Ernesto Che Guevara--The Motorcycle Diaries

The movie motorcycle diaries was based on Che Guevara's diaries. He remains till today, an international symbol of freedom, a hero.

Che Guevara was born in 1928 in Argentina. He was of spanish and irish descent.

• suffered severely from asthma
• amazing athlete
• avid collective reader
• Machu Pichu played an important role in his life.

 His beliefs were influenced by some of the most important and influential figures of his time, as he read works by Kar Marx, William Falkner, Kafka and Vladimir Lenin.
He participated in many revolutions and ended up being Fidel Castro's right hand man in the Cuban revolution.

Motorcycle diaries is categorized as a bildungsroman. This implies that the author presents social, psychological, and moral shaping of the personality of a character, usually the protagonist. But Motorcycle diaries is often also associated with an identity plot where the protagonist comes to learn who they are and their identity.
An identity plot has five major elements:

• The narrative revolves around the question of how to define and understand a character's identity.
• The character must be a member of a minority within a larger society.
• The character is at odds with the minority group of which he or she is a part of.
• The character needs to be conflicted about his or her difference from the majority and about his or her difference from the minority. 
• Authenticity and origine are always at stake in the characters quest for personal identity. Even when they are absent, their absence alone signifies something crucial to the character's identity. 

Here are some variations of an identity plot:

• The characters seem to be a member of the majority group.
• The character does not seem to be conflicted about his membership in the minority group (will that person betray his group or not)
• The character resists the whole idea of having an identity that is stable (Kingston--she doesnt believe identities stay still--identity is changeable--the variation becomes more common in later 20 th century although clearly there are authors who believe that identity can be stable.)
• There may be multiple people who's identities are at stake in the novel
• can have variations of fiction based on fact (raises the stakes of the fiction--suggesting its purchase on the real to write a fiction that is sort of semi-autobiographical, not all truth--that what is going on in the fiction is close to what we live.)
• Identity is not based on race or ethnicity.

Silko's "The Yellow Woman"

"Yellow Woman" can probably be interpreted in different way, but I believe that the adventure that the narrator lives is very much reality and not a fantasy. She met a man who provoked such a desire within her that she followed him into the night and remained with him for three days. At several occasions she thinks about her family, husband and child that she left behind and wonders if the they are worried about her. This shows us a certain level of guilt for cheating on her husband, a guilt that she attempts to rationalize through the story of the Yellow Woman. Becoming "Yellow Woman", kidnapped by the spirit of the mountains provides her with a sort of escape from reality, and an excuse for her irresponsible behavior. We can see that she truly lived the story, and that she is well aware that she is not really Yellow Woman , because when she goes home, she tells her husband she was kidknapped by a navajo. If she had truly believed that she was Yellow Woman, she would have most probably told her family so, and they would have believed her.
The narrator also mentions her grandfather at several occasions, and says how she wishes he were still alive. This shows a certain desire to be nurtured and taken care of, something that she found in Silo. This nurturing care was not given to her in her home. This is obvious when she comes home after several days and nothing seems to have disturbed the peace of the household. Everyone is in the process of making Jell-O and are not even worried about the narrator's whereabouts.

Gabriela Garcia Marquez: "A very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" tells the story of a small village who's monotony is disturbed by the arrival of a very old man with enormous wings. He lands in Pelayo and Elsinda's yard as they are killing crabs. I believe the story works as a criticism of the catholic institution as well as human nature. 
Marquez criticises the church through Father Gonzaga's superiors in Rome when he mocks the unnecessary and lengthy hierarchy: " Nevertheless, he promised to write a letter to his bishop so that the latter would write his primate so that the latter would write to the Supreme Pontiff in order to get the final verdict from the highest courts." The amount of people Father Gonzaga has to go through to speak to a superior is just ridiculous, especially when these superiors completely fail to be interested on the nature of this so called fallen angel, but instead concentrate on ridiculous and irrelevant details such as whether " his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could fit on the head of a pin, or whether he wasn't just a Norwegian with wings." Marquez is clearly mocking the churches arcane medieval theories and insinuating how literal minded and out of touch with reality the church is. In the end, the old man simply flies away, implying that the wisdom of the church was all together unnecessary and didn't contribute to the resolution of the mystery at all. 

