Reading through Amulet definitely pulled me in many different directions than I expected! From the beginning it introduced fear and tension, then it quickly delved into a series of memories from Auxilio’s life and the different friends and people she encountered as she hid in the bathroom stalls of her university. It was different from what I expected, however it didn’t take away from my experience while reading it.
I thought it was really interesting how Auxilio was casually (and quite entertainingly) telling her life story, even while she was hiding from all the violence that was happening all around her for quite some time. I guess it also tied into the very first paragraph of the novel, where she clearly stated that it wouldn’t seem to be a horror story as she was the one telling it. She went into interesting stories about losing her teeth, her romantic/sexual partners, her adventures with her friend Elena, etc. They all felt very light hearted compared to the reality of her situation, and there was even a section where she was having a conversation that exchanged several F bombs with another character (I forget the name at the moment). Maybe it had to do with her being a poet and being creative in her storytelling that made her tell the story of her life’s history the way she did.
At the end of the novel, Auxilio escapes the university and makes her way towards a valley, and there she hears the songs of (ghosts? children? soldiers?) as they walk through the valley and towards the place of violence (possibly the university). She struggles because she hears their beautiful songs of love and peace and war, but she knows they’re marching and singing towards their certain death as they approach the area. It kind of reminds me of current events with Ukraine as well, how people who live with so much love and family, how so many young people have to live through war times despite not deserving it like how Auxilio described the young people of Latin America. At the last line of the novel, she reveals that this song they sing is the titular amulet; a song of war, but also love, courage, desire, and pleasure. I think it’s a very universal feeling that the world feels and wants during times of conflict.
My question for the class is: why do you think Auxilio told her story and history in the tone that she did?
Hi! Thanks for your blog post. I think that the question you pose could have many different answers, but here’s my two cents: I think that Auxilio told her story from a very story-like perspective. She off the bat recalls memories, but doesn’t do so in a very linear way, which I find to be a bit interesting, and telling of her character. I think she told her story and history in the tone that she did, because thats how the experienced it. I would say that Auxilio is a complete observer, and her memories exemplify that too. By nature of her personality, motivations, and overall life/lifestyle, I think she tells the story in the way that she did.
Throughout the novel, Auxilio makes the note that she sees herself as the “mother of poetry”, so maybe the story is told in a more light hearted manner because she wants to coddle/protect the audience from the more graphic/horror aspects.
She talks about things in a poetic nature I think because life can be beautiful like poetry is but also be filled with things like war that are so tragic and fragile and therefore can be expressed by descriptive poetic language as well.
I was also expecting a horror story right off the bat with how the story began with “this is a horror story.” At first while reading it, it was really poetic in nature and even during her time stuck in the washroom, I really got lost in her memories.
-Yasmin Ahmadi