Literary Inception

From the very beginning, I was fascinated by Aura and particularly by Fuentes' use of the second person point of view. Now, having finished the novel, the function of the second person POV is clear. It's all about a lack of control. By narrating the story in the second person, our understanding of the entire novel is coming from an anonymous source. Everything we come to understand about the world of Fuentes' novel comes directly and unconditionally from the narrator. We readers are therefore transformed into puppets, even slaves to the storyteller and the story itself, trapped within a prison of paper and ink.

While our dependence on the narrator remains constant throughout the novel, I believe it bears a greater commentary of our function in relation to Fuentes as a storyteller. We find a similar dependence between Aura and Consuelo, both of which acting "as if the will of one [depends] on the existence of the other…"(119). Likewise, we as readers and our will to read are dependent upon the existence of Fuentes and his novel. Based on this parallel, it is only logical that the function of Aura with respect to Consuelo will reflect our function as readers of the story of Fuentes. Ultimately, we discover that Aura is merely a nostalgic reliving of Consuelo's youth, the remembering and reliving of "the memory of youth, of youth re-embodied, [that] rules the darkness"(145). Aura is the reflection of Consuelo's younger self, and we apparently play the role of General Llorentes in the nostalgic reliving of Aura and Llorentes' love. Therefore, we observe a structure of characters within characters, where the actions of Aura and General Llorentes (the reader) occur within the memory and mind of Señora Consuelo.

However, this structure is not yet complete. While Aura and General Llorentes exist within the mind of Sra. Consuelo, Sra. Consuelo equally exists within the mind of Fuentes. By this logic, we readers therefore play an intricate role within the mind of Fuentes as well. What results from our ability to experience this story from the inside out rather from the outside in? I'm a little confused on this part and I've wracked my brain for too long already since I'm already late posting this. I'm hoping my logic pans out in our discussion in class tomorrow so that I can understand this extra level of the novel a little better.