Marquez also criticizes human beings in general, primarily through Pelayo and Elsinda and the other villagers. Their narrow mindedness seems to prevent them from really understanding the meaning of life. The "wise neighbor woman" has know it all solutions to every situation, therefor never really analyzing and thinking about the situation in itself. Father Gonzaga desperately looks for a procedure to follow instead of dealing with the situation at hand, contacting his superiors in Rome that are worthless of advice. And finally, Marquez mocks human nature through all the pilgrims and sick people that come to see the fallen angel with their own selfish concerns. Even  Pelayo and Elsinda show the same selfishness. Instead of taking care of the old man, they lock him up like a savage and turn him into a circus animal and a means to make money: " Elisenda, her spine all twisted from sweeping up so much marketplace trash, then got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel." 
Another main theme of the story could be how people treat differences. This old man with enormous wings is not like anyone else these villagers have ever seen. But instead of treating him with respect and dignity, he is locked up and turned into a circus animal, an attraction for people all around the world to come look at.  

Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

Discussion:

Why did Okonkwo wish that Ezinma was a boy instead of a girl: I think this illustrates an important aspect of the Igbo culture. Men and women did not have an equal status and therefor could not accomplish themselves in the same way. Men could gain titles and a good reputation. Okonkwo and Ezinima have a very good relationship. Okonkwo feels like she is the only one who truly undersatnds him. He also say at several occasions that she is smart. He thinks that if she were a boy she could have accomplished great things.


Okonkwo's death signifies the end of the tribe, its inability to resist to the new arrivers. The fact that Achebe does not go into explaining what happens to Okonkwo's family after his death clearly illustrates this. Okonkwo was very representative of his tribe and when he died, it died with him. Moreover, the fact that the commissionaire decided that Okonkwo's life would be an interesting story and would probably just be worthy of a single paragraph in his book, illustrates the mentality with which the white men came to invade Africa. The saw each clan, with their elaborate and complex culture and beliefs, as small paragraphs in their overall mission. I think Achebe is highlighting how unconsiderate they were and how little they tried to understand what they were actually destroying.



Main Characters:

• Okonkwo: hates his father because he was a lazy and unmanly person, and does everything to be the opposite. As  result he is very masculine, driven by success and the image he has amongst the clan. He has a violent streak. He s also very proud and values strength and power
• Unoka is Okonkwo's father
• Naoye is Okonkwo's eldest son, the son of his first wife
• Ikenefuna is Okonkwo's adopted son
• Ekwefi is Okonkwo's second and probably favorite wife. He has three wives. She was married before him but she always loved Okonkwo. She married someone else because Okonkwo didn't have enough money, but she ended up running back to him.
• Ezinma is Okonkwo's daughter, the daughter of Ekwefi. She is very precious to her mother because she had a lot of trouble having children and always gave birth to still borns or babies who didnt survive the first couple months. 
• Nwakibie is an elder who gives Okonkwo his first seed yams to start his life.
• Obierka is Okonkwo's best friend and his polar opposite.
• Ezeudu is an elder who tell Okonkwo not to partiipate in Ikemefuna's death
• Uchendu is Okonkwo's uncle that lives in his mother land. He halps him and gives him advice when Okonkwo is exiled to his mother land.
• Mr. Brown is a british missionary who builds a church in Umofia. He is described as harmless.
• Reverand Mr. Smith is also a British missionary, he continues what Mr. Brown started except he is much harsher in his ways.

Achebe tells his story in three parts:

1. Umofia: Things are in place, with Okonkwo as a representative of his culture
2. Mbanta: Things are out of place, Okonkwo is in exile for seven years, he has to rebuild his life and he starts hearing about the missionaries
3. Umofia: Okonkwo is back in his hometown and he has to start his life yet again... But the missionaries are here and the clan has been divided into those that still believe in their own gods and those that chose to follow the christian missionaries. Things fall apart....