One of the most interesting and powerful points in Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Paramo is the use of religion in context will all of the characters associated in the book…most pointedly, Father Reneria. In a community where everyone uses the tools of relgion to get by on a day to day basis, Father Reneria began, we can assume, as a faithful, loving, hopeful, moral, and dedicated man of the cloth that strived to live a good life in his faith. However, a disillusionment of this religion is birthed by two cataclytic events in Father Reneria’s life. Upon the killing of his brother by Miguel Paramo, and the rape of his niece, Reneria embarks on an inner struggle with himeself, his faith, and the outside corruption of the world and society.
Is the outside world and society so powerful that it can take a man of such extreme faith, such as Reneria, and turn him against himself and his faith? If this is so for a priest, what hope can we as “mere people” have in store for ourselves. If the leader of the church and community struggles with inner thoughts of greed, hate, and revence….how can just and ordinary person continue on a path of rightousness and goodness. Are daily prayers and confession enough? Is it true forgivemess if one asks for the forgiveness and then CONTINUES to pursue the acts they orignally asked forgivemess for?
A poingnant moment in the book is during Reneria’s confession. The struggle is so apparent that the words “i have sinned” and the taste of blood in his mouth leaves a vision that Reneria is losing his faith..his very life to the corruption and greed around him in his life. Rulfo uses the loss of Reneria’s faith and morality to prove a point. Is there a way to eternal salvation by acts alone? Is society’s faith in itself strong enough to overcome and use only partial parts of relgion to achieve its whole goal?
I have witnessed many levels of faith, morality, good acts, and more associated with relgion my entire life. Rulfo uses a priest to show the power of society and its pressures on just about anyone, regardless of their faith level, title in life, or even WANT TO in life. He also uses the people of Comalan to demonstrate how easily people are swayed to believe what THEY want to believe to be true, rather than what is true (subjective).
The church I attended growing up had something HORRIBLE happen while going there. The pastor was arrested for rape, child molestation, child pornography, and assault. The entire church was uprooted, split, and many never returned due to a loss in faith. How could the “big guy” get so far gone? Was the outside corruption so much that he lost his original morality? Did he ever have any morals at all? If the pastor can be so easity swayed away and led astray….what would happen to us “regular” followers? Is is enough, as Rulfo makes the point in his novel, that a simple prayer or daily confession is enough to erase away all the sin and guilt?
Rulfo points out society’s weaknesses and criticizes the greed and corruption of a people. He goes so far as to show the one figure that should not be corrupted….be corrupted to such a degree in his heart that he essentially loses who he is. The absence of faith in Renteria and the people of Comalan shows just how powerful the outside world can be and the pressures it brings upon people, even those dedicated to living their lives for a good purpose.
I, however naive it sounds, still believe to the nth degree in human spirit, love, hope, and faith. If not, i would not be able to stand it….I just look at my family, friends, and loved ones and know that no matter how hard this world pushes you down….you will stand again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent
After some thought….I have decided to give up……chips, salsa, and queso at Mexican Food joints….or at home…MY BIGGEST downfall is this when I go out to eat…..Usually I am pretty good at giving something up and keeping it up AFTER LENT…but we’ll see about this one….Buena suerte….Please…comment back and share what YOU are giving up for lent this year…
Jose Marti…..wow…what a powerful writer…what evocation of emotion. I actually remember reading about Jose Marti in undergrad, not really ever knowing who he was, what he stood for, or even what he had to say….I think I was too busy translating the text (since my second language is obviously Spanish…) and not ever really grasping what he had to say.
Our America by Jose Marti: Writings on Latin America and the Struggle for Cuban Independence stirred emotion in me as I read even in the first paragraph. “The conceited villager believes the entire world to be his village.” The first thing I thought of was the United States of America. How sad that this great country that I love so much could be the first thing that came to mind while reading this.
Upon researching a bit more about Marti, his life, and in general the modernismo movement in Latin America, I was moved to read that Marti had great admiration for the United States, but feared its power and rein on Latin American republics, especially Cuba. Reading that first sentence in Nuestra America proves his point to that sentiment.
The second thing that I noticed upon reading Marti was his rich, vibrant language of desription of everything. His prose is beautiful and stunning at just the right time.
“Oh Libery, never stain your white robes, so that the newborn will not fear you! You do well, Poet of the falls, to dare to be free in an age of pretentious slaves, for men are so accustomed to slavery that when they have ceased to be slaves of the monarchy, they are no beginning, with greater humiliation, to be slaves of Liberty!” (326-327)
Jose is a man that knows exactly how to put it “in your face”. He is so eloquent in his speech, its as if the person, institution, or even entire nation does not realize that they had been insulted. Although I have not gotten through all the Marti readings, nor really tied the whole modernismo thing into it yet, I have really, really enjoyed reading his writing in Nuestra America. It almost makes me want to revitalize his movement and say “DOWN WITH THE MONARCHY!”….even though we don’t live in a monarchy….there are definitely “kings” and “nobles” here in our USA…..and after a time…us “slaves” needs to stand up and say-No MORE! (and here I reference us to being slaves of commercialism, materialism, and basic aquiescence to all things in America).
I was drawn to the sublime of this painting - What a breathtaking view of America. It is amazing to be able to have the ability to almost see what our ancestors saw over 200 years ago in this great land. Even though I have travelled through much of the country, I am amazed at the brilliance, vibrance, and life that a painting can portray of my homeland. I guess that telephone poles, billboards, and skyscrapers of my American could spoil an image so great as this….but I like to pretend that I still live in this land below.
