“‘The black bass thinks he can be king of the fish, but all he wants is to eat them. The black bass is a killer. But the real kind is the golden carp, Tony. He does not eat his own kind-’ Cico’s eyes remained glued on the dark waters. His body was motionless, like a spring awaiting release. We had been whispering since we arrived at the pond, why I don’t know, except that it was just one of those places where one can communicate only in whispers, like church. We sat for a long time, waiting for the golden carp. It was very pleasant to sit in the warm sunshine and watch the pure waters drift by.
The drone of the summer insects and grasshoppers made me sleepy. The lush green grass was cool, and beneath the grass was the dark earth, patient, waiting…” (113). Caption: Antonio’s encounter with the legend of the golden carp has shaken his religious foundation; he has mainly only been exposed to Catholicism but now that a new faith has been exposed, he’s questioning what he truly believes in. Anaya’s choice of words for this scene paints a more serious thought of the golden carp in the reader’s mind and how other people, like Cico, view it.
When Antonio and Cico came to the river, they “had been whispering… it was just one of those places where one can communicate only in whispers, like church. ” Between the two boys, Cico had been the only one who recognized the carp as a holy figure and worshipped it; however, right when the boys got to the pond, both of them were whispering as if Antonio felt the presence and the need to honor the carp like he would in honor his own god at church. Also, when Cico was waiting for the carp to appear, “his body was motionless, like a spring awaiting to release. The anticipation seems to be building up inside Cico. Not a lot of people can say that they’ve seen in person or something they idolize, and when the golden carp would present itself, Cico would release all of that excitement with Antonio. The two boys in the collage represent Antonio and Cico. Cico is the taller one holding Antonio’s shoulders, showing him his perspective on the world. The lightness that is very thinly surrounding them is the “warm sunshine… the pure waters… [and] the drone of the summer insects and grasshoppers” that made Antonio comfortable and sleepy.
In that moment, Antonio is at peace with himself since he is connected to nature and completely in touch with his childhood innocence of excitement and discovering something new. Being connected with childhood innocence is seen as a pure thing because children aren’t influenced by society so they think more freely and have more faith; the preconditions that needed to met in order to be able to see the golden carp. However, the darker parts surrounding the lightness would be “the dark earth, patient, waiting. As Cico is anxiously awaiting the appearance of the golden carp, Antonio is more calm about the wait and is seeming to be drawn to the dark earth which would lead to Antonio’s skeptical thoughts the Catholic religion. Questioning Antonio’s God is seen sinful act in his religion so while at the moment Antonio is pure, in the future he will notice his wrongdoing and might even be punished for it especially since he is still sticking to Catholicism. However, the story of the golden carp is slowly consuming him and patiently waiting for him to convert.
The dark connotation in the quote and the picture seem to be apart of the “‘the black bass [that] thinks he can be king of the fish, but all he wants is to eat them”. If the black carp were to succeed in his attempt to become king, he might be able to fool people and the rest of the carps that he is the golden carp. With people not being able to recognize the power change, then when the story of the golden carp is told, the people listening could be more wary since what the people who told the story about the golden carp is no longer true.
So when meeting the golden carp, they won’t feel the need to respect it like Antonio did which could add to the confusion of which religion is “correct. ” Entry #2: Capitulos Doce: The Monster Narciso “One minute the kitchen was soft and quiet and the next it was filled with the huge figure of Narciso. He was the biggest man I had ever seen. He wore a huge mustache and his hair flowed like a lion’s mane. His eyes were wild and red as he stood over us, gasping and panting for breath; saliva dripped from his mouth. He looked like a huge wounded monster” (126).
Caption: Narciso’s description of him entering the kitchen of Antonio’s home is Anaya illustrating how misperceived Narciso is by everyone. He is known throughout town as just a drunk because that is the first thing many people notice about him along with his size, which is “the biggest man [Antonio] has ever seen. ” The townspeople are too scared to physically and emotionally get closer to a “monster. ” Big, drunks are usually frightening since being big means you’re strong and powerful and being drunk means you’re unstable.
