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Transcript

Magical Element

Symbols

  • Blood- In "Chac Mool", the image of blood is used frequently. "The disloyal vendor has smeared tomato sauce on its belly to convince tourists of the sculpture’s bloody authenticity" (3). Blood symbolizes the evil and malevolence of Chac Mool

The magical element in "Chac Mool" is the statue's

transformation. Chac Mool begins to talk, move, and act like a human. "There was Chac Mool, upright, smiling, ocher, with his belly flesh-colored...Chac Mool advanced towards the bed" (5). At the end of the story, the statue appears to have finished his transformation completely, when the narrator runs into him at Filbert's house. "A yellow Indian appeared, in a house robe, with a scarf. His appearance couldn’t have been more repulsive; he gave forth an odor of cheap lotion; his face, powdered, trying to cover the wrinkles; he had his lips smeared with badly-applied lipstick, and his hair gave the impression of being dyed" (7).

  • Water- Water is used to symbolize power, as

Chac Mool is the god of rain and therefore depends

on water for his strength and power. "If it doesn’t rain soon, the Chac Mool is going to change into stone again. I’ve noticed his difficulty recently in moving,; sometimes he reclines for hours, paralyzed, and seems to be, once again, an idol" (6).

  • Moss- The moss that begins to grow on Chac Mool

symbolizes his transformation. It forms just as he

is beginning his change from statue to human. "They dried the basement out, and the Chac Mool is covered in moss. It lends him a grotesque aspect..." (3)

Plot

Tone

Theme

After learning of the tragic death of his co-worker Filbert, a man goes to pick up Filbert's possessions and make arrangements for a funeral. While doing so, he comes across Filbert's journal, which narrates his terrifying battle with a sculpture of Chac Mool, the Aztec god of rain, that has slowly started to come to life

The theme of "Chac Mool" is that appearances can be deceiving, as is evident when the seemingly innocent and inanimate statue turns into a terrifying creature

The tone Fuentes uses in "Chac Mool" is dark and suspenseful as he recounts the tale of the menacing sculpture that slowly transforms into a human

  • "It’s a precious piece, of natural dimension, and although the merchant insists on its originality, I doubt it" (3).
  • "My original idea was different: I would dominate the Chac Mool, like one dominates a toy" (6).
  • "I must admit, I am his prisoner...Chac Mool watches every step of mine; he’s made me telephone a restaurant so that they’ll bring me daily rice with chicken...every day I make ten or twelve trips for water, and he watches me from the roof. He says if I try to flee he’ll strike me down" (6)
  • "He loses a lot in the darkness of the basement, like a simple mass of agony, and his grimace seems to reproach me for denying him light" (Fuentes 3).
  • "Yes, steps are heard on the staircase. Nightmare. Go back to sleep... I don’t know how long I pretended to sleep. When I opened my eyes again, dawn still hadn’t come. The room smelled of horror, of incense and blood" (4-5).
  • "...a little while ago, in the darkness, I ran into him on the stairs, I felt his icy arms, the scales of his renewed skin, and I wanted to scream" (6).

Chac Mool

by Carlos Fuentes

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