Tag Archives: week2

09/17/21

Old Horrors Through New Eyes

Arturo Arias’ “Guatemala 1954: Funeral for a Bird” examines a devastated mid-coup Guatemala through the perspective of Maximo Sanchez. Maximo, not yet five, lives in a world full of violence and despair, but also full of colour, freedom, and new discoveries. As we follow him we see that in his eyes, the dead bodies and puddles of blood lining the streets are only obstacles in the way of his next adventure.

Throughout the story, the focus is never on the death surrounding Maximo, or the atrocities that he is implied to have experienced, but rather on the simpler things that are within his understanding. His desire to learn the proper name for everything, his simultaneous revulsion and curiosity towards the worm-filled corpses, and his eagerness to participate in a burial of a dead bird all take the forefront of this narrative. Maximo’s attitude towards the human corpses is particularly jarring in contrast with his behaviour towards the death of the bird; his fervency to see this bird up close causes him to trip over a rotting corpse, and his only response is to kick the body in frustration, yet he treats the bird with utmost care during its burial.

It is not that Maximo is entirely blind to the events that are occurring around him—he realizes that the bombs may have to do with his father’s disappearance, and becomes frightened at the thought of them returning—but he cannot grasp reality the way a more mature person, such as the old man, could. At first glance this may seem to limit the narrative, but I believe it does the opposite: in confronting something already shocking through the eyes of an unknowing child, our own eyes are opened to the inescapable horrors that Guatemalans became accustomed to during this time.

09/17/21

Funeral of a childhood

The child lens that Arias adopts in this short story made me reflect a lot on the innocence of children and their way of thinking. I compared the text a lot to Room, which is a novel about a kidnapped mother and her son. Here too the five-year-old child is the one that narrates the very tough journey the two take to escape the mother’s kidnapper. It is through the view of a child that an author is able to “dumb down” a tough narrative and see it through a different set of eyes who are also trying to comprehend it. Not only are we learning along with the protagonists, but we get to see a different perspective on what they think of it.

The start of the text seems to be the most impactful in this sense, as it is where we first meet Maximo and his way of thinking. Although it’s told from a 3rd person’s perspective, we still get an insight into his thoughts, such as when he talks about the “poor little corpses” “filled with worms” who “deserved to die” (Arias 50). If an adult character were to say that these poor little corpses deserved to die, we would probably characterize them as a violent person with psycopathic tendencies. However, the context of this character allows for the reader to somewhat understand them and their thought-process. It’s not necessarily because Maximo wants them to be dead, but instead he feels like they deserve it because of their bad smell. It seems like a simple answer to the situation for Maximo, but as readers it allows us to reflect on what this character is surrounded by, and what his perception of death is in his war-filled upbringing.

 

09/16/21

Profit Over Progress?

A critique made in class about Dorfman and Mattelart’s essay, “How to Read Donald Duck,” is that their message doesn’t reach very far because Disney is a profit seeking corporation and they release content based on what the public wants to see. Even through paradigm shifts where society has (supposedly) become more progressive, profit still outweighs the ethical considerations of Disney’s themes and ideologies. My response is that Dorfman and Mattelart’s critiques are still warranted because Disney was essentially trying to capitalize on an entire nation’s common culture, so a critique on Disney is also a critique of the dominant ideology reflected in American society during the Cold War.

Considering anti-socialist sentiments during the Cold War, it comes as no surprise that Americans wanted to consume content that reflected their jingoistic views. Disney benefited from propagating such views even though it was socially irresponsible. However, if Disney released the Donald Duck comics in today’s political climate, that would be detrimental to their business model. If consumer behaviour/power drives the success of certain businesses, I think Disney “does care” about the opinions of their customers. Companies seeking profit and social progressivism doesn’t necessarily have to be at odds with each other.

Additionally, such paradigm shifts that made society (a little bit) less racist can be attributed to people like Dorfman and Mattelart who scrutinize the consequences of American imperialism and other aspects of capitalism, and their critiques are still relevant today. It is especially important to criticize Disney in particular because their content reaches young audiences which can shape long standing ideologies/cultures in the generations to come.

 

09/16/21

Confronting Realities

In class we spoke about the significance of the difference in the title of Aria’s work between the English and Spanish versions. The English version offers a prelude of “Guatemala 1954” giving the reader a direct context for the events of the short story. I believe the significance of this relates to the extent of American intervention in Latin America and the Guatemalan conflict expressed in the story.

