Battles In The Desert
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Battles in the Desert, written by Jose Emilio Pacheco, tells a story about how a young man named Carlos encounter social and political changes. Carlos narrates his own experiences during his childhood when social and political problems are happening. The time period is during the regime of the government of Miguel Aleman. Carlos’ experiences demonstrate the changes of his own personal life, and the impact of the American culture on Mexico. I believe Carlos is reflecting his personal childhood lived at Mĩxico, and also the unwilling changes of his personality. How Carlos enjoys a moment that is never happening again, and how Carlos feels about his society.
In the society Carlos lives with are manipulated very easily by the empowered executives, because money is the key for success. Almost everyone on the society wants to be up the date of the current civilization, letting them easily influence with other kind of environment. With all this changes, moments one time lived will not happen again more rapidly due to the changes. Every time Carlos wants to repeat a special moment he lived Carlos is always unable to do it. For example, when Carlos tries to retrieve Mariana, everything seems like a dream “How ancient! How remote! What an impossible story! But Mariana existed(116).” Mariana is an object to Carlos that represents the home he wishes to be alive. “There is no memory of the Mexico of those years . . . I will never know if Mariana is still alive(117).” In my personal interpretation Carlos wish he could live the childhood he lived during when everything seemed so wonderful. Carlos has resentment with the government he is living trough, because the only worry of the government is to empower themselves more, according to the examples of the story. Carlos believes the government is the one to blame of what Mexico has become; pollution, population, “Mexican slaves” (84), and all the problems of Mexico.
The personality of Carlos changed as the timed passed, his personality changed because he experienced many radical changes that invaded his personal life. The changes include the transfer of school, moving to United States of America, the cultural invasion of another country. I think Carlos suffers from nostalgic about the person he used to be, “Who could feel nostalgic for the horror (117)?” I think he is nostalgic because his personality changed because Mexico or Mariana “came to an end just like the records of his