The People, the image of the people, and a monster…

Posted by: | January 20, 2009 | Comments Off on The People, the image of the people, and a monster…

I don’t know about the rest of the class, but I certainly had a hard time rounding my head around the excerpt from Peron. It just seems to me that Peron as a person, and Peronism as an ideology just seem to be full of contradictions. To be honest, more than contradiction between ideology and actions, it seems to me that Eva Peron is to a point cynical. Through out the rule of Peron, the words/promises of the Argentinean government did not translate into action. In fact, in many cases the actions of “the Peron” went against what they preached.

Nevertheless, in terms of “In My Own Words” it almost seems apologetic. Without going into a complicated analysis that would ultimately confuse me even more about the text, I came to the following conclusion: Eva Peron is glorifying the people in order to ‘excuse’ her actions (or in certain cases lack thereof). Through out the excerpt that we were assigned to read, there are two consistent factors: 1) she identifies herself as part of a group, she no longer belongs to –the masses – ; 2) she also constantly attempts to justify her engagement in the politics of Argentina. Now, in my opinion, people that do good, and act on what they preach DO NOT write books explaining themselves, because their actions speak louder than their words.

So yeah, let’s leave Peron at that since it is obvious I am rather biased against her work.

On the other hand, I also do not agree completely with Borges, I don’t think “the people” are a “monster”. I think the reality of the people lies in between the two works, they are not perfect (or should I say we are not perfect), but we/they are not entirely bad.  Anyways, I really liked the description of Mr. Marforio in pg. 203 because it showed how the most insignificant character in society may be the one who can give you the best insight into what the masses feel for.  Another aspect that caught my attention was the description of people as “ants” in pg. 208, because I think it is true that most people in society at some point in their life get stuck in a monotonous routine. Lastly, the fact that the narrator acknowledges the fact that the murder of the Jew is something that “was relegated to oblivion” is very significant to the history of Latin America. How many people have died and gone to the oblivion in Latin America for thinking differently.

I’m out


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