Krystal, Moria, and Simona
In the novella “Aura” by Carlos Fuentes the second person is used throughout the play. One interpretation is that the second person narrative brings the reader to a present state of mystery, while taking the reader on a journey through Felipes stream of consciousness. When Felipe meets Aura for the first time the narrator says, “Finally you can see that those eyes are sea green and that they surge, break to foam, grow calm again, then surge again like a wave. You look into them and tell yourself it isn’t true, because they’re beautiful green eyes just like all the beautiful green eyes you’ve ever known” (835-836). Here we see that the narrator uses mystery, which pulls in the reader the same way it pulls in Felipe to her eyes. We can suggest from this, that Felipe may be in a dream like state throughout the entire story. The narrator adds many details to the story as it develops which creates a mystery for the reader while there is a mystery for Felipe to solve as well. Thus, this brings us to the unsolved quest, for the ‘You’ in Aura is a mystery.
Another interpretation that second person narrative brings is that it helps the reader actually feel like they are the main character. From the moment that the story starts there is a sense that the reader is the one who is actually going through all the actions that are written. Almost, like being in a dream state, where there is no observer to tell you the story, except for you experiencing it. You can say that Aura is the ‘dream’ that the character is thinking about. As the story progresses he falls more and more for her as mentioned, “thinking only about the beauty of Aura” (842). The reader is able to experience this type of dream love through the technique that the author is using. They get a closer connection as if it is them who are falling in love with Aura. As the story continues, with every detail that is give, it brings the reader closer to the dream. With, every “You” the author mentions the more he pulls the reader into the story, into thinking they are the ones going through the plot. It’s almost like the plot and the reader become one.
References to Aura are discovered by Felipe in the General’s journal. This is strange because those manuscripts were written a half of a century earlier. It becomes difficult to distinguish past from present with the second person narration, there is a continuous mystery of who is Aura, is she real? When the light from the moon shined on Aura at the end of the story, the narrator says, “You stop kissing those flesh less lips, those toothless gums: the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back” (Fuentes 852). It becomes evident that Senora has been Aura this whole time. We can also see this more clearly when Felipe discovers that he looks exactly like General Llorente. These two may have been past lovers. This could give the notion that love goes on forever that is why people feel like home, it is because their Aura’s give off an energy that is undeniable and oddly familiar.
1 response so far ↓
JMERLE // Nov 15th 2015 at 11:39 am
Yes, your comments about the second person are quite nice ones: they not only make the reader the main character, but they pull the reader directly into Felipe’s consciousness, and force the reader into his journey. As well, yes, the second person does help to blur the line between past and present, since the “you” implies a kind of eternal state of existence.
Your connections to theme are also evocative: the blur between dream/reality; the idea of quest or journey; the idea of dream as trap; the blur between past and present (the blur between who we are and who we want to be).
Nice job!
10/10