Sunday, November 6, 2011

Eyes (O.o)

In the first chapter of Aura, eyes are mentioned several places in the text. The novella speaks of "your" pupils and eyelashes (page 7 and 15), the rabbit's "glowing red eyes" (page 15), Señora Consuelo's "very wide... clear, liquid, enormous" eyes (page 23), and Aura's "sea green" eyes that "surge, break to foam, grow calm again, then surge again like a wave" (page 27). The description of eyes in this novella are very descriptive, and eyes play a couple of distinctive roles in this text:

1) Eyes go along with the theme of perception in Aura. How the readers and characters physically see and perceive different actions influences the readers and characters' experience. Eyes are an interesting aspect in this novella because everything that is seen with these individual eyes is not actually what happens. In this novella, "seeing is believing" is not the case; eyes are actually deceptive to the characters and the readers.

2) Eyes, in a sense, are the window to one's soul and gives immense insight into the individual characters; this is especially true in the case of Señora Consuelo and Aura. Señora Consuelo's eyes are "very wide... clear, liquid, [and] enormous;" moreover, her eyes are "almost the same color as the yellowish whites around them." When looking at Señora Consuelo's eyes, it is difficult to distinguish where her iris begins and ends; her character is the same way, as we learn that it becomes difficult to distinguish between Señora Consuelo and Aura. The ambiguity of Señora Consuelo's eyes parallels the ambiguity of Señora Consuelo's character. Aura's eyes also give insight into her character: they "surge, break to foam, grow calm again, then surge again like a wave." Aura's eyes are ever-changing, just like Aura's character; Aura's most significant change is when she ages forty years overnight. Aura's eyes act like a wave, which almost cycles; this relates to her character too, as Aura is a cycle of youth to old, and then a reflection of rebirth.

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