Until the End

For the past two weeks, I had been reading My Colombian War. After finishing it, it became clearer that the author applies many of the things that we have learned in class to make the memoir clearer and an easier read. Throughout the reading, Paternostro writes about her own personal life as well as giving information explaining the problems in Colombia. The reader can tell that this memoir is her journey to understand the country she is from and through the memoir, she also manages to explain Colombia to anyone who is not from there in a clear and calm way.

Paternostro uses an informal register throughout the whole memoir. Paternostro explains personal things but never gets as close as in the familiar register. She offers specific information throughout the memoir but does this and then precedes it with a personal story that takes the reader back to the informal register. Away to describe the informal register of this memoir is that while it is intimate it is also informative and if Paternostro hadn't used the informal register, the memoir wouldn't be what it is.

The reader can tell the register is informal throughout the memoir because it is written in first person, the use of contracitons and the word choice. Paternostro translates a lot of the words originally said in Spanish but words like "marimbero" "guajiro" or "aja" are kept in the memoir for the story to keep some of the spanish words which cant be directly translated.

Paternostro wrote this memoir as a self full-filling story that combines her love for journalism as well as her home. It is a journey of self discovery and the register allows her to tell her story in a way that anyone who picks up the book can relate. The register has also helped make the book a success because it pulls the reader in not just as an informative text but with the intimate side, anyone can find themselves in its pages.