship. I do feel that the relationship between the two is more exaggerated than my own has been, but sometimes it takes a more extreme example to make the subtleties and nuances of people’s characters and relationships to become visible.
In this novel, there are two mother figures that particularly caught my attention. Ena’s mother, and Andrea’s grandmother. Yes, there are others such as Gloria, and Ena’s dead mother, but they didn’t pique my interest like the other two did. These two characters are very different in many ways, including with social standing, financial status, but especially in the way they view their daughters. Ena’s mother confesses on p197 that Ena holds a particularly special place in her heart, more than her sons. Andrea’s grandmother is accused later on in the book (p234) of having always preferred her sons to her daughters, and is therefore blamed for the consequences.
The dynamics of motherhood and fatherhood, alongside daughterhood and sonhood are things that I have thought about a considerable amount over the past few years, having listened to different conversations and experiences. I have heard both perspectives (not within my family); parents who especially value the firstborn daughter, and parents who prefer their sons. I think both perspectives are interesting, though not necessarily correct, and am aware of the damage they can have on the non-preferred children. This novel merely showed me more examples from a different time, place, and culture than those I have personally been exposed to, and I am grateful for that.
I now pose the question: what might Andrea’s life look like in Madrid, now that she has left her dysfunctional family behind? Do we think she might feel any abandonment guilt?
Okay, so I finished reading Agostino, and I would definitely say that I have some mixed feelings about this novel (to say the least). It is absolutely a novel about coming of age, class, self-discovery, but has some other themes such as love, lust, brutality, and low-key incest. I particularly enjoyed how it was written; […]
