The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as "Old Gringo" who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo's intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers." I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it's Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it's an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers" is, and who maybe is the one remembering?
I enjoyed reading the first part of Proust's book. The intricate detail in every scenery and memory was breathtaking and truly brought me to experience those feelings. He described many feelings I have felt before and ones I never knew how to put into words. One that stuck with me was the feeling and the difference between sleeping in summer to sleeping in your bed in winter. The particular things we long for and how each feeling is connected to physical material. This could be as simple as the corner of the pillow or the window open. My favourite part of the text was the first couple of opening lines, where Proust describes falling asleep and being so tired that his candle was still lit. He described the feeling of your eyes closing so quickly that you don't have time to even think about it and say to yourself that you are falling asleep. I struggle with horrible insomnia, and specific material things help me sleep and comfort me. When Proust described all these feelings abou
"Now she sits alone and remembers."
ReplyDeleteI think that's Harriet (as I say in my lecture). She's the only one of the triangle to survive.
"...The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals"
ReplyDelete- you almost make him sound like a Don Quijote! Which, of course, is a character of a book that he carried with him on his cross-border quest.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post, I really enjoyed reading it! I think that "now she sits alone and remembers" was Harriet speaking. I really appreciated that framing of the book!
Thanks so much,
Sadie Glickman
Hello, I enjoyed reading your post! Thank you for this brief summary since I chose to read the other book this week. I almost feel like I missed out on this book - the intense, tragic love triangle sounds like it was interesting! It also seems as if the plot is quite different from most of the other books we've read so far.
ReplyDeleteHi Sadie, I agree with the prof and the other commenter that the individual who sits alone and remembers is Harriet. I wonder how she remembers if that makes sense! Does she remember those times with regret over her various complicated relationships? I would say regret, now that she's alone I'm sure she would have regret over how the whole love triangle ended and her role in it.
ReplyDelete-Mackenzie Dewar-Pratt
Oops I meant Alyssa! Sorry, not sure where I got Sadie from.
DeleteHi Alyssa!
ReplyDeleteThis post actually helped me understand the book even more after reading it so I appreciate that! I also agree with the comments that it is Harriet who is remembering. It also caught my eye at the beginning of the course because of the romance aspect of it, but as you said I did not expect it to be solely about love, definitely more the themes of war.
Thank you!