To other people passing by, that means they can potentially be violent causing them to distance themselves. This results to not truly knowing the drunk and what that person is capable of creating that fear of the unknown concept then labeling someone like Narciso a monster. Drunks being unpredictable is a result from alcohol suppressing the part of the brain that makes people think about their actions before they actually do them. Alcohol also restricts the body from doing things a sober person would consider normal like being able to run and walk.
So when Narciso entered the room “his hair [was flowing] like a lion’s mane,” showing that his hair was just exposed a breeze meaning he ran over to Antonio’s house. Since Narciso constantly drinks, alcohol in his system feels normal so not being able to have full control over his motor functions is typical; however, he fought those restrictions causing him to look “like a huge wounded monster. ” Antonio’s description of a Narciso as a lion matches up with the symbolic meaning of a lion; lions indicate command over subconsciousness.
Narciso has shown that he has a lot of self control over his emotions and his actions despite the amount of alcohol he has consumed. He has had a lot of opportunities to be the monster people believe him to be, for example, he could have contributed to killing Lupito, yet he didn’t and even tried to talk the people who were set on killing him out of the idea. Narciso seems to be just a wounded child trying to escape adulthood through drinking. Even though alcohol has a lot of side effects, one can view the side effects as a positive thing compared to what they have experience.
Alcohol has memory loss effect which could be what Narciso is going for. The title of the artwork is called Wild Man. The man seems to be hiding behind all the red which judging on the way the red is painted on, it looks like it was splattered on the man. Majority of people would probably assume the red is blood; however, only the man knows what it is and what happened to himself and given his description, he will probably continue to be the only person to know what happened and who he truly is. The Wild Man title was not a name he chose for himself, the artist chose it.
Like for Narciso, the townspeople are the ones who label him as a danger and Antonio chose to describe him as having “eyes… wild and red. ” Red is associated with the will to survive. If the red in the painting was actually blood, then it would’ve been for survival, like Narciso’s drinking. He drinks all the time because alcohol is the only thing keeping him disconnected from adulthood therefore the only thing keeping him alive. Adulthood is filled with sins and pain so the white in the painting is the purity Narciso wants to keep and protect.
Entry #3: Capitulos Catorce: After the Play While we worked we felt the wind of the blizzard increase, and overhead the skylight of the auditorium grew dark with snow. ‘I think that’s about all we can do,’ Miss Violet said. “The storm seems to be getting worse-’ We put on our jackets, closed the auditorium door and walked down the big, empty hall. The janitor must have turned off the furnace, because there was no noise. ‘This place is like a tomb,’ Miss Violet shivered. It was like a tomb; without the kids the schoolhouse was a giant, quiet tomb with the moaning wind crying around its edges” (159).
Caption: By suggesting that the auditorium was a “giant, quiet tomb,” Anaya creates a sense of foreshadowing of a death of a character who wouldn’t be missed thus having no visitors. Having the exit of the auditorium be described as the “big, empty hall,” Anaya expands the tomb to not just the school, but Antonio’s escape route to his house. In Leonidas Beratis’ run, the red represents the path Antonio has set out on where he will inevitably come across blood and death. The red can also symbolize “the moaning wind crying. The news of the character’s death will be traveled like the wind; smoothly and easily. The only sound Antonio can hear is the wind; therefore, only the one who first told the news of the character’s death or the one who found the body will feel upset about the death. Since there seems to be only one person affected, they might get angry or frustrated with everyone for not having any emotions on the matter or feel a need for vengeance, all feelings associated with the color red.
Anaya quickly changes the plotline from a light, amusing play that made the reader forget about the darkness enclosing in, to having “the skylight of the auditorium [grow] dark with snow,” creating a sense of entrapment leaving the reader lingering in the past while being pushed forward. The auditorium provided shelter for the darkness of the outside world while it was undergoing a battle or storm. Battles are usually apart of greater scale wars, normally chaotic and not very well contained, resulting in a lot of casualties. Tenorio seems to have declared war on Ultima and will not rest until she is dead.
