This story has a very ordinary beginning, where a young Felipe Montero finds an advertisement in the newspaper that seems very appealing to him. In my opinion the elements of magic realism start to appear from the first page. The advertisement is affecting Felipe like a magnet; he feels the connection to it, as if it was written specifically for him. One of the key issues in magic realism is the spirituality of objects, their mystery. Reader has to look deeper to see the true meaning and the spirit that’s hiding behind an object. For Mr. Montero that advertisement almost becomes a living creature. He looks beyond the lines and words and sees himself, sees his name: “All that’s missing is your name (5).” That starts of the mysterious impression of the story, and the structure of narration only enforces secrecy and magical feeling.
There are a lot of binaries that are typical for magical realism in this story. Fuentes introduces them to the reader throughout the book, but, if in the beginning, the borders are very clear, they tend to fade closer to the turning point in the book. When Felipe is walking to find the place from the advertisement he ends up on the street that seems to have very disturbing differences between the first and second stories. Lower levels of houses are all turned into various stores with cheap products, all the numbers are mixed, and there is no order or neatness. Second stories still resemble the past, they still contain “the baroque harmony of the carved stones (9)”, and impressive architectural structures are still there. It seems like the time itself collided in these buildings. Old and beautiful keeps resembling new and ugly.
When Felipe finally gets to the house he is looking for he goes in, and readers realize that the house is a mystery itself. I think that Fuentes tried to show the difference of this house from the outside world. When Felipe stepped into the doorway I had a feeling that he walked into a parallel world. Mr. Montero is basically saying goodbye to the ordinary world: “You try to retain some single image of that indifferent outside world (11).” It’s a binary between the ordinary world and something else, more intriguing and confusing. The house itself represents a battle between light and darkness. There is a almost no light in the house, and Felipe has to rely on his senses, which is a efficient way of representing magical realism as not just a way of observing the world, but actually feeling it. And indeed, the inside of the house gives readers goose bumps:” furniture upholstered in faded silk; glass-fronted cabinets containing porcelain figurines, musical clocks, medals… (37)”. One can see very distinct boundary between darkness and light during one of the dinners:”the compact circle of light around the candelabra, illuminating the table and one carved wall, and the larger circle of darkness surrounding it (43).”
Felipe is also being stuck in between the collision of youth and maturity. It is the biggest binary in the story. Old senora Consuelo is over 100 years old and is a mysterious woman, who possesses some magical powers and is able to bring a young version of herself to life. At first, young Aura just seems as a girl who is helping her; she is almost like a prisoner. Felipe wants to rescue her, because he believes that she is hypnotized to take care after her old aunt forever:”She gets up with a motion like those you associate with dreaming, takes the arm of the bent old lady, and slowly helps her from the dining room (71).” He falls in love with Aura and keeps thinking only about her, he is mesmerized with the way she moves, dresses, presents herself. The turning point of the story is when Felipe lays next to Aura and realizes that Aura is senora Consuelo as the young body turns into old one. That’s when the time becomes vague and not important. He accepts it, because, at this moment, he is not acting like himself. It seems that he is also under some kind of spell that makes him deny his identity and even recognize himself in the portraits of senora’s dead husband: “You cover General Llorente’s beard with your finger, and imagine him with black hair, and you only discover yourself... (137)” It probably has to do with some kind of voodoo doll he finds at the dinner table. Again, the time doesn’t exist for characters of this story anymore: “…the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back (145).”
At some point it is really hard to distinguish the reality from dreams in the story. When Felipe is dreaming about Aura, it seems so real that I started wondering if that actually had happened. The boundary between the reality and dreams is so thin, I couldn’t even feel it. Then, this scary scene, when Aura is beheading a baby, happens and leaves readers in shock. Not only the boundaries between reality and dreaming are erased, but there is no more borders between right or wrong. Instead of running away from the house Felipe wants to go to the old lady and “really throw her greed and tyranny in her face (91).”
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Aura revised blog (Part 1)
ReplyDeleteThis story has a very ordinary beginning, where a young Felipe Montero finds an advertisement in the newspaper that seems very appealing to him. In my opinion the elements of magic realism start to appear from the first page. The advertisement is affecting Felipe like a magnet; he feels the connection to it, as if it was written specifically for him. One of the key issues in magic realism is the spirituality of objects, their mystery. Reader has to look deeper to see the true meaning and the spirit that’s hiding behind an object. For Mr. Montero that advertisement almost becomes a living creature. He looks beyond the lines and words and sees himself, sees his name: “All that’s missing is your name (5).” That starts of the mysterious impression of the story, and the structure of narration only enforces secrecy and magical feeling. Through Felipe Fuentes is also trying to show the troubled past of Mexico, that was occupied by Spanish and French for many years. Felipe is Mexican but he have lived in France and speaks fluent French, and that what gets him in this magical situation.
