–What do you think the significance of Allende’s title is? What does it mean to be made of clay? –
-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
–Why do you think Azucena becomes a symbol of the tragedy that is unfolding in the story?
–What did you make of the President’s visit to the site of the disaster? What kind of commentary is Allende making here?
–How can you connect this story with your own experiences of natural or other disasters? Are there elements of the story that you can relate to? How?
What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
Rolf recounts the terror and mistreatment he received throughout his childhood during his encounter with Azucena. Rolf sees Azucena through a mirror to his own younger self with unresolved trauma. He discovers that while Azucena is physically stuck in clay, he is mentally stuck in clay. The clay became a symbol of the trauma the two characters endured and were trapped by.
-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
He is able to to let out all that has happened to him before hand. Prior to this, he keeps all his tragedies inside, now he feels free to let them all out. Being in the presence of a dying girl he feels free to say what he wants, not only to comfort the girl but to bring comfort to himself as well.
-Why do you think Azucena becomes a symbol of the tragedy that is unfolding in the story?
Azucena became the living symbol of this disaster that once seemed highly unlikely to the towns in the valley. She was young, frightened, and hurt by the tragedy and her suffering provided an embodiment that evoked sympathy in all who saw her on television. Her imprisonment by the rubble provided a good story for the networks that was ensured to get ratings.
The fact that the networks had not trouble bringing their equipment to this seemingly inaccessible site highlights the irony of her situation. According to Rolf, a simple pump was all that was needed to rescue her from the mud but when he asked for it, transport was unavailable while “more television and movie teams arrived.” The networks exploited her image which did not have enough power to prompt an urgent transport for the machine that could have saved her.
-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
Rolf begins to contemplate his life and relive his past memories. He begins to think about why he has surpassed so many memories. Rolf realizes what his career has done to him and why he was so good at reporting. Rolf was hiding behind a camera his entire life and now that he spent time with Azucena in the mud he began to open his “box of past memories” and realizes that this is not what he should be doing with his memories.
What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
When he meet with Azucena, he finds similarities with her. he remember his childhood, about his ill sister whom he used to take care. He kept his lens aside and try to help her taking out of mud.
-What do you think the significance of Allende’s title is? What does it mean to be made of clay?
The title of the story is significant because it is in light of the biblical account of Adam. I think that the clay means that what creates you can also destroy you. Azucena is important for the media and they rather tell lies and not help her.
–What did you make of the President’s visit to the site of the disaster? What kind of commentary is Allende making here?
First of all, I think the author used “lifeless” to satirize the president’s visit. I agree with the author because I think the president’s visit is formalism. It didn’t take any favourable turn for the disaster.
-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?
When he tried to comfort the trapped little girl, he remembered his tragic childhood. Rolf grew up in an immigrant family and had a brutal father and a mental ill sister. Those memories he wanted to forget were all evoked by the little girl. He felt sorry for the little girl.Rolf has changed from beginning of the story. He was no longer a cold reporter and wanted to help the little girl.
–How can you connect this story with your own experiences of natural or other disasters? Are there elements of the story that you can relate to? How?
I cant relate to the degree to which Rolf was involved in the natural disaster, but I can make connections with smaller incidents. In a scenario like the one with Rolf and Azucena, I do usually jump into most situations if someone is in distress or danger. My courage to do so comes from an emotional and knowledgeable place. Emotionally because I genuinely have a care for people regardless of our differences and I acknowledge that most people would not jump into action unless someone jumps in first, and that it takes just one person to set an example for the rest.
I can relate to a concept of desensitization we spoke about in class. The abundant amounts of tragic images and videos shown in the media do have an impact on many people. The constant surge of tragic imagery with the inability to do anything about it really hurts our psyche. It normalizes these images as just another part of our lives. I do my best to not let that affect my acknowledgment and ability to act when the opportunity arises. I cannot drop my life here and just help people, but within the limits of my own life I can do little things to fight against tragedy. I can do this by donating $1, waiting till a child safely crosses a street, conversating with someone in distress, jumping to protect someone, completing a survey, spreading a message, advising, supporting, guiding, or just by being an example.
What do you think the significance of Allende’s title is? What does it mean to be made of clay? –
The title refers to the bible in witch we are made up of the clay. Azucena is killed by the clay left by the volcano. Allende was referring that people at the end of the way end up dead in the soil becoming clay. Another aspect my be that such as the bible says we are created by clay, we can also be destroys by the same thing that has created us. Its not always clay, Clay may be use as metaphor for many other things such as the government. In which the people create the government but the government did not help in the story. Another, topic we can use clay as an example is when the media comes to see Azucena. The media is worried by the views. They all are watching Azucena from a screen, feelings aren’t being transmitted. we as humanity create the media however the media is not helping us but ignoring us and alienating us from the real feelings.