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Mexican Masks by Octavio Paz
153
Insights
Sources:
Dissimulation
(n.)
to disguise or conceal under a false appearance
The Labyrinth of Solitude
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html
http://www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/paz.html
http://theunboundedspirit.com/20-social-masks-people-wear/
http://davidlida.com/?cat=97
The Labyrinth of Solitude
"The Mexican, whether young or old, criollo or mestizo, general or laborer or lawyer, seems to me to be a person who shuts himself away to protect himself; his face is a mask and so is his smile."
(El laberinto de la soledad)
The essays are altogether concerned with the theme of Mexican identity and demonstrate how, at the end of the existential labyrinth, there is a profound feeling of solitude.
A book-length essay by Octavio Paz, first published in 1950.
Consists of nine parts:
The Pachuco and other extremes
Mexican Masks
The Day of the Dead
The Sons of La Malinche
The Conquest and Colonialism
From Independence to the Revolution
The Mexican Intelligence
The Present Day
The Dialectic of Solitude
Mimicry
(n.)
Figures of Speech
the act of copying the behavior or speech of other people
A radical form of dissimulation.
A sign of emptiness and self-loss.
Simile
"The Indians and mestizos had to sing in a low voice, as in the poem by Alfonso Reyes..."
"I am not saying that he communes with the All like a pantheist or that he sees an individual tree as an archetype of all trees..."
Anaphora
"He is also intelligent... He always smile. He always waits."
Hyperbole
"Even when he sings he does so unless he explodes, ripping open his breast-between clenched teeth and in a lowered voice."
Mexican Masks
(translated by Lysander Kemp)
Mexican Masks
An essay from the Labyrinth of Solitude
A symbol representing the Mexican people's personality.
Symbol:
Mexican masks - hides what they really are
Theme:
Hermeticism
Search for identity
Mexican Men VS. Mexican Women
Women are considered to be dark, secret and passive being.
Men are considered traitors or cowards if they open up themselves and confide with someone else.
"Macho Man"
Imagery
Hermeticism
Visual
"Instead of walking, he glides; instead of stating, he hints; instead of replying, he mumbles; instead of complaining, he smiles."
(n.)
the practice of retiring from society and living in solitude, based upon a variety of motives
The harshness and the hostility of our environment and the hidden indefinable threat oblige us to close ourselves in.