Tag Archives: love

$$$ To Burn—Ricardo Piglia

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This week’s reading was the novel Money to Burn by Ricardo Piglia. To be honest, I can’t say I enjoyed reading the overall plot due to the violence, sexuality, drugs, and gang life embedded in it. However, I do enjoy the narrative techniques and the underlying ironic themes of inequality within the system and injustice. 

The story begins surrounding the main characters, Malito the boss; Dorda, who is heavy and quiet with a ruddy face; and Brignone, who has thin and black hair. They were called twins because of their similar looks, and they committed crimes together, but in reality, their relationship was much more than brotherhood.  Dorda and Bridgnone, with twelve other men, are a gang, and they commit a bank robbery and go on the run with millions of pesos. In this part (pg. 30-34) I love how Ricardo Piglia chose first to explore the bank clerk Martinez Tobar, who was tempted to steal the money due to his family condition and his daughter’s illness. Ironically, the next scene that happened was the robbery scene by the gang. I find this as a way of foreshadowing that something to happen next, but also gives the reader to context of social class and poverty. After escaping with the money, Piglia gave me two perspectives: the police, and the criminals’ hideout. In between, there is a lot of drug and sexual content involved, giving a different theme to this novel. In the world of gangs and crime, there is not only money and violence but also love. 

There was also another scene that was a highlight for me. On page 168, Malito’s gang was setting five million pesos on fire. ‘ they are evil to the core, bad from the innards out, mere animals,” (p169). There didn’t seem to be much agitation for the crowd until they burned the money. “The idea got out that money is innocent, even when acquired as a consequence of death and crime” (p.170). When they burned the money, the anger of the crowd rose. It seemed that their act of robbery was not such a great sin, but their careless attitude toward the money was completely violating social norms and unethical. 

Other than the reflection on money and robbery, the love between Gauch and Kid was also depicted in detail. In the last scenes when the injured twins are surrounded by the police, they still care for each other. “His back against the broken bedhead, embracing the Kid as if he were cradling a toy doll in his arms” (p.212). In such a criminal novel, embedding the soft emotions between two men was contrasting with the rest of the book, but also beautiful. 

My question for everyone: the epigraph of the novel wrote “After all, what is robbing a bank compared to founding one?- Bertolt Brecht “ I believe the novel suggests that society’ has double standards about crimes. What do you think about this quote and its relationship with the novel,  why is one a crime but not the other?

The “Love” across Age and Race– Marguerite Duras

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“Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you’re more beautiful now than then (p. 3). “

This is the classic beginning of The Lover by Marguerite Duras, where the aged narrator when her looks are devastated, longs for a lover who expresses the love that transcends above time.

In this novel, the narrator looks back on her first love and offers her personal reflections on past regrets, sorrow, and joy. Unfolding in the first-person narrative, the novel explores the deep and hopeless love between a poor French teenage girl and a rich Chinese man in his mid-twenties.  For me what makes this story so influential is that it takes the life of the French colonists in Vietnam as the background, where there was a rise of nationalism among Vietnamese people and the idea of racial discriminatory views among French colonists. Under this concept,  this forbidden love between a French girl and a Chinese man highly reflects that love can transcend the prejudice of race, colour, and wealth. 

“I say that’s how I desire him, with his money, that when I first saw him he was already in his car, in his money. ( p. 40)” In the first part of the novel, the narrator emphasizes that she’s with this Chinese man for the money. Similarly, the rich Chinese man desires her young body and sex. At this point, this seems to be a fair trade. However, I feel great sympathy for the narrator. Her family looms over her like a shadow, the source of all her suffering comes from poverty and her mother. In such a family, her mother always sees her daughter in a patriarchal view and sees her as a commodity, caring about her daughter’s value in the marriage market. Her mother never provided the love a teenager needs, and so she is thirsting for the love she never had.  This accumulated desire for love was satisfied by the sex and love with this man, who cares for her. With the love of sexes, she was able to detach herself from the suffocating coldness that surrounded her. Reversively, this young girl seems to fulfill the desire for freedom of this rich young man under this nationalist context. However, despite such true love, their class and race differences hindered their possibility. 