I propose that the specifics of the setting of the story are made to call the people of English speaking countries directly to the content of the story, without any room for misinterpretation, and without offering space for denial of the content of this story. Far too often in American media, issues are offered in a palatable way. Offering the American audience a choice in whether they consume the media, or live in their ignorant bliss. This title does not offer that bliss. It directs the reader to a specific moment with a specific history. This call out could be more dangerous in the context of Spanish speaking and Latin American countries, so the addition of the pretext in the English version leads me to the conclusion, that it is there for a reason, and that reason is for the benefit of English readers. The critical nature of the texts leads me to the conclusion that the title offers a critical address to the interventional tactics, and forces its readers to confront the severity of their country’s actions, and further perpetuation of interventional ideals in American culture and legislation.

The title offers English readers space to confront the realities of their county’s international affairs, and extends the teachings of revolution to an American front.

09/16/21

Birds as a Symbol of Rotten Holiness

In class I made a brief comment on how the dead bird in Guatemala 1954- Funeral for a Bird made me think of the angel in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, and I wanted to use this blog post to delve further into that. For those who don’t know about Marquez’s story, in short it tells the tale of an “angel” who fell from the sky and crashed into the backyard of a random family. The angel is quite deformed and realistic-looking, and it endures quite the maltreatment from the locals who come to see it. This tale made me think of the bird from our short story, both because of the two links (an old man, and a feathered thing falling from the sky), and more importantly perhaps, because of the way it is treated.

In both stories, the thing that falls from the sky becomes part of a sort of ritual with the locals who find it. In Marquez’s story this is used to show that curiosity and carelessness seem to be some of the first reactions humans have towards the divine/unknown if they aren’t in the proper circumstances. In Arias’ story, it seems to me like the bird serves at first a quite different function – the funeral orchestrated by the children shows that humanity is still present even during despair, and that the ignorant still try and give proper respect and dignity to things they properly identify as deserving it. The old man, however, brings the story closer to Marquez’s by revealing how the children have lost touch with the proper ways of handling these things.

In both cases, there is something quite powerful being conveyed through humanity’s interaction with something that fell from the sky. On one hand, this interaction shows humanity’s distance from the divine because of its inability to understand and respect the things above it, but on the other hand, there is a certain, visceral closeness that is brought to attention through the corporeal detail present in both stories. Altogether, it leaves me a bit confounded as to what is being signified through these stories – I am filled with both a feeling of the “magical” in its positive aspects, and one of “otherness” and even derangement. Perhaps, this specific effect of the uncanny is what was intended, as it conveys a sense of horror when humanity is forced to deal with matters of the divine and death with which it should never have to deal with directly.

09/16/21

Rituals for the Dead

“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. 

09/15/21

A Bird and Freedom

Throughout the short story, “Guatemala 1954- Funeral for a Bird,” by Arturo Arias, the motif of the dead bird suggests a commentary on the fleeting freedom experienced by Guatemalans and other victims of civil unrest.

Commonly in literature, the presence of a bird represents freedom. Since Maximo was born at the beginning of Guatemala’s Civil War, freedom is something he has never truly experienced. At the beginning of the story, Maximo suggests that the fighting and bombing has ceased for the time being, and with relief from the war, he begins to feel free. As he wanders the streets, Maximo remarks on his sense of freedom, saying, he, “could walk in any direction unless streets were blocked by corpses or fallen walls. That was called freedom” (50). Birds, which would be scared of the loud noises of war, would return to the community. Therefore, with the ceasing of bombs, the bird represents a return of freedom.

Yet, the bird the children gather around is dead, not alive, suggesting that the freedom Maximo is experiencing will soon come to an end. The Guatemalan civil war lasted for 36 years, with peace and war coming and going. The dead bird symbolizes the complexity of war and peace, bringing up the question when is peace fully attained? Additionally, with the history of United States intervention in Guatemala and other Latin American countries, the fleeting freedom shown by the bird invites the debate of what true freedom is. In conclusion, Maximo’s experience of the dead bird can be seen as a commentary on freedom during war and in post-war communities.

09/14/21

Estrangement, Violence and Innocence

In exploring the central themes of Arturo Arias’ “Guatemala 1954: Funeral for a Bird” the concept of  estrangement coined by Viktor Shklovsky communicates the motifs of death and violence prevalent throughout the story and in this time period.

