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
Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan has so been my favourite text so far. I love how Sagan used characters we could relate to because of age and gender. The main character was a young girl raised by a single parent. At first, I initially thought that I would relate to this character because I am a young girl who also lost a parent and was raised by a single parent. However, her experience was catastrophically different from mine. Her father was very laid back, and my mother, who raised me, was much more like Anne in the story. My mother was rigorous and always wanted me to put school first before anything. If I put myself in Cecile’s situation, I can see how I would like to push Anne away to keep her hedonistic and chill lifestyle. My younger self always dreamed of having a life with no stress. Raymond, her father, definitely influenced her way of living and the idea of love. Her father had a mistress but also was going to marry Anne. Growing up as a young child, this would have affected her way of seeing and understanding love because we always get the first dose of love by watching how our parents love each other. A question I have is, would Cecile maybe have loved Cyril in the end if she didn’t grow up with her playboy, hedonistic father?
The way that Cecile schemed her plot to get Anne and her father to part their ways was shocking. I would never think she would use her lover to make her father jealous. This surprising plot intrigued me into reading and finding out what happens at the end. Cecile’s story and inner self-thoughts portray her as an immature, scared teenager for her future. As young university students, we can all relate to this, as we are coming of age just like Cecile in Bonjour Tristesse’s text. I can relate to her feelings of self-doubt and worries for the future. As a young student, I am worried about what will happen after I graduate and also just anxious about providing for myself and learning to be an adult and one day take care of my child and raise them. Growing up with someone like Anne has made me appreciate the skills I have learnt, and even though the “hedonistic” life is more pleasurable, I am more mature than Cecile because I was lucky to have a mother who cared about my success.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with anxiety, betrayal, family, greif, guilt, hedonistic, jealousy, love, power
Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan has so been my favourite text so far. I love how Sagan used characters we could relate to because of age and gender. The main character was a young girl raised by a single parent. At first, I initially thought that I would relate to this character because I am a young girl who also lost a parent and was raised by a single parent. However, her experience was catastrophically different from mine. Her father was very laid back, and my mother, who raised me, was much more like Anne in the story. My mother was rigorous and always wanted me to put school first before anything. If I put myself in Cecile’s situation, I can see how I would like to push Anne away to keep her hedonistic and chill lifestyle. My younger self always dreamed of having a life with no stress. Raymond, her father, definitely influenced her way of living and the idea of love. Her father had a mistress but also was going to marry Anne. Growing up as a young child, this would have affected her way of seeing and understanding love because we always get the first dose of love by watching how our parents love each other. A question I have is, would Cecile maybe have loved Cyril in the end if she didn’t grow up with her playboy, hedonistic father?
The way that Cecile schemed her plot to get Anne and her father to part their ways was shocking. I would never think she would use her lover to make her father jealous. This surprising plot intrigued me into reading and finding out what happens at the end. Cecile’s story and inner self-thoughts portray her as an immature, scared teenager for her future. As young university students, we can all relate to this, as we are coming of age just like Cecile in Bonjour Tristesse’s text. I can relate to her feelings of self-doubt and worries for the future. As a young student, I am worried about what will happen after I graduate and also just anxious about providing for myself and learning to be an adult and one day take care of my child and raise them. Growing up with someone like Anne has made me appreciate the skills I have learnt, and even though the “hedonistic” life is more pleasurable, I am more mature than Cecile because I was lucky to have a mother who cared about my success.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with anxiety, betrayal, family, greif, guilt, hedonistic, jealousy, love, power
Wow. This book floored me. On its own, it’s an incredibly engaging and well-written novel. However, it’s rendered so much more impressive when you factor in how young Françoise Sagan was when she wrote it. The uniqueness of a teenage author writing this narrative centered on the interpersonal relationships and teen angst of an adolescent […]
Posted in Blogs, Sagan | Tagged with coming of age, family, love, summer, teenager, youth
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 […]
Posted in Blogs, Moravia | Tagged with Entries, Freud, love, necessity
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; […]
Posted in Blogs, Moravia | Tagged with acceptance, beach, class, infatuation, Italy, jealousy, love, privilege, Weekly Book Blog
Before reading this novel, I couldn’t help but notice a handwritten note on the pdf version of the book provided to us by our Professor wherein on the title page, an anonymous individual wrote “Ana-Maria is a Femme Fatale.” Upon researching the unfamiliar term, I came to learn it refers to an attractive and seductive […]