There are a lot of binaries that are typical for magical realism in this story. Fuentes introduces them to the reader throughout the book, but, if in the beginning, the borders are very clear, they tend to fade closer to the turning point in the book. When Felipe is walking to find the place from the advertisement he ends up on the street that seems to have very disturbing differences between the first and second stories. Lower levels of houses are all turned into various stores with cheap products, all the numbers are mixed, and there is no order or neatness. Second stories still resemble the past, they still contain “the baroque harmony of the carved stones (9)”, and impressive architectural structures are still there. It seems like the time itself collided in these buildings. Old and beautiful keeps resembling new and ugly.
When Felipe finally gets to the house he is looking for he goes in, and readers realize that the house is a mystery itself. I think that Fuentes tried to show the difference of this house from the outside world. When Felipe stepped into the doorway I had a feeling that he walked into a parallel world. Mr. Montero is basically saying goodbye to the ordinary world: “You try to retain some single image of that indifferent outside world (11).” It’s a binary between the ordinary world and something else, more intriguing and confusing. The house itself represents a battle between light and darkness. There is a almost no light in the house, and Felipe has to rely on his senses, which is a efficient way of representing magical realism as not just a way of observing the world, but actually feeling it. And indeed, the inside of the house gives readers goose bumps:” furniture upholstered in faded silk; glass-fronted cabinets containing porcelain figurines, musical clocks, medals… (37)”. One can see very distinct boundary between darkness and light during one of the dinners:”the compact circle of light around the candelabra, illuminating the table and one carved wall, and the larger circle of darkness surrounding it (43).”
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteFelipe is also being stuck in between the collision of youth and maturity. It is the biggest binary in the story. Old senora Consuelo is over 100 years old and is a mysterious woman, who possesses some magical powers and is able to bring a young version of herself to life. At first, young Aura just seems as a girl who is helping her; she is almost like a prisoner. Felipe wants to rescue her, because he believes that she is hypnotized to take care after her old aunt forever:”She gets up with a motion like those you associate with dreaming, takes the arm of the bent old lady, and slowly helps her from the dining room (71).” He falls in love with Aura and keeps thinking only about her, he is mesmerized with the way she moves, dresses, presents herself. The turning point of the story is when Felipe lays next to Aura and realizes that Aura is senora Consuelo as the young body turns into old one. That’s when the time becomes vague and not important. He accepts it, because, at this moment, he is not acting like himself. It seems that he is also under some kind of spell that makes him deny his identity and even recognize himself in the portraits of senora’s dead husband: “You cover General Llorente’s beard with your finger, and imagine him with black hair, and you only discover yourself... (137)” It probably has to do with some kind of voodoo doll he finds at the dinner table. Again, the time doesn’t exist for characters of this story anymore: “…the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back (145).” This shape shifting also represents the Mexico and it’s shifting from one influence to another. There is a lot of confusion, instability and desire to return to pre-rebelling times, just like Senora Consuelo wants to return her youth.
Religion plays very important role in Mexican culture, they believe in miracles and a lot of supernatural ideas. That’s why Fuentes constantly mentions the colors that are somehow relate to mysticism, such as red eyes of the rabbit, yellow eyes of the cats, red lips of Aura as well as many other objects in the house that are red and yellow. When Felipe sees cats burning outside, the readers can assume that the flames are red as well. Senora Consuelo despite of her mysterious identity is very religious, she is always surrounded by something related to faith:”You look in back of you and you’re almost blinded by the gleam from the religious objects (23).” She has a lot of religion related objects in her room, for example “huge Mexican crucifix”, images of various saints and grinning demons (which can also be a binary between good and evil, that fine line between pure and innocent Aura and old and turned to black magic Consuelo). One color that seems to be everywhere is gold. Fuentes mentions golden atmosphere, gold buttons on the tunic, Spain’s golden age. The most important I think is the idea of golden atmosphere that Felipe feels around Aura. In Greek mythology Zeus turned into the golden rain to impregnate young and beautiful Danae while she was locked in the tower by her cruel father. I feel like it can represent Aura and her being stuck in this house, and not able to leave. Golden atmosphere is created when Felipe feels attracted to beautiful and young Aura. Just like Zeus, Felipe is enchanted by Aura and forgets about everything and just wants to be close to her.
(Part 3)
ReplyDeleteAt some point it is really hard to distinguish the reality from dreams in the story. When Felipe is dreaming about Aura, it seems so real that I started wondering if that actually had happened. The boundary between the reality and dreams is so thin, I couldn’t even feel it. Then, this scary scene, when Aura is beheading a baby animal, happens and leaves readers in shock. Not only the boundaries between reality and dreaming are erased, but there is no more borders between right or wrong. Instead of running away from the house Felipe wants to go to the old lady and “really throw her greed and tyranny in her face (91).”