“When you lift the board, you must give three turns to the right and four to the left. Seven in all.This is to confuse the soul so that it can’t return to this life of misery”(p.56)
This story shows the loss of many things, innocence, freedom and traditions. The children attempt to find a way to properly bury the bird, they bring items that they believe have importance in order to give the bird a proper funeral but they do not have the knowledge to correctly lay the bird to rest. The children have not been taught the rituals of death in their country because the people who are supposed to teach them are gone, either dead or disappeared, they have lost the context around death and do not know the proper way to mourn. This also shows the loss of other traditions that do not involve death and the loss of entire cultures, many of the people killed in Guatemala were indigenous and with that comes the loss of rituals and traditions that are hundreds of years old. The old man tells Maximo the rituals that are supposed to take place so the soul does not return to the body, the conflict has been so bad that souls must escape in order to find peace. The only one who would be able to teach the children the correct way to have a funeral is the old man and they run away from him, they have been taught to fear people, not learn from them. This story shows the destruction of cities and lives but also ways of life that are lost due to conflict, these children will not be able to teach their own children the traditions and their culture due to the war.
Hello Mary Linn! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I find your interpretation of the quote very insightful – I felt many of the same things when reading the story, and wondered what meaning (if any) Arias was trying to convey. I agree with you that the first thing that stands out for me is the lack of knowledge and means that the children have in their own traditions and culture. This reading makes especial sense in the context of a war torn scene like the one we are presented with. At the same time, there seems to be something else at play here – from my perspective, the ritual that the children preformed was quite indicative of a mature respect for the bird. The old man, on the other hand, seems to budge in and demand a certain procedure, regardless of the good intentions of the children. Though there isn’t much conflict between both groups, this interaction makes me more open to a positive reading where this funeral is a sign that humanity will never be lost, even if it is torn from its traditions and culture. As horrible as that is, it might be better than the alternative where culture is all that keeps humanity from moral destitution.
Hi Mary Linn! Great post – I hadn’t thought about the significance of that part of the story in this way. (To be honest, as it was the end of the story, I didn’t spend too much time considering it as an integral and meaningful part of Arias’s narrative). I think your interpretation is especially relevant because, as we discussed in class, the Guatemalan Civil War was essentially a genocide, with 93% of casualties being indigenous; and when these people died, their traditions and rituals would have been lost with them, as you’ve pointed out.
I also agree with Benjamin that the funeral can represent some sort of hope for a more humane, tender future embodied by the innocence and care of these children – and yet the old man is a cynic, representing that which is lost and indeed hopeless. Perhaps these two characters (the children and the old man) represent Arias’s conflicting feelings – hope and grief – for Guatemala.
I like the ideas you develop there. Firstly the idea of a loss of culture due to the cultural genocide. It really speaks to the gravity of issues like these. The lost knowledge coincides with the loss of life. I also think this loss, specifically in relation to the kids, represents that of any guidance whatsoever. They’re going to have to learn things about life the hard way, instead of being taught in a nurturing environment.
I don’t find that the idea that the soul shouldn’t return to the body should equate to meaning that the life it has known was only full of misery. I think there are a few possible interpretations to why one would do that. In one case, it could mean that if the soul finds the body it can raise it as an undead, which is bad for the living. On the other hand, it could mean that this bird has earned its place in the afterlife. In this context, it can be of no relevance how good or bad its life was, as its ready for what is next.