Reflecting

In class this week we discussed tone and this just got me thinking about Paternostros tone in her memoir. Here is a woman who is writing about writing about Colombia and trying to see it more clearly after years of trying to block it. Paternostro is very truthful in this memoir and doesn't hide her view on Colombia and this all gives way to understanding her tone. As a result being the reader of this novel, I believe the tone that most describes it throughout the text is reflective.

Paternostro doesn't simply tell a story but actually thinks about it. She questions why things are as they are and drags the reader into these thoughts. It is not only  what goes on around her but she also tries to understand what her behavior reflects of who she is. For example in this quote, Paternostro is debating wether she truly is Colombian or not:

"I still define myself as Colombian when asked where I am from. But am I really? When does one stop being what one was born to be?" (page 21)

The writer does not ask questions to someone outside of the story when she says this. It is about her own thoughts of who she is. She continues asking questions like these to herself in the book and there is just a sense of detachment for either of the countries she calls home. The reader can also infer that the author does not want to get attached to where she is. As the author puts it: 

"I remind myself that I am here as the journalist who writes in English and who embraces American Liberalism wholeheartedly. I insist on this invisible armor because to admit that I am here for any other reason… is terrifying." (page 46)

This quote is another example of this sense of detachment  from everything. The need to where this "armor" and think of things in an American journalist way, shows that she is trying to view things critically and analytically as she reflects what she wants to achieve.

Map Doll

Since the topic at hand in the AP Lang class is memoirs, I am currently reading My Colombian War by Silvana Paternostro. This memoir is about the author being a journalist abroad and deciding that she want to understand the country she calls home but has been away from physically and emotionally for years. The story alternates between different periods of the authors’ life but always expanding on the idea of what she thought about Colombia in these different times.

Being Colombian, I know what it is like to try and explain Colombia to others. There is this image about Colombia that gives us a reputation around the world. Paternostro finds ways to explain conflicts. that only people from Colombia would understand clearly. with ease from the beginning of the book. As she keeps writing about her experiences she manages to add her research into her own story without it sounding out of place. This gives great insight into what I believe is a topic that only Colombians understand and foreigners pretend to know about: Colombias internal struggles.

A part that stood out to me was when Paternostro was describing the different regions of Colombia through the metaphor of a doll. One would expect her to describe it as a good looking doll but instead she opts for demonstrating how even Colombias geography has its part in the countries struggles. She assigns each region a body part and through this logic came to this conclusion:

 “Each one of those deformed organs has built its own defense mechanism, its own immune system. Each one of those parts is independent and fierce. It has to overcompensate for what is missing.” (pg 8)

Instead of the doll being united and each organ having a function for a whole, Paternostro shows how the doll is deformed because of ideas and not exactly geography. It goes beyond what is on the outside of the doll but rather into a division that has only grown through time. A country that excludes its own self through its organs, imagine that!

I Remember...

In AP Lang, we are starting our memoir unit. If you live under a rock or haven’t taken English in a while let me refresh your memory by reminding you what a memoir is, a memoir is a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. That is according to the good old online dictionary I clicked 5 seconds ago. To put it simply, a memoir involves a memory and you wanting to write deeply about that memory in any way you please.