1/31/2019 5 Comments Laura RestrepoLaura Restrepo August 9, 1950 Bogotá, Colombia
Laura Restrepo typical themes are surrounded around one's mental ability being able to keep sane in an unstable society/country. She makes her themes angled around one alienation in a nonfiction environment. Summary: Delirium by Laura Restrepo is a novel concerning main characters Aguilar, an unemployed literate professur who now resortes his occupation to selling canned dog food. And his wife Agustina who when Aguilar returned from his trip encounters his once sane wife terribly mad, in a state of insanity. The story progresses as a almost detective story of Aguilar trying to uncover the reasoning behind this wifes madness. Darker and darker secrets come to surface as we take a look into Augustinas unknown past. We discovr along the stories progression other characters such as Midas, a drug trafficking money enthuses ex-lover. As well as Nicolás, Agustinstas grandfather, we continue the story uncovering more and more reason behind the unsettling truth on Agustina insanity. Analysis of Main Characters: Agustina: beautiful upper-class women, driven from a Colombian family Aguilar: husband of Austina, unemployed literature professor who now sells dog food Midas: Drug-trafficker, money-launderer, Augustinas former lover Nicolás: Augustinas grandfather Theme: The theme portrayed within Delirium is how one's experience can affect your mental stability. She portrays these themes through a unstable environment a character has been in, and displays how they can affect a character. At the age of 16, Laura Restrepo was a sophomore in college, working as a literature teacher in a public school for boys. This experience allowed for Laura to be able to first hand learn the disturbing truth about students within her school, all of which was apart of the lower-class spectrum, and experienced and knew more than she did. This experience ended up changing her perspective for the better, she stated how, "beyond the nuclear family and the land of wonders that is high culture, there lay a whole universe to be explored that was broad and remote, fierce and exciting." Shortly after, Restrepo took it upon herself to learn more about her country, as well as about the violence and poverty aspects of the societal downfalls in Columbia. Her experience allowed for her to tie these concepting within her writing, she incorporated these struggles within her stories. Poverty is something that she elaborated her knowledge on. She incorporated this knowledge within Delirium by setting that tone of the story through an “unemployed literate professor, who is now selling dog food”. This not only gave the setting a more normalized vibe, being that the characters are not rolling in stacks of unnecessary amounts of money. It set the tone of typical individuals within Columbia at the time period as well. Work Cited: "Restrepo, Laura: 1950—: Journalist, Political Activist, Novelist.". “Restrepo, Laura: 1950-: Journalist, Political Activist, Novelist.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed, Encyclopedia.com, 2019, By: Sharaia K.
5 Comments
Isabella Luis
1/31/2019 09:52:36 am
Is there a reason why the author chose to highlight poverty in her work other than being surrounded by it with the stories of her students; did she want a call to action?
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Jordyn Ingram
1/31/2019 10:01:30 am
Could you, in three words, describe how you would feel if you were put in Aguilar's position?
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Elena Stephens
1/31/2019 10:16:38 am
Do you think Restrepo has this fear of having someone she loves turning insane and that is why she chose to write about this type of topic? Like, do you think something happened to her parents or even her own lover who turned into someone who was crazy and went mad?
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isabella weber
2/3/2019 01:52:30 pm
you mentioned that she makes her themes angled around one alienation in a nonfiction environment. Did she experience this in her own life?
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Rachael Tomanelli
2/3/2019 05:56:49 pm
Has Restrepo written other books that have similar themes? If so, do you think she could be projecting her own fears or experiences in her writing?
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