Utopian dreams in Macabea - Essay Example

Utopian dreams in Macabea Introduction Themes are the main ideas that a writer is putting across. This paper will focus on four themes i.e. utopian dreams, cultural differences, linguistic interpretation and revolution. Utopian dreams refer to a state of oblivion where people live in their imaginations. Cultural differences refer to the diverse cultures as opposed to monocultures. Linguistic translations refer to how different concepts and words are interpreted to give meaning to them. Revolution refers to a radical and pervasive change in the society and social structures. These themes will be expounded based on the recommended books and articles. Utopian dreams refers to a state a mind where people live in their imaginations and fantasies and fail to see the reality of things. In the story “the hour glass” the main character Macabea, lives in a state of utopia and oblivion. Macabea is poor, underfed, unattractive and sickly. Unlike the narrator who is sure of himself and has so much to tell until he doesn’t know where to start, Macabea is timid and seems to have resigned to fate. What is surprising is that she doesn’t seem to see how sad her life is and lives as if everything was or is normal. For example, she takes great pleasure in little things such as listening to the radio and going to the movies, painting her nails bright red before going to bed and sipping cold coffee before going to bed, drinking coca cola and imagining herself being Monica Monroe (Clarice 23). She escapes her poor state by using fantasies and imagining to be a rich affluent woman. The stuff she takes pleasure doing are exactly the same that influential affluent ladies in the society do. However, in her case, this is just a dream that she can never afford and therefore, all she can do is live in her imagination. Macabea like a normal teenager gets a boyfriend named Olimpico, who is a thug and criminal and has other girlfriends. He leaves her for her best work colleague called Gloria. Gloria feels bad for Macabea and introduces her to a fortune teller, Madam Carlota. Carlota reads her life and told her that she had gone through a horrible life, which was obvious but Macabea in her state of oblivion couldn’t see this. Carlota gave her false hopes by telling her that she wasn’t going to be fired despite her poor performance at work. In addition, she would meet a rich man called Hans who would marry her (Clarice. 29). All these are general things that fortune tellers say but Macabea took her word as the truth. She leaves Carlota’s place feeling bewildered and she is hit by a car and dies a painful death. Her utopian dreams are suddenly ended, without any coming true! In the book, “naked eye” by Yoko Towada also addresses utopian dreams though its main character. The book mainly talks about alienation when the main character was abducted and taken to Europe. The main character faced difficulties in adjusting after going to Germany. She seemed to love through the movies she watched. The author says that at times, it was difficult to tell if she was talking about herself or the movies she had seen. She seemed to have wild fantasises ad live in a constant state of oblivion. For example, she was abducted by Jorg who took her to his apartment where they lived together. There is a vivid scene where she stabs Jorg to death with scissors. She ran in her mind how he would bring food, watch television with her then go out. When he comes back, she would hide the scissors and pierce through his flesh when he least expected. This is just one of her fantasies because later on, other scenes show Jorg and her going out to dinner and later, a date with Jorg and his friends. Cultural differences refer to the diverse cultures as opposed to monocultures. Cultural differences reflect on how different people in different cultures interpret the world, based on norms that have been passed down over generations. There is nothing like a universal culture as different people practice different cultural practices depending on where they come from and the values advocated in that region/communities. For example, Americans have a culture of keeping time while Asians value human interactions more than they do time. “Naked eye” addresses the difficulties the main character went through when she was abducted. Adjusting from the Asian cultural practices to the European culture seemed so difficult that she fell into an oblivion state and barely left the house. Asians have rich cultures that hey practice religiously. Being in a foreign country that had different ways of doing things was too much for the young girl. No wonder she had wild fantasies such as the scene where she planned to kill Jorg using some scissors! Also the narrator says that she watched too much movies and it was difficult to tell when she was real or narrating a scene from the movie (Tawada, 27). Watching movie was a form of escape from the unfamiliar surroundings and finding a balance to the culture shock she experienced in Europe. Being in a strange land, the narrator doesn’t feel at peace, she described that she felt like she would feel at peace by killing someone, hence, her wild fantasy to kill Jorg, who gave her a place to live, food and companionship. When she gets into the plane to leave her country, she is expected to be happy but she feels a large dark cloud envelope her. She is sad to leave her family and her culture for the unknown cultural diversity that awaited her in the metropolitan Europe (Tawada, 8). While in Europe, the way she moves through her world and her unwillingness to act clearly shows the alienation and the sense of loss she felt in her new environment. In the opening scene of the book, the narrator’s lack of enthusiasm to go to Germany is evident. She described how she was chosen to go to Germany as if it was happening to someone else. She says that the teachers ended choosing her for the trip, making it like like she had nothing to do with it. Linguistic translations refer to how different concepts and words are interpreted to give meaning to them. While