(Thomas Cole, Landscape Scene from the Last of the Mohicans. 1827. Oil on canvas. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY)
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If “America” is a cluster of attitudes involving desire for a better future, nostalgia for a lost past, impatience with inherited forms, anxiety from relentless change, conflicted disdain for industrial (& virtual) society, sentimentality for nature and youth, and the domination of all by the individual —so is “Romanticism.” |
| If “Romanticism” involves a story of breaking barriers or crossing boundaries, idealization of unattainable purity, gothic mingling of love and death, the tortured vanity of the family romance, the gorgeous outrage of free verse, the terror and beauty of the sublime, the yearning for the long ago and far away but never the here and now —so does “America.” |
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Romanticism - I will admit….I fell into the category that believed this era of thought and literature was the “lovey-dovey stuff”. However, upon careful reading and deisre to understand more, I realize that Romanticism writings have nothing to do with love and passion (Danielle Steel writings) but rather a theme of liberalism. As I began to understand the theme of liberalism and what it encompasses…I begin to see the words or “nationalism”, “freedom”, “progress”, and “Perfectibilty” in a document that I, as an American, hold so dearly.
Written in a time of turmoil, and search for something different than the holds of its mother land…the Declaration holds words that SCREAM out at me of Romantic themes.
-We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Words that embody the very nature of Romantic ideals. Nationalism at its best! New Americans exercise their ability to search for political freedom.
The Declaration of Independence
1776
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Philology - and interesting study, to say the least. It seems that philologists (according to Conway’s comments) are forever an archaic scholar that is in search of one and true thing - authentic texts. In Mann’s The origins of humanism philology is an important and necessary evil in the creation, manifestation, and ‘historization” of autentic texts originating from ancient times. In p. 9, we see that Petrarch spent some time in Avignon in the 1330s questing to restore and “re-piece” Livy’s History of Rome. Upon receicpt of an incomplete version of the text, Petrarch spent the next few years piecing together partial texts, other writings, and variations of the manuscripts. Petrarch was able to re-create the manuscript.
WOW….I see a correlation between our first week’s readings of The Historical Texas as Literary Artifact by Hayden White and Origins!
Actually, I see a correlation amongst our class conversation on the search of a a “true history” in place of a subjective account of a “true history”. It seems that as we as a people search for the true accounts of what actually happened in history, and surrounding historical texts, that we are, in essence, our own Petrarch in the world.
Petrarch was in search of the TRUEST account of an ancient text by using, measuring, and evaluating every account of the text. He spent years and numerous sources to come up with the final “truest” account of what he believed to be the actual text.
But…my question is: “How can it be the truest account of the text?” Isn’t there some liberty taken when re-writing the text? Isn’t there some discrepancy in any translation done? Liberties are taken all the time by historians. For example: We discussed the Bible in class last week. Is there really a TRUE account of what happend? Or, did people take the freedom to re-create this document to fit their needs in their own historical timeframe for their own purposes in life?
What if…..philologists take that same liberty? Whew….maybe there is no such thing as a true, authentic text….unless you have the most ORIGNIAL copy. Even then, unless you witness the actual writing (or historical event surrounding a writing) who can be sure that this orginality is set in stone?
Fortunatly for Petrarch, he was so “zealous” and “enthusiastic” in his quest for classical literautre, that his philological advances set him apart from the phonies in my opinion. Just the same with historians….some may take history as an objective telling of the past. However, in reality, it takes multiple accounts of historical past to get a true feel for its authenticity.
After leaving class this past Monday, I realized it had been over six years since I had taken any type of Literature course. For some reason, I tended to take all linguistic, culture, or education based courses in my undergraduate work at UT, and avoided any Literature course like it was the plague. However, as I sat in Dr. Conway’s course this past Monday, I realized what an injustice I had done myself, and my Spanish education. I remember perusing through the Course Catalog at UT seeing courses like 345L - Modern Literature of Mexico or 362L - Spanish Literuature 1555-1779…….and thinking to myself…”There’s NO WAY I am going to take those courses…..” I was still in the intermediate stages of speaking, reading, writing, and listening the Spanish language, soI felt as if taking such a “complex” literature course was not be advantageous to my learning path. I did have to take a “Don Quijote” class for a requirement, and I do remember taking “Romantic Spanish Readings” (and hate to admit that I only took it because I had a crush on the professor).
I hope to take this course and nurture it. I do not want to do an injustice to myself any longer. As this class embarks, I would appreciate any advice, help, and general guidance through the readings. I am looking forward to the next class, and the opportunity to bounce off ideas, thoughts, and new findings with my colleagues.
Please find another post in reflection to the readings later this week!
PS. I hope everyone is okay with the fact that I am a VERY vocal person, will probably offer alot in class discussions, and hope no one wants to throw paper at me for putting in more than my 2 cents worth!
This is my first blog to EVER be on. I created this blog for Dr. Conway’s MODL 5304 classs, a course on Current Thoughts in European Literature, and very interesting course for my MA in Modern Languages/Spanish at UTA. I hope you all enjoy!
I am 26 years old and live in a very small community called near Ennis, Texas. I used to teach high school Spanish, but now am a translator/engineer for a world-wide construction company. We build hospitals, schools, office buildings, highways, oil rigs, and much more. This is my second semester in Graduate school at UTA. I received a BA in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin and have lived and traveled all over Texas and the US. I even spent two semesters abroad: Cuernavaca, Mexico and Granada, Espana. I am looking forward to this class, learning from it, and having the opportunity to meet new people, and see old friends! Hasta lunes!!!!!!
