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The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda : Pain & Suffering, but real

  The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda is such an interesting read and is honestly one of my fav reads so far throughout this course! The book centres around Natalia’s hardships of poverty and despair. This is evident through the quote in the prelude by George Meredith, “My dear, these things are life.” This exemplifies how life can be hard and messy. Honestly, this book felt real to me. Recently, I’ve been going through a lot of hardships in my life with family and friends. It made me feel that I could relate to Natalia’s hardships because there are always going to be ups and downs in life. Doves are often connoted with peace and grace. I think Rodoreda utilizes the imagery of the doves to be juxtaposed with the hardships within Natalia’s life. I think the story also gave me a clearer understanding about the struggles of war during the Spanish Civil War as a woman. Quimet and Natalia’s relationship was interesting to read. I thought Quimet was honestly a red flag because of the...
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Victim of Colonization - Deep Rivers by Jose Maria Arguedas

  Theme : Finding One’s Self Compared to the other books that I’ve read so far throughout this course, Deep Rivers by Jose Maria Arguedas was harder for me to get into. I think it’s because there’s no concrete ending or structure to the story, which made it harder for me to enjoy. The story focuses on a boy named Ernesto who is of mixed heritage and his journey in navigating his mixed identity and cultural background. I haven’t read a book like this before, so it was interesting to see how Ernesto navigates the intersecting parts of his identity with his indigenous background and having to go to a boarding school that centres around colonial education. This shows the sense of struggle he faces in belonging at school. People would give him the nickname “forraneo”, “forastero” or “forasterito” : outsider, stranger, or little stranger. This reinforces the notion that he feels that he is an outsider. He feels as if he’s not Indigenous enough and doesn’t feel like he’s part of his schoo...
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Agostino : You Don't Think This About Your Mother

  Theme: Love?! I feel like in this course, I have read about the most unusual characters and that says a lot because I read A LOT of books. Agostino by Alberto Moravia was such an interesting read which says a lot because I have never read a book that explored Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex. Freud asserts that “while he is still a small child, a son will already begin to develop a special affection for his mother, whom he regards as belonging to him; he begins to feel his father as a rival who disputes his sole possession” (Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis).  I remember in my A-levels Psychology class, learning about the Oedipus complex and thinking how could this theory be even real. That’s where it surprised me that this book untangles Agostino’s sexuality and attraction for his mother (which I never knew was possible to occur).  In the beginning of the novel where Agostino went out to the sea with his mother, he was proud because it seemed as if “all the...
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The Shrouded Woman : When in death is when one becomes the wisest

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  The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal is such an interesting read because the main character is a woman named Ana Maria who is dead. It centers around how she’s lying down at the funeral wake and people from all walks of her life come to visit her. The beginning of the novel, “(a)s night was beginning to fall, slowly her eyes opened” alludes to how death was creeping closer for Ana Maria and how she was in the transitory moment between life and death. “For she was seeing, she was feeling” alludes to how she’s able to experience out of body experience even though she’s dead. The tactile imagery of seeing “herself lying motionless face upward in the spacious bed” reiterates the notion that she is able to see that she’s dead.  The repetition of the “falling” of the rain could point to how she is more attune with her senses once she is dead. In some cultures, people say you have to be delicate with the dead, especially during the transitory phase from life to death because th...
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Nadja : Love or An attachment to survive the lows of life?

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  I found Nadja interesting because I felt that it had some similarities with Proust in how the story utilizes a lot of internal monologue and internal thought processes. This parallel of self-identity and figuring out memories is intriguing. Putting these two books together, it made me think about how difficult it is to examine life from a retrospective lens. In Nadja, Breton is an unfulfilled character who seems to have lost himself as a person. This is evident through the opening of the novel, “Who am I?” This further highlights his conflict of identity and uneasiness of how his life is transpiring. This unfulfilled nature stems from how he recounts his life and his failing marriage. The lengthy syntax and structure of his thoughts mirrors how lost he feels in life. I think meeting Nadja was a turning point in his life because he needed something to hold onto, to tell him to keep going in his life. That’s why he was so fascinated and “in love” with Nadja. She was refreshing and ...
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Marcel Proust Edited Version Because my formatting was wrong :(

  I found Marcel Proust's "Combray" to be really interesting. It made me think about how dreams can be intertwined with memories. The opening of the story portrayed how the author was walking through memory lane and how dreams are associated with revealing your innermost thoughts and memories. This made me think about how sometimes I dream about things or people that I haven’t thought about in a long time. When I wake up, it makes me think about my past and memories. The long sentences reflect the journey that the author is going through to unlock the memories within him.  At first, when I was reading this book, I found it confusing and difficult to understand because the author started to go through different time periods and memories which made it seem scattered. At the same time, it made me think about how memories, especially of our childhood, are not always clear or precise.  However, when the author was describing his action of sipping the tea and eating a madeleine...
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Marcel Proust Reading

 I found Marcel Proust's "Combray" to be really interesting. It made me think about how dreams can be intertwined with memories. The opening of the story portrayed how the author was walking through memory lane and how dreams are associated with revealing your innermost thoughts and memories. This made me think about how sometimes I dream about things or people that I haven’t thought about in a long time. When I wake up, it makes me think about my past and memories. The long sentences reflect the journey that the author is going through to unlock the memories within him.  At first, when I was reading this book, I found it confusing and difficult to understand because the author started to go through different time periods and memories which made it seem scattered. At the same time, it made me think about how memories, especially of our childhood, are not always clear or precise.  However, when the author was describing his action of sipping the tea and eating a madeleine,...
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