Tuesday, August 23, 2011
"The Biggest City in the World" Reading Journal
Daniel Chacón's, "The Biggest City in the World" was very ambiguous to me in the sense that I feel like the author was trying to say that Harvey Gomez became a Mexican at the end, but I don't feel like he did. In my opinion, there was a sense of dislocation within Harvey. He went to Mexico and was studying Mexican history, but I believe he more so did because he felt like he had to, not wanted to. I saw Harvey as very uptight with the real Mexican culture, because when it came down to him actually interacting with Mexicans, he seemed very pretentious and not willing to really embrace Mexico. The parallel is seen with Professor Rogstart and his true knowledge and love for the people and the culture. Although he was white, he didn't mind riding the metro or eating true Mexican food. To me, Harvey came off as a student who wanted to impress his Professor and who was ultimately afraid of his own past heritage. Even so, at the very end when the taxi driver calls him "Mexican", my honest interpretation is that Harvey only decided this because he had guilt and not true desire to truly connect with his people.
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