Lukas Carlé represents Hitler on micro level. Here we have another example of how family structures can reproduce themselves on the national level, most notably in countries where reactionaries control power.
I found the transformation of Rolf Carlé from son of a Austrian psychopath to South American golden boy hard to believe. Despite the fact that the war spared him much of his father´s tyranny, he nevertheless lived through significant childhood trauma (being forced by the Russians to bury gazed Jews, witnessing the incident preceding his brother´s exile and the hanging of father). His metamorphosis into a charming and cultured young man in the New World seems inconsistent with his Old World background. Allende will probably link his desire to denounce injustice in the form of documentary film to the expression of his rage against his father´s brutality, but this seems contrived. Will Eva Luna make a similar transformation, from orphaned street urchin into articulate militant?
Allende likely based la Colonia on the German towns in the Lakes District of Chile, where you can buy Kuchen and stay in B and B´s called Kleine Salzburg written in Gothic characters.
3 comments:
mmm interesante, quisás el personaje de Rolf preanunciaba ser heroico cuando describen su nacimiento y primera infancia. no había pensado en las conotaciones eugénicas de toda esa sección, con su preocupaciónes de como "mezclar" la sangre. y ahora que lo decís, la colonia podría ser tambien Bariloche, una ciudad argentina en el sur de los andes donde varios nazis se refugiaron y dedicaron al alpinismo. según unlibro reciente los refugios que construyeron en la montaña tenían como fin fugarse en caso de ser perseguidos, (nadie llego a juzgarlos, por supuesto). Ana
Yo pienso que este tipo de transformacion, la de Rolf "from son of an Austrian psychopath to South American golden buy", que te parece tan poco realistico, es de hecho muy comun en la literatura. Cuantos protagonistas vienen de situaciones muy dificiles y luego se vuelven inexplicamente en gran heroes? Y a menudo, en las novelas no se explica como. Yo siempre pensaba que por eso son los protagonistas, porque son especiales. Es decir, de cada diez o cien ninyos creciendo en situaciones horribles, quizas solo uno va a lograr hacer algo gran con su vida, pero por esto el libro se trata de el o ella.
Heh, there's much in this tale that's hard to believe, isn't there? But does that matter?
NB however, I'd suggest that if anywhere (and is it significant that we're never given geographic specifics?) the book is most likely to be set in Venezuela: a Caribbean nation whose economy is also based on oil, and that has a German colony, too, Colonia Tovar.
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