there are common translations for most words, sometimes common phrases can have entirely different meanings depending on the context in which they are applied. For the example, the word ideology registers different meaning to different people depending on the context and the motive of the people using it. The article, “critical times for literary study” argues that the term ideology sometimes has contradictory meaning in the society. For example, it could mean good political ideas and policies in political manifestations, aimed at transforming the society. It could also mean overambitious utopian dreams in terms of unrealistic ideas and political manifestos, used by greedy leaders to gain power for their selfish interests. Ideology had different and contradictory meaning s to different cultures, depending on how the ideologies are used to benefit the members of the society. In “Chronicles of consensual times” (Rancière, 2010) the author defines chronicles as a reign, rather than a way of responding to the events that are passing over time. The reign described is not a king’s career but the tracing of a territory and a regime of interpretation of what’s wrong and right, the possible and the impossible. The author sums the reign into the word consensus. However, the word has different meaning from its literal meaning (a state where people come to a common agreement about a certain subject of discussion, through negotiation and compromise). The author says that consensus doesn’t mean pacification of attitudes but rather new forms of racism, ethnic cleaning and humanitarian wars, form the core of its meaning (Rancière 17). According to the article, consensus doesn’t mean a common agreement amongst people but the matching of sense with sense. It is an accord of a sensory regime of presenting things and a mode of interpreting their meanings. Consensus in this context is a governing machine of power and vision. As an interpretive machine, consensus constantly examines the times to identify symptoms and investigates all the troubles of the social body to recognize the same evil: a desire to adjust to the present and lack of adherence to the future. All this points to a single solution where people should merely give their consent without any negotiations because the concept of consensus is too complex for them to understand. Revolution refers to an overthrow and a thorough replacement of a reigning government/political system by citizens. It also refers to a radical and pervasive change in the society and social structures. The radical changes are sudden and often involve violence. The article, ‘Open veins of Latin America” (Galeano 1997) says that division of labour among nations makes some countries win and others, like Latin America, lose. The region exists to serve others’ needs as a source of resources such as iron, gold, oil, food and raw materials that benefit other European countries at the expense of the regions development. High taxes levied don’t help the citizens and as businesses expand, prisons also expand to accommodate those that suffer from these businesses (Galeano, 15). This is a region of open veins because everything is transmitted into Europe or America. The region’s resources are geared towards capitalism that benefit foreign powers rather that the inhabitants. Therefore, the region’s backwardness and poverty results from failure of capital mechanisms and political dominance by foreign super powers. When this article was released, the government denied its content and banned it from being produced and sold. However, this didn’t stop people from reading it. For example, a young girl was seen reading it in isolation at the ghettos while another person travelled to different libraries reading bits of the book because he couldn’t afford it. A brave woman read the book to people in a public vehicle and soon, the people were enlightened and angered by the poor state of Latin America. They advocated for change but the government adamantly refused to listen to their pleas. As a consequence, they therefore decided to revolt. 1400 Women and children who worked in mines went on a hunger strike to demand amnesty for prisoners, the exiled and fired workers and amnesty was granted. Later on Panama, Nicaragua, Cuba Haiti revolted to demand for fulfilment of promises their government made ad better governance. Revolutions are necessary where people are under oppression by the government and leadership that should serve their interests, rather than their own (Galeano 33) Conclusion Utopia dreams are unrealistic fantasies and states of oblivion. It makes a person fail to grasp reality and is a dangerous state if not checked. This theme is reflected in The Hour Glass where the main character, Macabea, lives in a dreamlike state while ignoring the realities of life. Additionally, Yoko Towada addresses the theme of utopian dreams in naked eye. Also, the theme of cultural differences is entailed in naked eye. There are different cultures that may affect how a person behaves and interprets their environment. Culture shock resulting from a change of environment can affect a person negatively and subsequently make it difficult for them to adjust to the new surroundings. Words such as consensus and ideology may have different linguistic interpretations depending on the context and motive of the people interpreting them. On the other hand, a revolution is a radical and sudden change demanded by people when they are oppressed and live in a poverty stricken state to the expense of their leaders’ selfish motives. Work cited “Ideology.” Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. Galeano, Eduardo. Open veins of Latin America: Five centuries of the pillage of a continent. NYU Press, 1997. Goytisolo, Juan. State of Siege. City Lights Books, 2002. Lispector, Clarice. The hour of the star. Vol. 733. New Directions Publishing, 1986. Manthripragada, Ashwin. "BOOK REVIEW: The Naked Eye, by Yoko Tawada."Transit 5.1 (2009). Rancière, Jacques. Chronicles of consensual times. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010. Read More