Sunday, November 10, 2013

Into the Labyrinth of Solititude

Research and Development

For this week, I decided to look at a work that has been cited in some of the other sources I have used thus far in my research.  The work is entitled The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz and it focuses on understanding the identity of what it meant to be Mexican.  Paz's specialty was political philosophy and poetry in Mexico during his lifetime (1914-1998).  After beginning to look into this work by him, I have found some excellent insight into what exemplifies Mexican identity regarding death and some correlations to the Day of the Dead.  I will break up this analysis into two main entries to provide a complete understanding of his work.


Death, Identity, and the Day of the Dead

Paz first focuses broadly at identifying what the characteristics of Mexican society are.  He emphasizes that because of the colorful history of Mexico which often included violence, invasion, and a mixture of heritage many Mexicans feel a sense of "solitude" as the work represents.  From this solitude, many Mexicans believe that they do not belong to the rest of the world, especially compared to the rest of North America.  In fact, Paz demonstrates that "this Mexicanism...floats, never quite existing, never quite vanishing." (Paz 13)  Along with this, a continued sense of duality between life and death among the Mexican people is prevalent which brings a reverence for both.  As Paz put it, "our cult of death is also a cult of life, in the same way that love is a hunger for life and a longing for death." (Paz 23)

It is from this duality of life and death that some of the familiar relationships with death imagery comes from.  Paz demonstrates this when he says, "in the hubbub of a fiesta night our voices explode into brilliant lights, and life and death mingle together, while their vitality becomes a fixed smile that denies old age and death but that changes life to motionless stone." (Paz 24)  This duality can be traced to the Mexica/Aztec ancestry in Mexico, as I have stated throughout my blog posts, as they depended on the preservation of life through death.  "...To the Aztecs it [death] was the profoundest way of participating in continuous regeneration of the creative forces, which were always in danger of being extinguished if they were not provided with blood, the sacred food." (Paz 56)  This traditional concept of life and death was inherited into modern thought in Mexico as they believed that life and death were representative of each other.  This is evident when Paz stated, "our deaths illuminate our lives.  If our deaths lack meaning, our lives also lacked it." (Paz 54)

This philosophical analysis by Paz was the perfect foundation for demonstrating how death characterized Mexican identity, particularly as it related to the Day of the Dead.  The festivities of this day were not only meant to be celebratory, but also continue the sense of duality towards society.  According to Paz, "our fiestas are explosions.  Life and death, joy and sorrow, music and mere noise are united, not to re-create or recognize themselves, but to swallow each other up." (Paz 53)  The festivities also demonstrate the dark humor that Mexico appreciates with the various aspects of Day of the Dead.  "Sugar-candy skulls, and tissue-paper skulls and skeletons strung with fireworks...our popular images always poke fun at life, affirming the nothingness and insignificance of human existence." (Paz 59)  It is clear that Mexican society is not afraid to demonstrate their acceptance of death since it is as fundamental as the air they breath.

Paz also continues to compare the identification with death of Mexico with other Western societies.  He particularly discusses how Mexico publicly discuss death as a way of handling their fear of death.  For Mexico, "...death is not hidden away: he looks at it face to face, with impatience, disdain or irony." (Paz 58)  In comparison, Western society seems to avoid death to the point of not even mentioning it in everyday conversation.  Paz believes that this is simply ignorance since death is a part of everything from cemeteries to hospitals that seek to prevent death.  Paz put it perfectly when he said, "it is useless to exclude death from images, our words, our ideas, because death will obliterate all of us, beginning with those who ignore it or pretend to ignore it." (Paz 60)  Death is inevitable regardless of what society one is born in and Mexico chooses to accept it even if it is limited.  Regarding death, "he praises it, celebrates it, cultivates it, embraces it, but he never surrenders himself to it." (Paz 59)

Source Cited:
Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude. New York: Grove Press, Inc. 1961

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