The novel, Aura, demonstrates magical realism through the use of cyclical time and binaries such as past and present, light and dark, and old and young. The use of light and dark conceals Aura's identity as she and Senora Consueo are one and the same.  The darkness of the house makes it hard for Felipe to come to this distinction.  Senora Consuelo is 109 years old and she seeks out Felipe in hopes of Felipe and Aura to be a couple . This relationship is similar to Senora Consuelo and General Llorente. In fact, later one Felipe finds out that he resembles the late General.

"Aura" by Carlos Fuentes

"Aura" by Carlos Fuentes is one of those books that make the reader confused in the end and rethink the hidden messages throughout the text. The thing that made this book creepy for me was the fact that it was in second person point of view and that little questionable incidents. By writing in second person point of view, Fuentes situates and pulls the reader into the story to make them feel like they are actually experiencing the storyline as well. There were some strange and questionable events that occur throughout the book. The first noticeable event is how the ad seems to be directed towards Felipe as if it is specifically asking him to do the job. Another strange event is how Felipe hears cats screaming which we later learn is Consuelo's way of making their love favorable since she isn't able to have kids.  Overall, I think "Aura" is more frightening than "The Haunting of Hill House" because it directly addresses the reader and the magical realism adds anxiety to readers because the characters don't seemed frightened by strange events. 

-Alice Lee

Aura by Carlos Fuentes

The book Aura really surprised me because I didn't expect a second person address being the reader and the first person narrator being Felipe Montero. I think Carlos Fuentes choose this style in the book in order to really connect the reader to Felipe. As the reader reads about Felipe's time with Aura and Señora Consuelo the point of view would change in the book and the reader would become Felipe. This connection between the reader and Felipe lessen the tensions of Felipe working for an old women in a dark house with crying cats outside the windows. The reader being Felipe in some parts of the book allows the reader to know that Felipe is not scared of the gothic surroundings, therefore the reader feels that there is no tension in the book. The magical realism used in the book leaves the reader questioning whether Aura is really Señora Consuelo because as Felipe did not act surprised nor devastated to see Señora Consuelo in bed with him rather than Aura at the end of the book. Regardless, the magical realism used in the book allows the reader to not think of gothic as horror or supernatural but to think of it as normal.

Aura- Carlos Fuentes

I enjoyed the examples of magical realism we saw in class because they made it easier for me to understand the style of writing. The videos “Amelie” and “Big Fish” showed the same kind of rushed perception of the world found in Carlos Fuentes’ “Aura”.  Fuentes’ opening where Felipe is reading the advertisement and traveling to the location includes an extensive amount of detail, which also occurred in the movie clips.  The sentences are also a little choppy and often short, which mimics the main character’s thought process.  Fuentes use of magical realism is different from the Gothic books earlier in the course in that there is less perceived danger or threat. The reader can see these techniques because the novel’s 3^rd person perspective which also manages to put us inside of the main character’s head and addressing us as if we are actually in the story.

Aura by Carlos Fuentes

Aura, by Carlos Fuentes, explores our deep struggles against time. Consuelo associates aging with loss. Limbs that were once graceful and beautiful are overcome by aches and pains. Smooth skin is now worn parchment. Consuelo is no longer the beautiful maiden General Llorente fell for. She is adamant about maintaining her beauty, and turns to darker forces to ensure that she is forever young. What’s interesting is that Consuelo is clearly aware of her actions, while Felipe fails to associate himself with General Llorente until much later in the novel. From the ad’s description, it is clear that Consuelo has gone through this process of luring Felipe back to 815 several times. Felipe, however, only has faint sensations of familiarity—which escalate as the novel progresses, noting that it felt that the ad was written specifically for him, all it failed to do was explicitly name him. Why is Consuelo conscious of the fact that she is going against natural forces while General Llorente must be slowly reintroduced to their unique circumstances? Is this Consuelo’s doing, possibly the results of witchcraft? Or does General Llorente refuse to recognize his role in her actions?

Aura- Magical Realism

Aura by Carlos Fuentes signifies the idea of magical realism, of which the fact that Felipe does not stress that something is strange or supernatural.  The text focuses on Felipe and him entering into a dark, unknown realm.  It is unsettling to us to see that Felipe walks in the space not bothered by all the spiritual and supernatural happenings that he may or may have not seen.  In a sense, it makes us sit on edge of the face that the main character is not effected by such cases.  With the magical realism touch, when the Felipe is not so worried, it ends to have us think more about what he just saw or what we just read.  It creates the question of whether he’s been in such a situation before and why he is so used to these strange appearances of rats and cats.  With the ending, it reveals that Felipe turns into Conseulo’s husband.  It all makes sense towards the conclusion, maybe Felipe has already been through such occurrences enough that it does not phase his everyday activities.  I found it very surprising at the end and I did not really understand why he had turned into Conseulo’s husband at first, but I realized that Felipe might have always been the husband by the way he reacted to strange events.

Aura: Language

When first reading Aura, I was very confused about the whole thing with the cats. At first I thought cats may be symbolic of something but never figured out what the cats were symbolic of. I only understood the importance of cats when, in lecture, the translation of the French portions of the book were discussed. I found it odd that the author did not incorporate the translations into the text, so the reader could more fully understand what is going on. However, thinking more about it, had author Carlos Fuentes written the novel so that the narrator translated the French for the benefit of the reader, would have completely destroyed the effect of the second person narration used in this novel.

This type of narration assumes that the reader knows all that the narrator, in this case the main character Felipe, knows as it is written in a way that tells you what you have seen and are doing as if you are actually there narrating the story to yourself for your own benefit. Put in this position makes the reader much more involved in the story as the reader becomes the main character, who is supposed to be fluent in French, explaining why the author did not translate the French parts of his book. Translating these parts of the novel would have omitted the effect of the second person narration as it would have acknowledged the that the reader and the narrator are not, in reality, the same person.

However, I also wonder if perhaps the French was not translated just to keep the reader as much in the dark as Felipe is kept in the dark (literally and metaphorically) throughout the novel. Even though the narration makes the reader feel more involved in the story, the reader can still have a more objective point of view and different insights into the story then the narrator himself, making the French a way in which to ensure the narrator and reader maintain the same level of confusion throughout the duration of the text.

Or do most people in South America speak French and Spanish? That is definitely a reason why the author would not feel a need to translate the French, but regardless in not doing so the second person point of view remains intact.