Second person narrative is essential to understanding the text of Aura. At the time of its publication, although works had been written in second person, it was not a common way of writing. A quick perusal of the second-person narrative chapter on wikipedia will demonstrate the increased use of second person throughout the later half of the 20th century. Therefore, second-person was novel at the time in demonstrating the consequences it held on interpretation. Second-person naturally lends itself to putting the readers into the story as one always hears the repeated use of "you." Naturally, this illustrates itself as much more of an imperative text as it is filled with commands to be done. Because of this closeness with the readers, when Felipe discovers he is the general, we concurrently discover we are the general as well. Language becomes the fundamental key in terrifying the readers: we are intimately connected to the character of Felipe because of Fuentes text in the second-person.
The theme that is most prevalent is the faulty reliance on beauty. Consuelo creates Aura as a projection of herself and the ideal that she wishes to witness herself as. In a sense, Aura serves as the ultimate mirror; she is everything that she wishes to view of herself. The reliance and yearning for beauty makes the Christian elements of the piece seem ironic. While the Christian religion preaches the ideas of universal love and the relative unimportance of beauty, so much emphasis is placed in Aura on the theme of beauty. Consuelo constantly hunts for her lost beauty and seemingly needs the projection to make her life worth living.
While reading Aura, I have to say that I was not completely thrown away by the twist ending. Although I was anticipating something unusual, I have to say that I predicted the connection between Aura and Consuelo. I wonder what happens next though in the novel if we were to predict the future following the post-novella timeline. An interesting conclusion that I might draw from the piece is the idea of a cyclical nature where once Consuelo passes away after not regaining her beauty, Felipe strives to regain his youth and his Consuelo as well. Thus, he might create his own Aura and lure another woman to become the new Consuelo. This pattern of action would then suggest that nothing ever changes and the yearning for youth is a constant human feeling.
Tracing the history of second person point of view is very interesting here! I didn’t realize that at the time of Aura’s publication, having a second person narrative was so rare. The repetitive “you’s” therefore must have heightened the implications of the second person view that we discussed in class. However, I’m not sure I completely agree that language becomes the key in terrifying the readers. Second person may cause discomfort, or some confusion, but I think in the case of Aura, as readers, we aren’t necessarily terrified. We feel whatever Felipe is feeling, and usually his accepting, easygoing reactions are mirrored onto the reader. Reading Aura, I sometimes felt uncomfortable, or confused, but because Felipe was usually calm about “magical” aspects of the story, I accepted them as well.
ReplyDeleteYour anticipation of future chapters is also very interesting! This story is indeed very cyclical, so your conjectures seem very plausible to me. I think that the constant human yearning of youthfulness is therefore tied to identity formation through others. Senora Consuelo demonstrates that not only do we always yearn for youth and beauty, but also that we need someone else to trigger that identity, someone to acknowledge or embrace it. It is for that reason that Aura appears; Senora Conseulo’s youth and beauty does not emerge until she interacts with Felipe.