The Labyrinth of Soledad by Octavio Paz
The labyrinth of loneliness is a literary work in which Octavio Paz seeks to explain the reason for being of the Mexican, which is what defines it and distinguishes it from others. His personality is subject to study where he raises a description of the Mexican, he seeks the origin of his behavior and peculiarity.
Paz describes in turn the harsh reality under which the Mexican has lived over the years and how movements have emerged due to the struggle and freedom of this nation, which since the beginning of their history has given rise to aloneliness that in the end makes it independent of others.
And it is precisely from the origin of its history in the Aztec people where the conquest takes away an identity, their ideals, are betrayed by their gods, the Malinche and the Spaniards. Then, during the colony through an education model from the other continent impose other ideals and a more civilized thought model.
Thanks to the Enlightenment, various movements arise in search of a cry of independence, where we give off ties with the other world, this triggers other types of abuses that mocked and exploited the territory of Mexico and accommodated the revolution that at the beginning sought to end withA social system imposed during the Porfiriato, but as life conditions, it became a civil war that brought great benefits to the Mexican.
Then in a transition Mexico passes from the revolution to our day and again thanks to the contributions from the Enlightenment develops the intellect and seeks to establish a stable government and education, now without religious influence as during the colony, in this way an educational model development developmentin which the student is creator of his own knowledge.
It is in our day when capitalism arrives in Mexico, even with the supposed stability we have, we are alone, we are betrayed by our same government that does not see the problem in which Mexico lives and looks at its own interests.
El Pachuco and other extremes
In this first chapter Octavio Paz begins to express the feeling of the teenager who inside his conscience looks himself as a lonely being, the teenager feels alone because unlike the adult and the child, the adolescent does not transcend his loneliness and seeksGenerate your own identity, but how? If the teenager does not fit into the child’s standard or adult.
Octavio Paz highlights this solitude of the Mexican as different from the feeling of inferiority did with other first world countries, since this same inferiority can become an illusion, while loneliness makes us different as Mexicans. It is then that Mexico begins to. It makes a comparison between Mexico and our foreign neighbors United States, where the Mexican is a lonely entity and oscillates from the origin of its history and in turn the miscegenation of cultures results in the crystallization of its own identity.
However, the author refers to Mexico with the spirit of Pachuco who belong to young bands in southern Mexico and those who distinguish themselves by their clothing, their ideals and way of being, being rebellious and authentic who want to resemble others, but stillBeing in this way, the Pachucos are looking for an identity that does not correspond to them and in turn deny their origins as Mexicans. In this way, the Pachuco does not feel Mexican, or American because still immersed in this world, it puts its own limits, these blockages that define it and together with its personality are distinguished from others.
It is then that the good Mexican has as well rooted his ideals, his culture and history refuses to undergo a social construct that does not belong to him and herself history makes it a country rich in customs and culture that form its identity, it isTherefore, today there are still vestiges of cultures that transcend and refuse to be subjected by social changes;Mexico is able to see beyond itself and always keeps in mind that despite stormThat lacks, behind this confident and that proud face is full of debts, but being surrounded by mirrors, in a kind of egocentrism, where the world was made to its similarity, for its trade and benefit.
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