Author Archives: madesontodd

I think this novel is still one of the most interestingly written out of the books we’ve read throughout the course. To me, the nameless feature is still fascinating, and I struggle to find the purpose of this, although, I may have made some headway. I think I mentioned this last Thursday during our discussion,Continue reading “Lost Children Archive – last post :(“

I had lowered my expectations for this novel, as per Jon’s request, but I have honestly found it easier to read than Bless Me Ultima or Gregorio Cortez. Particularly, I have found the style of writing quite interesting. It is seemingly uninteresting and anticlimactic – there are no names for the characters (which I haveContinue reading “Lost Children Archive”

I can honestly say that The House on Mango Street was not what I expected when I began reading the book. Perhaps this is because I kind of did it backwards, as I read analyses on the book for the Wiki Project before reading the actual text, so I was expecting more of a novelContinue reading “The House on Mango Street”

I was reading an analytical essay on Bless Me Ultima, as an attempt to understand the novel better and came across an interesting description of females in this book. This author claimed that the female characters can be categorized into two groups: good vs. evil. On one side of the dichotomy is Maria Luna (theContinue reading “Bless Me Ultima: Female Characters and Liminality”

I think that this text is one of the most interestingly written out of the texts we’ve read thus far. It seems to be written in a “wandering” manner, meaning, the book is an exploration of Antonio’s thoughts and in a manner that is not afraid to stray away from the topic at hand, insteadContinue reading “Bless Me Ultima (Part 1)”

I’d like to focus on territory and as a subset, boundaries. We see this as a theme in all three books. In The Squatter and The Don we see the disruption of territory as the Squatters move on the Don’s land, in Gregorio Cortez we see the emphasis on the physical border between Texas andContinue reading “Territory & Boundaries”

I honestly really enjoyed reading this book. It is enlightening, in a way, to be exposed to the harsh realities that many individuals have gone through, and still go through today. My own life has been rather fortunate, and I have not experienced anything close to the poverty and descrimination that Piri experienced in thisContinue reading “Down These Mean Streets (Part II)”

I’m really enjoying this book so far – so much so that it has been hard for me to put the book down and tackle the other work I have to do. I think one of the more obvious themes is the concept of race and identity. At surface, this may seem as a simpleContinue reading “Down These Mean Streets (Part 1)”

I think this book was so great, because it brings into question the role of class, of culture, of dominance and of resistance. Although it is a folklore, Americo Paredes shows how the ‘myths’ of Gregorio Cortez incorporate important historical events, whilst putting an artistic twist on many perspectives of these events. As such, thisContinue reading “With a Pistol in His Hand (Part 2)”

I’m really enjoying this text so far! What really caught my attention was the emphasis on ‘man’, what it means to be an ordinary man and how this affects the audience reading this text. Américo Paredes seems to make a point that this is not a story or ballad about a unique man; it isContinue reading “With His Pistol in His Hand – Gregorio Cortez: an everyday man”