The Underdogs: In Response to Professor Hanley (Continued)

“We looked. Yes, thank heaven! it was the signal. The Demon rose like a great hawk to a considerable height, floated around for awhile in space, and then slowly descended” (Caesar’s Column, 221).

“It was a heavenly morning. It had rained all night, and the sky dawned covered with a canopy of white clouds. Young, wild colts trotted on the summit of the sierra, with streaming manes and outstretched tails, graceful as the elegant peaks that lift their heads to kiss the clouds” (The Underdogs, 149).

Auzela’s descriptive imagery is fused with beauty, physicality, appealing characters, and masculinity. The reader’s sensory perception and imagination are on overdrive. Azuela’s revolutionary imagination is one of compassion, loyalty, individual conflict, and sensuality. Comparatively, abrasive characters, acidic dialogue, and desolate towns and villages, occupied by traumatized and despairing residents, define Babel’s revolution. Similarly, Donnelly’s revolution is an illustration of corrupt power, hopelessness, and despair remedied only by an escape to his “utopian” colony. The emotional tensions and individual conflicts become physical descriptions for Malraux’s revolutionaries in Man’s Fate. Satan, in Milton’s Paradise Lost, is a revolution. And Orwell’s revolution can be read as a definitive description and illustration of the modern work place.

Edith

The Underdogs: The Novel of the Mexican Revolution

On the Surface: The Transformation or Revelation of Demetrio Macías, Part I
(Continued)

“Tall and well built, with a sanguine, beardless face, he wore shirt and trousers of white cloth, a broad-brimmed straw hat, and leather sandals.

“With slow, measured step, he left the room, vanishing into the impenetrable darkness of the night” (3-4).

Demetrio Macías, Mariano Azuela’s uncomplicated and uncompromising revolutionary -- initially. Husband, father, fugitive, and leader of a small band of rebels, fighting for land reform during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. His objective: to annihilate the Federals and create havoc for the bourgeoisie.


Edith

The Underdogs: In Response to Professor Hanley

“We crossed the river and entered deeper into the petit-bourgeois settlement. We were nearing the priest’s house when Afonka suddenly came riding around the corner on a large stallion.”

“ ‘Greetings,’ he called out in a barking voice, and, pushing the fighters apart, took his old position in the ranks” (Red Calvary, 121).
(To be continued)

Edith

The Underdogs: The Novel of the Mexican Revolution

The Transformation of Demetrio Macías, Part I
(To be continued)

Edith

Animal Farm: A Personal Comment

Reading Animal Farm outside of capitalism, communism, totalitarianism, and hierarchical contexts, Orwell presents to the reader a typical working class society. Most memorable are Boxer, Mollie, and Squealer. Mollie because of her femininity, self-absorption, and vanity: “ ‘Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion?’ ” “ ‘And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my mane? ’ ” (36); Squealer, “the brilliant talker, that could turn black into white” 36), and Boxer: strong, focused, well admired, apolitical, and hard working: “I will work harder” (47). Boxer’s dedication, determination, and steadfastness, exemplifies an ideal labor force.

Edith

Animal Farm: In Response to Professor Hanley (continued):

As stated previously, hierarchy includes systems of compromise, reciprocity, interchange, and exchange. And freedom is innate in man. Hierarchy ideally is relative to the needs of the society and its members, therefore, a means, a process, by which freedom is assured and maintained.

Edith

Just for the Record:

I incorrectly posted my blog response “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.” in my own “comment” section to my first blog post dated Tuesday, January 30, 2007, rather than a “new” blog post.

Several Thoughts: In Response to Professor Hanley’s Two-Part Question:

What is the “Tachanka Theory” (Question posed in class by Professor Hanley.)

In Red Calvary, the Tachanka is described as “an open carriage or buggy with a machine gun mounted on the back” (footnotes, 75), “capable of unprecedented mobility and demobilization” (76). However, the “theory” lies in the effective utilization and implementation of the piece of machinery: “to hack to pieces―tachanka—blood.”

Is Red Calvary an anti-war book, or a pro-war book? (Question posed in class by Professor Hanley)

Babel’s objective was to “depict the disorder” of war: “petty bickering and blood baths, of rape and self-sacrifice, of mud, stars, and sudden death” (12). While simultaneously, “displaying the loyalty and courage of men and women in war, and, depending on circumstances, may appear vile or heroic” (10). Red Calvary serves as a counter-balance to the traditional glorified, romanticized, and idealized accounts of war.

Edith