As the narrator is looking back, without wondering how she faces this sorrow in her heart, she has already admitted from the bottom of her heart that he has loved, she has loved, and money, and interests and it has nothing to do with it. 

“ He told her that it was as before, that he still loved her, he could never stop loving her, that he’d love her until death.” (p.129)

In the end, the Chinese man manages to express his love years later, and my question for everyone is, how do you interpret this ending? Do you view this as a tragedy full of regrets or a completion of their complex love story?

The Women, War, and Doves – Mercy Rodoreda

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The Time of the Doves by Mercé Rodoreda is a novel that allows readers to understand a war from a woman’s point of view. The novel is set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, but there are hardly any fight scenes, and it’s more about the story of this woman Natalia, with her struggle. 

At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes his husband Quimet. Interestingly, while Natalia herself already has a fiancé, she t is attracted by Quimet and married to him. What I didn’t understand is that Quimet seems to have a violent streak, which should warn Natalia to end this relationship, however, she chooses to continue. He is jealous, and suspicious, and demands that everything be done his way. Meanwhile, he also likes to call Natalia “Colometa”, and in Catalan can also mean “pigeon”. While pigeon means peace and love, under this context,  calling her pigeon seems more like a symbol of weakness, obedience, and need of protection. Such a name gives Quimet enough control, and satisfaction of masculinity.

Later on, Quimet gained the idea of raising pigeons on the roof of his apartment. He gradually brings more pigeons into the house, and Natalia has to take care of the pigeons, carrying food, and water, as well as cleaning up after them.

Parallelly, the Spanish Civil War breaks out, and Rodoreda intersperses many descriptions of death, starvation, and suffering among ordinary people. “Young and old, everyone to the war, and the war sucked them in and gave them death in return.” (p. 140) 

Here, Quimet went to war and was also dead. It is never known where his body is, only his overwatch is left to Natalia. She has a touch of sadness, but more importantly, she and her children are starving after not eating for days. “I had two mouths to feed and nothing to put in them. I can’t describe how sad it was.” And it was here that she planned to kill his children and then suicide to end everything. When a mother is considering killing her own flesh, readers can feel her desperation deeply. Day by day, all of the doves are gone and seems the doves symbolize her internal state, and hope for life.

After the war ended, Natalia and her children survived, and she remarried to a kind of wealthy man Antoni.  Unlike Quimet， Antoni seems to love her and cares about her. “How he hadn’t married me to wash his clothes but to have a family like he’d said, and he wanted to see his family happy.” (p.167) However, Natalia seems to be still in a nightmare where she can’t walk out of the time. She still thinks about the doves, and how she killed the chickens in the egg. My question is, Natalia has a sad and pitiful life where she cannot walk out of the dark. In your opinion, whose fault is this, is it Quinet, the war, the doves, or her own choice of marrying Quinet?

Week 5 What about rest of youth in “Black Shack Alley?” –JOSEPH ZOBEL

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This week’s novel Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel talks about the life of the main narrator José who lives with M’man Tine. This novel uses a linear narrative to tell the story of his experiences in Black Shack Alley and pursuing education to address the problem of colonialism, racialization and class inequality. I wanted to spread into two parts to discuss this story. 

Part 1.

In the first part of this story, Jose is still as an innocent boy who likes to fool around and play with his friends, despite the dire circumstances. M’man Tine worked day and night in the sugar cane field, but still never seemed to be able to escape poverty. 

From Zobel’s narration, Jose lives in very harsh conditions, where they have no opportunity to eat eggs. Despite this circumstance, M’man Tine still tried to give Jose a better childhood experience. To the best ability, she would add sugar to his coffee to express her love. She would punish Jose after he made trouble in the hope of him becoming a better man.

