This book was really interesting and I liked learning about the Mexican Revolution, from the perspective of regular people, who form a rebel group. I haven’t read many books on revolutions but the ones I have always have reckless, strongly political people who purposefully form a group to fight the revolution. So it was refreshing to read about a group of commoners, with different backgrounds, who stumbled upon each other and formed an unlikely group.
I liked how the author mixed a bunch of different characters together, who were going against the government. For example, we had Demetrio who was forced into leaving his family behind and forming this group, and then we had Luis who chose to join the group. The different character personalities really stood out to me and gave an interesting perspective on the revolution. It added a bit more realism to it because the people fighting against the revolution weren’t anything “special”, but were instead ordinary people who had been forced into it or inspired to fight against it. Demetrio as a character really stood out to me because he seemed so dis-interested to be part of the revolution but at the same time he was a good, strong leader. However, as the story progressed he became interested in the revolution and his role as a leader but kind of failed to stay as a good leader (at least in my opinion because he could barely control his men). It was interesting to see just how much being a part of the revolution changed Demetrio…for the worse.
One of the other things that stood out to me was how from the start, all the characters had a reason, a purpose, for taking part in the revolution. But as the story progresses the reasons become less known and it gets harder to tell what the characters are fighting for. At the start the rebel group was only attacking government men but as the story went on they became violent towards others and began wreaking havoc on innocent people. The government was the one being feared at the start of the novel, but at the end it seemed it was Demetrio and his men. It was a such a big contrast from the type of people they started off as and what kind of people they ended up becoming. It was like the characters no longer knew their purpose for going against the Federales, but instead knew they had to keep fighting.
Question to think about: The story started off with Demetrio being forced to leave his family, while at the end of the novel he chooses to leave his family behind. What do you think the author was trying to represent with Demetrio’s choices at the start and end of the novel?
Hey Alizey! I enjoyed your blog a lot and thought it was a really good overview of everything that happened in the book. For your question, I think going through this revolution has caused Demetrio to be lost in the fervour of the revolution, like he said a rock rolling down a mountain keeps rolling. I think his decision sort of encapsulates the truth of revolutions that are often not shown, and don’t stick to logical / political constructions of having an event occur and then end, like being able to return to his family, which makes more logical sense that he would want to once he was able to. In the same sense I guess, fighting doesn’t just stop because the people they were supposed to fight were gone.
“One of the other things that stood out to me was how from the start, all the characters had a reason, a purpose, for taking part in the revolution. But as the story progresses the reasons become less known and it gets harder to tell what the characters are fighting for.”
Yes, for sure. And I wonder if they had the same reason(s) at the outset? How do different reasons or factors enter into an event or process such as (such a) messy revolution like Mexico’s? How does the book try to depict that?
Hi Alizey!
I enjoyed reading your blog and to answer your question, I also agree with Chia in that the revolution changed Demetrio as he was lost in the revolution, and forgot what exactly he was fighting for. This reminds me of when we were discussing in class when is a revolution not a revolution? The revolution brought out Demetrio’s primal instincts and the “dog” in him gave him animalistic like behaviours when approaching the idea of revolution as the story progressed.
Hi Alizey!
Excellent blog post, I had a lot of similar feelings through out the novel as you and you put them into words perfectly. I also found it interesting to see how at the beginning everyone seemed to have a purpose driving them for their participation, but towards the end we see this fade and become more ambiguous as to why they are fighting at that point. Sometimes I think when something so intense occupies practically our whole lives, it becomes difficult to step back and see the bigger picture when it begins to fade out. You become so consumed and adjusted to the way of life you are living it becomes all you know, and you can loose yourself trying to stay doing something that has become “comfortable” or “second nature”.
Hi Alizey! Great post! I think the author was trying to show how people are often prone to self-preservation and doing what they deem best for themselves. Cervantes joined and left causes according to how they serve him, causing a full-circle moment. At least that’s what I got from it 🙂
Hi Alizey,
Great post! The idea of them sort of leaving behind their true purpose stood out the most to me as well. It very well portrays real lfie- we often get so lost in the details that we forget what we’re actually supposed to be doing and why. And, in some sense, we see that happening in modern politics too. It’s always about some nit picky detail that we suddenly decide to focus on, instead of remembering the motivation and cause behind our actions.