“Mona” by Reinaldo Arenas takes us into what seems to be a love story between Ramon Fernandez and Elisa. However, as we are drawn into the story we are presented with unrealistic situations in a realistic setting. In the magical realism booklet it states, “Magical realism often facilitates the fusion, or coexistence, of possible worlds, spaces, systems that would be irreconcilable in other modes of fiction.” (pg. 6) In this novella Reinaldo Arenas uses the binaries of time and place, real and fallacy to undermine people’s perceptions on Cuba and Castro. He uses magical realism as means to channel the message.
“Mona” and Elisa represent time and place in this novella. Elisa’s character within the novella is illustrated to have an endless wealth of knowledge. She knows the best restaurants, places, art, architecture, and have the ability and experience to fix things. However, towards the end Reinaldo makes the distinction that Elisa is in reality “Mona Lisa” the infamous painting by Leonardo DaVinci in 1505.
Reinaldo first describes Elisa to be this perfect “masterpiece” of a woman. However, many times within the novellas Reinaldo questions the appearance of this woman; blurring the line between reality and fallacy. On pg. 49, the author describes a situation with Mona, he states, “At dawn her naked body I saw that Elisa had no breasts.” Often Reinaldo would see and no see parts of Elisa, questioning its mere existence.
In my opinion Arenas lived a life of hardships and struggles as he rebelled against the Cuban government. In this novella “Mona Lisa” signifies Cuba in the way that Castro wanted it to be. Castro banned homosexuality and in his eyes it wasn’t acceptable in Cuba. He painted this portrait of the way Cuba should be, perfect like the masterpiece “Mona Lisa”. However, Arenas describes the Mona Lisa to be this horrible creature who attempts to kill him; which would then explain Castro feelings towards Arenas and his writings about homosexuality. At the of the novella, arenas writes, “Not only was Elisa the woman in the painting, but the woman in the painting was also the painter, who had don’t his self-portrait as he wished to be (the way he was in his mind): a lusty, fascinating woman.” (Pg. 57) Leonardo DaVinci the creator of the painting of Mona Lisa was indeed a portrayal of Castro and his views of life. However, as illustrated in the novellas his ways were not as clear and well intended as they appeared to be.
This novella showed the harsh reality that Arenas was living. Cuba was trapped in this painting by Castro. In his attempt to knife the portrait he meant to save Cuba. However, he failed miserably. He writes to inspire another, to challenge Castro and save Cuba. He uses magical realism as a way to convey the message by leaving it to the reader to find the way.
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“Mona” by Reinaldo Arenas takes us into what seems to be a love story between Ramon Fernandez and Elisa. However, as we are drawn into the story we are presented with unrealistic situations in a realistic setting.
ReplyDelete“Mona” and Elisa represent the binary of time and place and the binary of gender in this novella. Elisa’s character within the novella is illustrated to have an endless wealth of knowledge. She knows the best restaurants, places, art, architecture, and has the ability and experience to fix things. However, many times within the novella Reinaldo questions the appearance of this woman; blurring the line between reality and fallacy. On pg. 49, the author describes a situation involving Mona he states, “At dawn her naked body I saw that Elisa had no breasts.” Often Reinaldo would see and not see parts of Elisa, questioning her mere existence.
Reinaldo Arenas struggled to get his writing across to the US because he was captured and put in prison by Castro. Castro made promises he couldn’t keep and banned homosexuality. In my opinion, Reinaldo used the novella “Mona” to express how he felt. It doesn’t matter who Elisa was in the story because essentially what Reinaldo was trying to prove is that being homosexual doesn’t make him any less worthy or any less of a human being. In terms of the character Elisa, they were times she illustrated to have manly features and other times were she was as sensual as a woman. This is Reinaldo’s way of fusing the binary of male and female genders.
At the end of the novella, arenas writes, “Not only was Elisa the woman in the painting, but the woman in the painting was also the painter, who had done his self-portrait as he wished to be (the way he was in his mind): a lusty, fascinating woman.” (Pg. 57) Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous portrait in the world, but there has been some speculation that the woman with the inscrutable smile may not be a woman after all. They are suggesting that the Mona Lisa may have been a self-portrait of Da Vinci. Arena’s was trying to convey the same idea. In “Mona” Arena’s ended up being Elisa at the end illustrating the gender bending between the two.
This novella showed the harsh reality that Arenas was living. He writes to inspire another, to challenge Castro and save Cuba. He uses magical realism as a way to convey the message by leaving it up to the reader’s interpretation.