“If it is necessary, our atomized consciousness invents love, imagines it or feigns it, but does not live without it,…
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with love, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, W10, war
This week’s reading on Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be almost something similar to an autobiography like last week’s read of W, or Memory of Childhood. Although, I was much happier reading something that wasn’t an autobiography. I found this story really …
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with death, love, memory, reflection, repetition
For this week, I have chosen to read “The Old Gringo” written by Carlos Fuentes, which from the book cover I thought this novel would be mainly focused on the Mexican revolution. However, there seemed to be so much more themes in this story. One of them was an unexpected love triangle of some sort […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with blog, love, memory, repetition, war
The old gringo is set in historic Mexico during the Mexican revolution. This story took a couple of turns that I was not expecting, but it definitely kept me wanting more. The love tale told within the story had both passion, and deceit, which kept it interesting every step of the way. My expectation of …
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with love, repetition, war
For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was “the closest we have here to a romance if that’s your thing.” Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.
The book’s narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who “sits alone and remembers.” The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo’s intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.
The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father’s name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship.
For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was “the closest we have here to a romance if that’s your thing.” Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.
The book’s narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who “sits alone and remembers.” The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo’s intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.
The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father’s name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship.
Throughout the readings in this course, we have been repeatedly exposed to storylines set during periods of conflict and civil war. This novel is no exception as it occurs during the Mexican civil war. On the theme of war, we often see the accompanying theme of hopelessness. We learn early in the novel that the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, love, tragedy, triangle, war
The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as “Old Gringo” who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo’s intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers.” I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it’s Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it’s an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers” is, and who maybe is the one remembering?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with betrayal, death, lies, love, protection, romance, survival
The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as “Old Gringo” who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo’s intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers.” I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it’s Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it’s an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers” is, and who maybe is the one remembering?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with betrayal, death, lies, love, protection, romance, survival
Well.. although this may have love within the story, I did not consider it a love story. While I initially chose this novel as the mention of love within its description, I continued reading it captivated by tragedy (and because I had to!) It still astonishes me the assumptions I had before starting this course […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with love, notlove, romance, tragedy, violence
