The turning incident of a Uruguayan girl, named Auxilio Lacouture takes place in a 4th-floor bathroom at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City where the nation’s army has seized the grounds of the university amidst the 1968 youth protest movement that have left innocent students, professors/ staff members, and civilians arrested, beaten, and even killed. The narrator is left confined in a bathroom stall for 12 days that safeguard her from the political trauma that is experienced outside. The fear is very real as she is left to observe the situation from a window. The military, as a collective effort, leaves the individuals helpless as their struggles end up a failure against their own nation. There is no solution but to submit and stop the protests before they start getting more out of hand. In these battles, only the Government would win and so there is no better solution for the narrator than to not be a part of what is causing the chaos outside.
As she is alone and locked in the girl’s bathroom, she falls back on her old memories and stories that she has read from her past. Consequently, the attention is drawn away from the violence and outside events, towards the independent thoughts that happen inside Auxilio’s mind, bombarding and clashing with the brutal reality of what comfort is like here and the chaos that is going out there. This is exactly what the narrator mentioned when she described reading Amulet as “a story of murder, detection, and horror. But it won’t appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller. Told by me, it won’t seem like that.” (1). Because the narrative gets very personal, we are left to feel life in Latin America that is very divided. The dilemma between oppression and the coping mechanisms of those who experience the suffering of the oppression or even those who are left to watch it happen is a case in point with the psychological corruption of begging for help but not receiving it. Even though she is in harsh times, she still offers an escape route from reality for her readers by filling the void of boredom to her life as time passes in the girls’ bathroom. I also like the subtle mentioning of the moonlight that drifts across the tiles.
Auxilio enjoys to be around poets and artists because they help her escape and cope with reality, as mentioned before. Her favorite poet is Arturo Bolano and she also refers to popular female figures in the arts who have inspired her. When the narrator revisits the past, she is opening the readers towards a vision that only she can see and feel. I think that is why Amulet is so special because it makes any situation feel unique in the entirety of what it is trying to represent at a personal level that reflects in the calamitous society of Latin America. There are beautiful things even in a terrible world. One question I have for discussion is: do we experience the reality of Auxilio’s experiences in the novel more than her envisioning of it or is it unclear where to draw the line between the two?
Hi David! Thank you for your post. I like your interpretation involving the dilemma between the narrator’s thoughts while hiding in the bathroom and the ongoing invasion of UNAM carried out by the army. Indeed, the connection between political oppression and psychological corruption, as you put it, is vital when understanding the overall context of the novel. To answer your question, I think there is not a clear line between the two, but the former is stressed through poetic and literary ideals and hope, in my opinion, provoking thoughts about political turbulence.
“As she is alone and locked in the girl’s bathroom, she falls back on her old memories and stories that she has read from her past.”
True. But she also, strangely, seems to be able (or thinks herself able) to see into the future. And even in the past, she imagines events that did not actually (we think) happen, such as her visit to Remedios Varo. Everything becomes intertwined.
Hello David,
I think what you mention about confinement as a way of escaping from external reality is interesting and paradoxical. One would think that it is the other way around; going outside is what allows one to escape. But sometimes, when the outside (or reality) is violent, being locked up, hiding is an escape.
I just wonder if the story maintains a connection between that outside, that as you say, “attention is drawn away from” and her “independent thoughts.”
Hi David! Thanks for your post, I enjoyed reading it. I think given the diverging timelines in the novel and Auxilio being an unreliable narrator (in that her memories are faulty) that we can assume her retelling of the story involves both truths and perhaps what we could even refer to as dramatization. I think when we have an unreliable narrator it’s impossible to draw the line between actual experiences or how one perceives their experiences (hope that makes sense).
-Mackenzie Dewar-Pratt