RMST Blog

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 betr...

 Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan has so been my favourite text so far. I love how Sagan used characters we could relate to because of age and gender. The main character was a young girl raised by a single parent. At first, I initially thought that I would relate to this character because I am a young girl who also lost a parent and was raised by a single parent. However, her experience was catastrophically different from mine. Her father was very laid back, and my mother, who raised me, was much more like Anne in the story. My mother was rigorous and always wanted me to put school first before anything. If I put myself in Cecile's situation, I can see how I would like to push Anne away to keep her hedonistic and chill lifestyle. My younger self always dreamed of having a life with no stress. Raymond, her father, definitely influenced her way of living and the idea of love. Her father had a mistress but also was going to marry Anne. Growing up as a young child, this would have affected h...