While reading Aura, I found myself focusing on the
significance of sight verses feeling. In the Llorente household, Felipe often notices the
darkness. There are many moments
where he can barely see must feel in order make sense of his situation. I found this fascinating because one
important theme of the novel is the aging process and attempting to hold onto the
beauty of youth. I believe as we
age, though we may look different, we still retain our same essence or “feeling”
within ourselves. The parts that
make us who we are are those things that cannot be seen. However, they can be felt through our
connections and bonds with other people.
Aura and Senora Consuelo are one and the same, though Aura is the
younger representation. Both
characters, though, have the same essence. Though Felipe struggles at first with the fact that they are
different representations of the same person, at the end he understands. He realizes that a person’s essene is
more important than their appearance and shows this through his relationship
with Senora Consuelo on the last page of the novel.
One detail I am particularly curious about is Fuentes’ use
of color throughout the novel. I
think it has a lot to do with the sight issue. The colors are quite significant contrasts to the darkness, but
I am having trouble determining how Fuentes wants us to interpret them.
I think that Fuentes uses the color black to confuse Felipe. He has to rely on his other senses to navigate the house, which I think is a metaphor for him relying on his other instincts about the true person that is Aura/Señora Consuelo. I think this might also hit on the cliché "seeing is not believing" because he has to use his other senses to riddle out the truth. Additionally, it seems to me that the black cloaks the qualities of the house, and in turn, blur the details of the amalgamation of Aura and her aunt.
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