Maximo is a child of only 5, who’s entire existence has been defined by death, violence and loss, yet as a child is presented with a sense of innocence. His understanding of the world is confined to stories from his mother, presumed to be dead, as well as photographs in magazines in his home. Due to fighting, and the constant threat of death he is largely confined to his home and his freedoms limited.

The bulk of the story follows Maximo as he explores the horrors of a war torn Guatemala, where as the reader we observe Maximo completely desensitized to the concept of human death, to the point where corpses littered throughout the city both intrigue and annoy him. This is illustrated by Maximo curiously observing bugs crawling out of the mouths of corpses, and kicking one after tripping over it while enjoying his perceived freedom.

This is starkly contrasted with his, and the other children’s reaction to the corpse of a dead bird. Here we observe a more somber attitude where the children seem aware almost saddened by the concept of death among this bird.

These two prominent and opposite responses is central to the theme of the short story, illustrating the extreme violence and death experienced in this time period without outlining specific details. Maximo, a child so normalized to the concept and sight of death, can only truly grasp what death itself is when he is taken outside of his normalized environment. This I believe presents a depiction of war that communicates its horror more strongly to the reader than simply outlining the events that occurred.

09/14/21

Birds, Rings, Coups, and Children

“Maximo could walk in any direction unless the streets were blocked by corpses or fallen walls. That was called freedom.” (pg. 2) In Funeral for a Bird, Arturo Arias captures the harsh reality of the U.S.-backed coup in Guatemala that overthrew Arbenz in 1954. By speaking through the eyes of a child, Arias is able to use a slightly dissociated voice of a child who can’t comprehend the true gravity of the situation. The violent reality is communicated bluntly, from the smell of decomposing bodies to the cockroaches that live inside the corpses. For Maximo, “fallen walls” are as common as corpses, revealing the depth and extent of violence in his town. Arturo adds the phrase “That was called freedom” to seemingly critique the United States’ role in the mass death of civilians. The passive voice seems to indicate that freedom was something promised or explained to those experiencing violence.  While the coup of 1954 was often outwardly branded as a quest for freedom and rejection of communism, the true motivating factors were largely economic. Arbenz pushed for land reform and land redistribution, two policies that threatened American interests. Arias shows the reader what American brought “freedom” really looks like and it looks like death and suffering.

In Maximo’s worldview, corpses are a fact of life and so commonplace that the death of a bird holds more weight for his child self. As bombs likely killed many birds or drove them away from the area, the single dead bird represents something beautiful and foreign to the children, a reminder of the past. Arias also shows how desensitized the children are through their interaction with the bird and its funeral. Children are careful to not step on the bird, yet when Maximo trips on a corpse he kicks it. The genre and narrative voice make this piece so powerful; the reader is forced to consider the enduring impact viewing this violence would have on a child.

09/14/21

The Irony of It All

Arturo Arias in  “Guatemala 1954 — Funeral for a Bird” utilizes irony to expose the near unfathomable horrors left by the bombing experienced through a child’s perspective. The most apparent example is the children’s lack of empathy towards the bodies contrasted with their admiration of the dead bird. Sanchez “in a fit of anger… kicked the corpse” when the corpse becomes an obstacle between him and the dead bird (Arias 51). Furthermore, at that moment, Sanchez “didn’t see the headless body” (Arias 51). For a moment, Sanchez is so consumed by his thoughts of the bird that he literally fails to recognize the human body in front of him. When Sanchez is forced to recognize the body, he does not do so with the same honour as the bird, but rather with contempt. While Arias definitely uses irony to unsettle the reader, perhaps more interestingly, he makes the reader further distrust Sanchez and the narration.

Arias further exposes Sanchez’s fickle (unreliable not as a result of purposeful manipulation, but childish perspective) narration to the reader when he finds the ring to bring as an offering to the bird. When Sanchez finds the ring, he shouts that “I found a ring! A precious ring!” (Arias 53). We only find out after the ring is described in detail that “the finger it encircled also seemed beautiful” (Arias 53). Sanchez is not concerned with the finger: he does not say that he has found a finger, rather just the ring. The reader is forced to recontextualize the ring after finding out that the finger is attached. This further causes the reader to question the narration. 

While we often understand the rhetoric that horrors of war and suffering are unfathomable in children’s eyes, Arias literally makes these horrors unfathomable. The reader never gains access to a version of this story as a normal adult would tell it; instead, we must constantly try to piece together the story narrated through the thoughts of a four-and-a-half-year-old.