"The details of the image formed of us often vary with the spectator, but it is always an ambiguous if not contradictory image: we are insecure, and our repsonses, like our silences are unexpected and unpredictable. Treachery, loyalty, crime and love hide out in the depths of our glance. We attract and repel" (Paz pg 65).
" The modern worker lacks individuality. The class is stronger than the individual and his personality dissolves in the generic" (Paz pg 67).
One of our favorite Disney characters goes through this very identity crisis. When we look in the mirror, what do we see? How does the rest of the world view us? Should we conform to what they expect or should we be who we are on the inside?
One of our favorite Disney characters goes through this very identity crisis. When we look in the mirror, what do we see? How does the rest of the world view us? Should we conform to what they expect or should we be who we are on the inside?
Who are we? How are we really defined? Are we the product of the stereotypes of others? Are we defined by society? Or do our personalities get lost in the group? Paz goes on here to describe that the Mexicans of today all started from the 'rape' of Dona Malinche and that it has negative connotations. He describes women as objects and then reveres them. Then what is a woman? What am I?
This song reminds me of the heartfelt question, "Who am I?" This really brings me back to Octavio Paz's musings on solitude. That point in time when we realize that other people actually have their own lives, when they are not with us they are able to have fun, they laugh, they create inside jokes and life goes on.
In their song "Super Trooper" the group ABBA has a line that says "Facing 20,000 of your fans, how can anyone be so lonely?" We often feel our most lonely when we are surrounded by people. How is that even possible? Yet, somehow, it is and somehow we let ourselves feel excluded.
Throughout this chapter Paz describes the Mexican people as the sons of Malinche, and yet in class we had a few people speak up and mention that this was not their background, they felt that they had not come from this history. Also Professor Mack mentioned the one group of Mexicans that still refuse to acknowledge any kind of defeat and take their own control by blocking the water supplies.
From these people we learn that we make or own destiny. Yes, the past is, and always will be, a part of us. It defines our societies and certain aspects of our lives. At the same time, we are the masters of our own destiny, we choose who we are so it is up to us to shape the future. Let us all "dream the impossible dream...[and] reach the unreachable star" in our lives and in our desires.
From Walt Disney we learn that anything is possible, after all Disney Land and the Disney empire all started with a dream and a mouse.
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