Sometimes, people have no choice but to participate in the war whether they are so passionate about the topic being disputed over that they cannot ignore what is happening and join or they get drafted, but sometimes people can get out of drafts by proving that their religion conflicts with the actions one would do in battle. There is also a lot of controversy on the topic of morals and whether it should be morally correct to end someone else’s life in battle. If someone were to do something morally incorrect, they would normally feel like they lost apart of themselves; the good part.
They would lose their naiveness and innocence, usually refered to light, and gain a knowledge and lose fear of the action that they have done, the darkness. Before that would happened, the light would protect someone from the darkness; however, now that they are unarmored, they feel drawn to the darkness. Since Antonio was in a sheltering auditorium, there was brief feeling of security and a supressement of what is awaiting for him outside. In Beratis’ artwork, the forest seems to be surrounded by dark colors representing the darkness; however, there seems to be a light straight ahead which is the direction the being is running towards.
Antonio was leaving the protective walls of the school and stepping into the storm no one else is daring to be in, but the end of the trek he has set out on would be a better light than the auditorium. Entry #4: Capitulos Dieciseis: Encountering Tenorio “The blowing wind was full of choking dust and so I walked up the path with my head tucked down. I did not see Tenorio until he shouted into the howling wind. He was standing under the juniper tree at the exact spot where he had murdered Narciso. I was so startled and frightened that I jumped like a wounded rabbit, but he made no move to catch me.
He wore a long, black coat and as was his custom, his wide-brimmed hat pulled low. His blind eye was a dark blue pit and the other glared yellow in the dust. He laughed and howled as he looked down at me and I thought he was drunk” (187). Caption: Anaya describing Antonio as “wounded rabbit” shows the difference between the fighting capabilities between Antonio and Tenorio creating a sense of vulnerability and hopelessness in the reader’s mind. Rabbits are almost completely helpless when they are faced against a predator; their only hope is to run away.
Having Antonio as a “wounded rabbit” means that the one ability that creates a change of surviving has been removed. The wind seems to be a participating factor in the wound since “the blowing wind” was filled with a “choking dust,” restricting Antonio’s ability to breathe and it also seems to be helping Tenorio out by hiding his presence. The wind, along with giving Tenorio the field advantage, has also amplified the menacing appearance of Tenorio by having “his blind eye [be] a dark blue pit and the other [glaring] yellow in the dust. The blind eye symbolizes depression and the yellow eye shows the capabilities he still has. Yellow is a color normally distinguished with happiness; however, it also a color that signifies cowardness and madness. In Martin Heine’s Ghost Winds the light and dark colors suggest the balance of yin and yang. Tenorio’s one light eye and one dark eye seem to balance each other out. His closed, empty eye makes him feel like he has nothing left to lose and his one working eye lets him act on his feelings towards Ultima who he feels is responsible for his pain.
In literature, eyes can be the gateway to the soul. Having one of Tenorio’s eyes stolen from him can remove access to his soul creating a sense of nothingness and now being able to do anything he wants without his soul getting in the way. In the painting, there seems to be more dark colors than light, they almost completely surround the red and white. Tenorio represents the dark colors and Antonio represents the light colors, smaller in size, losing territory, and therefore, losing, like the game of Go . Red is also the color of blood which can be the wounded rabbit Antonio is compared to Tenorio.
Antonio seems to be the prey and Tenorio waiting for Antonio made him seem like the predator and animals who have an ability to see well in the dark usually having glowing eyes when a light source shines on them. The wind is restricting Antonio’s eyesight, but isn’t affecting Tenorio’s. In many books and movies when the character has stepped into an area and feeling like something is watching him or her, they usually first see the eyes of the creature. However, Tenorio does not kill Antonio because predators don’t kill for sport, they kill for food and Antonio shows no signs of being a threat to Tenorio.