Perceptions

The novella Aura is largely about perception, which we understand right from the beginning with the use of 2^nd person point of view. This is fairly uncommon, so right away we can be curious about what we are about the encounter. Perception also plays a role in the plot of the story because the book as a whole can be read in multiple ways. As in class, we had countering arguments about whether Filipe became the general by reading and editing the memoir with his own voice or if he was always the general and just by being in the presence of the house and reading his own memoir helped him realize it. Another level of the perception in this novella is Filipe’s own perception of himself.

This novella has so many layers that we are not able to put it down and it is certainly a book that we have to think about afterwards to understand what exactly happened and what it was that we just read. However, what this book boils down to is what we perceive it to be. Each perception allows for the book to be different. On page 81, Senora Consuelo is talking about the rabbit and states: “They’re always themselves, Senor Montero. They don’t have any pretensions.” This quote is about being natural and free with one’s self as it relates to understanding one’s character. For this text, this is about Filipe’s perception with himself in a kind of reverse dramatic irony where only the other characters know who he really is and the reader is literally in Filipe’s shoes.