This week I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. The story is the memory of Harriet Winslow, an American school teacher who finds herself in the middle of the Mexican revolution. She meets a group of revolutionaries led by General Arroyo and accompanied by an old gringo. I had the unfortunate experience of watching the movie The Old Gringo a few years ago with my Dad after he had finished reading the novel himself (my Dad loves the type of texts we read in this class, definitely one of my influences when it came to taking this course). Some might say that watching a movie before reading a book ruins it, and usually, I would agree. But, that is until you watch this movie and realize the book’s narrative is completely lost, so reading the novel was an entirely different experience.
I found the old gringos story to be a sad and interesting story of destiny and fate. He is unhappy with his life, and to be the master of his own destiny, he travels to Mexico to die in the revolution. Throughout his journey in Mexico, he welcomes the idea of death but eerily talks about how nice he wants his corpse to look when he does finally die. I think his desire for a dignified death comes from the life experiences that have led him to believe he had lived an undignified life. “Which is more important, the way we live or the way we die?” (pg.85). I believe the old comes man learns that there is little difference between life and death
Although this novel is considered short, it took me a long time to read. To me, the book is written more like poetry than prose. I reread pages, underlined more phrases, and there are more sticky notes in this novel than any others. There were so many themes I am sure I even missed some. Life, love, death, patriotism, destiny, identity, the list could go on. I think what was important was that every character, although coming from different backgrounds, had experiences that revolved around these themes in one way or another. For example, both the old gringo and Arroyo battle share the internal conflict with life and destiny. The old man wishes to die with dignity in Mexico, whereas the general wishes to die young, maybe as a way to escape the unpleasantries of his destiny. What did everyone else think Arroyo and the Gringos’ reasons were for wishing for death? How are life and death in the novel the same? How are they different?