Aura
Mamasiray Camara – List attributes of the second person.
In the novel Aura by Carlos Fuentes the use of second person is very distinct and done well. When you first start reading the novel the second person narration sounds directional or like someone is giving you instructions. For example “You leave a tip, reach for your brief, get up….. You put your hand in your pocket, search among the coins” (832). The use of second person is very impersonal here and it almost seems to belong somewhere in a play and less in a novel as it is more directive than personal. However, when you start getting deeper into the story the use of second person transforms and becomes very personal. For example when Senor Montero meets Aura for the first time or when he first has dinner with her the “You” becomes more emotional than directional. When the author states “Finally she looks up and once again you question you senses “, here it actually begins to feel like your own story and becomes personalized as its less” you do this and then you do that” and it becomes more “you’re feeling this emotion”. Critics have said that the strengths of the second person lie within the power of discovery, emotions, revelations and surprise. The second person narrative heightens these experiences as you
actually feel its happening to you.
Ion Nistreanu
The use of the second person helps us understand the development of Felipe’s character. The second person outlook suggests that Felipe Montero’s fate is predestined, and he has no control over it. When he is about to leave his room and go downstairs for supper he thinks to himself of ways to light up the dark hallway “You could enjoy playing with that door, swinging it back and forth. You don’t do it. You could take the lamp down with you. You don’t do it. This house will always be in darkness, and you’ve got to learn it and relearn it by touch.”(836) Felipe thinks of two options to help him through the dark house, but doesn’t take any action he just kept on going in the darkness, as if he is in a dreamlike state floating without the power to change things in this dark house. The words “learn it and relearn it” in the quote foreshadow that Felipe will not be leaving the house anytime soon
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1 response so far ↓
JMERLE // Apr 9th 2016 at 1:28 pm
You both make excellent comments about the use of the second person in “Aura”; the first post notes how this use shifts between an impersonal “instructional” (imperative voice) tone, to an intensely personal sense of being asked to engage in Felipe’s feelings. The second post also mentions something quite interesting, and that is the sense of fatalism that seems to pervade this narrative, and that is, I agree, largely due to the use of the second person. Well done! We’ll continue the discussion of these themes in class on Wed.
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