After reading the rest of Nellie Campobello’s novel Cartucho I am left with a pretty dark impression of what it was like to grow up during the Mexican revolution. She provides us with vignettes of short stories about the people in her life and their involvement in the revolution. I think two major things this book accomplished was bringing a face and life to some of the lesser-known characters of the Mexican revolution, those that Campobello grew up around or was exposed to through her mothers role in the community. As well as view the revolution and the parties involved from the untainted eyes of a child to provide a new perspective against the one that dominated after the war.
I really enjoyed her vivid and visual descriptions of the setting and people; I think they really helped animate the book. However, it was difficult to follow. I had trouble keeping up with all of the different characters and quick pace of the stories. After getting a sense of who these people are, their stories come to an end either because they die, or the narrator moves on to the next one. Getting to know a bit about a character and then end to their story within a page maybe two made it seem like their lives were somewhat short lived and interrupted. I also found her descriptions of the gruesome deaths in an unattached, matter of fact way also made it difficult as a reader to get attached to characters and make connection between them. This made it difficult to try to grasp at an overarching narrative.
I think adopting the point of view of a child through these stories was like starting with a clean slate. At the beginning there was a sense of hope and curiosity, two scenes that stand out are her introductions of the men of the north and her curiosity when it came to something odd like generals bright red guts. Over time things became less exciting and some form of tragedy was to be expected. Through her less increasing less playful descriptions, it seemed like she was growing up, becoming numb and more disconnected from everything that had happened. I know reading the story, knowing it was from the perspective of a child made it different from other recounts of the revolution. Do you think the story would have been as popular had the author taken a different approach?
I think this got cut off somehow? It’s short, and you finish in the middle of a sentence, without providing a question for us?
(Also, a reminder to use categories… this one should be “Campobello”… and tags. Thanks!)
Hello! You’ve made some really great points here. I also chose Cartucho for the reading this week, and I did find it difficult to follow. For the first half of the book I was getting frustrated that maybe I was just unable to comprehend or follow the flow of the story. But after finishing the book, watching the video lecture, and reading other people’s blogs, I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one who had trouble reading the book. And as professor mentioned, maybe narrating the book this way is all part of the game that the author would like her readers to play. The game of trying to figure out what she meant through her vignettes, knowing that we’re reading it through the eyes of a child. But I do like how you brought up that the book showed Campobello’s maturity from beginning to the end, and how she somewhat had gotten used to seeing so many deaths through her childhood that she’s unaffected by them towards the end.
Hi Diana,
Great post! I think you make a great point that since we know it was from the perspective of a child, it definitely has potential to alter the perceptions and reactions from the reader. I also found it hard to follow at first, but I also simultaneously enjoyed the short-story style of Cartucho’s writing. Her use of imagery really displayed the violence and grit that occurred during that time. To answer your question, I do think that the book is popular for being taken for how it is. Had it been done in a different style, perhaps it could have been more popular, but the ways in which Campobello delivers her stories through short-story style makes it impactful to readers in a unique way.
Hi Diana, you bring up a great question! I think Campobello’s narrative mouthpiece being a child lended to the text’s unsettling and haunting nature. Like you say, we usually think of children as having “untainted eyes” and I think this offers the stories more credibility somehow, since we assume she wouldn’t being tempted to embellish. I think it would read very differently if the narrator was an adult, like the mother, for example.