Reflection - The Time Of The Doves by Mercè Rodoreda

 The Time Of The Doves was probably my favourite book we have read so far in this class. The book covers some dark topics and is not a particularly happy one and shows a resilient protagonist who is brought to her breaking point, who is then able to overcome it and have hope at the end of the novel.

At first, you start to feel bad for Natalia as her boyfriend Quimet doesn’t really care about her and is very manipulative, but then you remember that she kinda did leave her fiance for him. It was kinda obvious from one of their early encounters that Quimet isn’t a very considerate person, as Quimet was an hour late to the scheduled time and did not even apologize and said the most egregious line to her “if I wanted to be his wife I had to start by liking everything he liked” (22). Even after they get married Quimet always seems preoccupied with something else, like making the dovecote, raising the doves, and going out on adventures with his friends. There are several more incidents of Quimet gaslighting and being manipulative, but if I keep talking about everything bad he has done throughout the novel it would probably span a couple more pages.  It starts to get to the point where it is quite funny to think about how many bad traits he has and you start to question why Natalia even chooses him.  It might be from the fact that Natalia says that her mother had never told her about men and she is somehow ignorant about what a good person is or that her parent's relationship was not a particularly healthy one either and she does not know what a healthy relationship looks like yet. Or maybe perhaps that society at that time expected women to just get married no matter how unhappy they were and were expected to just endure through it for the rest of their lives. 

Life gets worse for Natalia as Quimet’s shop starts getting less work and she is forced to find a job, all while having to care for her two children. On top of this Quimet’s passion project now has invaded their home and there are just doves that live with them. She finally reaches her breaking point and starts trying to make sure the doves' chicks will never hatch by repeatedly shaking them.

As if life could not get any worse, a civil war commences, and Quimet goes to the front lines. Quimet sometimes returns from the front lines to their home for a bit before going back to fight, and Natalia is left wondering each time he leaves if he is ever going to come back. After she receives news that Quimet and Cintet have died in the war, it is hard not to feel her grief alongside her. Even though Quimet was not a very good person, it is still sad to see someone's life taken away, especially for reasons outside of their control and the fact that they are leaving a family behind. 

Things start to look up for Natalia and her family after finally getting a job that saves them from almost dying of starvation. Her boss an older man named Antoni eventually proposes to her and she accepts not really knowing why does. I was concerned that this second marriage would be a repeat of her first one, where she would be stuck and unhappy. However, it seems like Antoni loves their family and is a good person, after realizing this, Natalia seems happy at last after having gone through so much.

My Question for Everyone: 

When Natalia feels like there is no other option, she devises a plan to murder her children and then herself, but she is eventually given a job saving her family from starvation and her plan is no longer needed. Did the fact that tried to go through with this plan change your opinion of her? Or did you already have a negative opinion of her before this point?

Reflection - Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas

 Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas gives a violent and ugly depiction of life while at the same immersing you in the beauty of the world and the natural world. The author spends significant time creating a detailed depiction of the vivid Peruvian landscape and of the different cities and towns that the protagonist Ernesto and his father travel through. He also goes into great detail describing the rich culture of the Quechua people and their love for the natural world, often including poems and songs written in Quechua.  The novel also includes words in the Quechua language when Ernesto is speaking rather than translating them, which I thought was a cool addition. 

The novel focuses on Ernesto’s struggle with identity as he was raised by the Quechua people but is a descendant of settlers (Western side). This struggle becomes apparent when Ernesto is forced to attend a Catholic school and leave his old life behind. Even though the other students and the priests considered him mostly as one of their own because of the way he looks, they often still call him the name “stranger” because of his different upbringing.  

Some of Ernesto’s classmates also make him question what is correct and make him question if the new society he is forced into is really for him. He despises the mistreatment of the indigenous people, when the indigenous people have an uprising and steal salt as an act of rebellion, Ernesto celebrates and chants with them in the streets. Ernesto finds actively himself routing against the colonizers, in a conversation with his friend Antero, he states that he thinks that the Indigenous people's revenge is justified and that “A man who weeps because they’ve been slapping his face for no reason at all can become angrier than a bull that hears a dynamite explosion, that feels the condor’s beak on his neck”, his friend replies that “The Indians must be kept down” and that “You can’t understand because you are not a land-owner” showing the disconnect between Ernesto and the views of the people around him.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but I wouldn't put it among my favorites that we have read in class so far. It did take quite a bit of time to get into it as the first third of the novel is pretty slow and I had not really connected with any of the characters yet. When the story starts focusing more on Ernesto and his time at the catholic school I was able to get more invested in the story and characters.

My question:

One part I thought was interesting is that I didn't find any definite reasons why Ernesto’s dad hates Ernesto’s uncle, the Old Man so much. What do you think the reason is?

Reflection, Alberto Moravia’s Agostino

 I do not think a book has ever made me feel more uncomfortable than Alberto Moravia’s Agostino. The novel follows a young boy Agostino who comes from a wealthy family and how a loss of innocence completely changes his relationship and how he views his mother. The novel explores coming of age, sexuality, and class.

In the beginning, young Agostino has a sense of pride as he loves being seen with his beautiful mother. He notices that every time they go on their daily boat ride together, everyone at the beach seems to stare at them, which he takes great joy in. However, one day his mother invites another man to come with them on their boat ride much to Agostino’s surprise as she usually rejects their advances. Agostino is upset about this; he feels like she had accepted this stranger “with the same friendly and spontaneous ease that characterised her relations with her son” (6), which he thinks should only be reserved for him. Agostino also realises that when around this man, his mother, who he describes as a strong and dignified woman would act more playful and clumsy around him.  After this day, the daily ritual between mother and son was now shared with a stranger who she seemed to act differently around. Agostino has now started to hate these boat rides as he feels like his feelings are of no concern to the two of them. Agostino becomes jealous of this young man and feels humiliated because he has been cast aside so easily and the sense of pride he used was taken from him.

Agostino starts to view his mother differently as he becomes friends with a gang of lower-class children, who tell him what is truly going on between the young man and his mother. Agostino no longer wants to view her as a mother but as a woman like his friends do. He now has an “impure curiosity that his continued respect for family made intolerable” (68). Agostino tries to fix this by resolving his curiosity by using the image of another woman (by going to a brothel), then his mother would “regain the motherly significance she once had”. In the end, this plan fails and we are left with an ending implying that things will not change for a long time. 

Agostino also finds himself trying to fit in with his new friends as someone of lower class by wearing different clothes. He even at one point lies to someone saying that he is unable to attend school and is forced to work at thirteen, when in reality that isn’t true. I found this a bit odd because before, Agostino would often boast a little about his family’s wealth and he would act poor when it benefitted him or for his own enjoyment.

One thing I noticed was that Agostino’s relationship with his mother was similar to one of the narrators in Proust’s novel, Combary. They both initially seem to be dependent on their mothers in both novels, however, they start to differ as the novel progresses and Agostino starts to gain more independence. The relationship between the son and mother in  Proust’s novel is more like Agostino's before he loses his innocence and I don’t think he views her in the same way that Agostino does.

My question for everyone, in the novel Agostino pretends to be a young worker and while a father is trying to teach his son a lesson about how fortunate he is, Agostino replies with perfect answers setting himself as a very good example for what the son should be like, when in reality Aggostino is just as or if not more fortunate than the son. Why do you think Agostino does this? Is it because he playing out a fantasy he wishes was true?