What also was a highlight was that when Jose was in the church with M’man Tine, he saw the statue of Jesus dying on the cross. He thinks Jesus is in a tragic position, but interestingly. he is not black. (p. 80). At this stage, Jose is still very young and he doesn’t understand the concepts of racialization, but he truely did witness the tragic experiences of black people.

Part 2 and Part 3

Over here, Jose was able to go to school with the support of M’man Tine. 

It seems that over here, his future and fate had become different from the other kids who joined the gang, and this is where the theme of education that Zobel is trying to put forward. As you can see from the narrative, Jose is somewhat gifted, and he enjoys reading. 

With effort, he was successfully admitted by lycée, and this is where his mother unconditionally supported his education, despite of high costs.  “Tell me! How will it all end if the blasted fathers place their sons in those things, in the same misfortune?” (74) His mother recognizes that this may be the only chance to change her child’s destiny, so he tries to remove this misfortune by betting on her own life.

When Jose enters lycée, he further enters a world dominated by high-status and white people, which is seen to expose him more to inequality. From his description of this boy he meets, Serge. We can imagine his comparison with self and life. 

However, with time, Jose is gradually becoming mature and internally powerful. M’man Tine’s illness and death greatly awakened Jose. By seeing her black swollen, crakced hand, he realizes exhaustion from working in the fields. As he learns more, the more he feels bitter and injustice. All he could do was show the world with such reality of Black people. 

 It seems that the story is telling Jose’s story, but in reality, Zobel is reflecting on the hardships and injustices experienced by millions of black people. Jose, as a special case, has the opportunity to receive an education, but can this eliminate inequality, what about the rest of the youth in Black Shack Alley, and what about the rest of the youth in Black Shack Alley?

Week 5: Young Boy Agostino’s Journey–Alberto Moravia

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In Alberto Morovia’s novella Agostino, the main character Agostino is a 13-year-old boy who has an unusual attachment with his mother. Despite he is already 13, he loves his mother with a “naive” heart and adores her as a mother figure.  One summer, he and his widow’s mother went on holiday to the Tuscan coast, and this trip caused Augostino to transform from a boy to a man exponentially, as well as added confusion, distress, and sexuality in him.  

From the narration, Agostino seemed to have lived a privileged and sheltered life, where he understood nothing about the suffering, sexuality, and violence of the outside world. His unusual dependencies on his mother lead him to be jealous and anxious when her mother is being attracted by other “men” while on the beach. I liked Morovia’s description of Agostino’s mood at this event. When he realizes that his adored mother acts so proactively toward another “man” and that he is being left out, he is overwhelmed, anger, confusion, and shame surround him. When his mother slaps him, it seems that this is the turning point, the turning point that changes Agostino, where he meets the local boys.

His comfort zone was shattered when he went to hang out with the gang of local boys, and that’s when he was forced to grow up. These boys were very rude, violent, and vulgar. In the first interaction, Agostino seems to be degraded and humiliated. I did not expect that he didn’t seem to care that he was being put down and still wanted to hang out with them. I think a big reason why Agostino kept hoping to be with them is that he finds these boys and Saro as a model of what is a real “man”. He never had a male figure in his life because he didn’t have a father, and meeting these rude boys seemed to open up the world of masculinity to him.

“He replaced his former reverence with cruelty and his affection with sensuality.” (p.69)

And after being teased and sexually educated by these boys, it seems that his opinion of his mother has completely changed, and he can no longer respect, and love his mother when she has no qualms about dressing and exposing herself to him. It seems that any stimulus during adolescence can easily change a child’s heart and moral values, which also makes me reflect that the wealth and status protection that Agostino has seems to make him even more influenced.

One question I have is that is the thoughts that 13-year-old Agostino are abnormal and immoral, or it is reasonable during puberty when he just learns about sex? How might his experience with the local boys shape his perception of man and woman?

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