The Modern Culture of Latin America

In defense of Rubén Darío:

Darío did not at any moment abandonment Metapa, Nicaragua. It is my opinion that his compatriots, the governmental authorities of Center America, and specially Nicaragua that did not demonstrate the sufficient respect to Darío’s talent or endorsement of this incomparable writer. On the other hand the governmental authorities did separate him from Nicaragua by sending Darío to other countries to shut his mouth. With this the writer did not have the opportunity to see what was happening to the country internally. While abroad Darío could not disclose with his ball-point pen what was really occurring in Nicaragua at that time…“Rubén Darío was appointed to represent Nicaragua in Madrid” (Franco 38). By the consequence, I dare to say that its emigration to a certain point could be involuntarily, but being young an anxious one is willing to conform. In Darío’s case, he packed plenty of talent on his side and he simply took advantage of the opportunity. No one can deny the cultural beauty of these European countries, when near this beauty any person can be captivated by similar splendor. “Hence Spanish – American writers had come to feel stronger link with the culture of others European countries” (Franco27).

Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert

When I began to read Sentimental Education of Flaubert it seemed very interesting to me and very affluent in the text. Nevertheless, the excessive amount of details did not amuse me, yet I do understand that this is a characteristic of realism. I do understand that at that time these details were necessary for the writers so they can create a photograph in the reader’s mind. As we examined the realism article, in this literary movement the author must be faithful to realism and to nature in there text. But please too much description can cause the reader to lose interest in the text. In Henry James’s The Art of Fiction states that “The characters, the situation, which strike one as real will be those that touch and interest one most, but the measure of reality is very difficult to fix (James 43).” I have to agree with James’s observation because it is really very complicated to measure reality since authenticity can be different for each person.

Romanticism "The power of nature "

Last Monday in our class Dr. Conway showed a painting called The dream of the reason where the fury of the nature is more powerful than a human being. What I’m about to tell you is not a painting or a story is a real life fact. This painting brought many memories in my mind. I come from the Caribbean a place that is very similar to the paradise in Earth with leafy mountains, giant trees of ceibas exuberances flowers and birds, and the beach is bathed by the Atlantic Ocean. It was a Friday of 1974. The season of hurricanes and heavy rains had begun in La Ceiba. The hurricane Fifí caused trauma in me, as a young lady of fourteen years, having experienced the horrific natural phenomenon. My city was flooded up to 20 feet; there were humans and animals floating on the water. It was a disaster and after the hurricane the inhabitants of La Ceiba were without their house and those that had the fortune of there house not being taken by the fury of the water were mourning a family members death. There were weeks that we could not be fed suitably, since all the foods were contaminated. A paradise in earth has become hell on earth. That day I saw and felt the force of nature and realize how small the human being is to its power. One of the American poets of romanticism, who I admire, is William Cullen Bryant poem “To a Waterfowl”, because in line 27 of his poem states that God will guide and protect us in our journey through life. This is exactly how I felt that day God was protecting me from the force of the hurricane. In line 29 he mentions the “Zone” here I believe he is referring to different regions of the earth marked by differences of climate. To conclude this poem suggests that god actually intervenes in the universe to provide guidance to humanity. Thus, I think that God created nature and even when we are presented with situation like the one I confronted he is always there. It was beautiful, but it was just another side of nature that we are not accustoming to.


“To a Waterfowl”
By William Cullen Bryant
Whither, ‘midst falling dew,
While glows the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue?
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler’s eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek’st thou the splashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean side?

There is a power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, --
The desert and illimitable air, --
Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fann’d
At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere;


Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark of night is near.

And soon that toil shall end,
Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend
Soon o’er thy sheltered nest.

Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou has given,
And shall not soon depart.

He, who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must treat alone,
Will lead my steps aright. (1815/1821)

The origins of humanism By Nicholas Mann

This chapter will Endeavour to trace the main features of that continuity from its apparent beginning in the ninth century to the end of the fourteenth century-a period in which scholarly interest was focused, but by no means exclusively, on Roman culture and Latin literature.”
I found the information really fascinating and believable. In general, this article refers to Mann defining humanism as “concert with the legal of Ambiguity” involving not only a rediscovery of classic Latin and Greek texts and languages, but also the values that scholars found in them. For the Writer, the beginning of humanism goes back to the Carolingian Renaissances of the eighth and ninth century, arising again in the XX century France, while not totally disappearing in the interim from major monasteries, such as that at Monte cassino. The argument was effective, for the reason that he supports his statement. I do believe that Mr Mann provides a specific thesis. The argument was presented understandably, because the writer provides outstanding background information. In addition, I do believe that the author did an admirable job with this analysis by his conclusion supporting his argument.

The historical text as literary Artifact

While comparing truth and history, Hayden White argues that the truth in history is not equivalent to the one compared in science. On account of history being written by different people, history cannot be scientific. By experiencing scientific knowledge, one cannot do the same with history unless they are living it at that moment. He explains that historical narration is artificial and is not possible to be experimented, and it is not possible to know if it is truth. Furthermore, Mr. White tells the reader that people who write history, they must use their imagination to tell it, but it does not mean that it can be truth. Thus, he explains that some writers say: that authentic history has to be located back of the same events that are narrated. Hence, sometimes those historians write what the people want to hear, this does not mean that what the writer has written is the truth. History is recreated with different intentions. In any case when inspecting history, or to draw an academic explanation of a story, one starts off looking at the primary source. Since to institute “the facts” a discrepancy between creating is inescapable when existing or inventing a history and to commit an error with the antecedents. When historians create a historical document they need to reconstruct those moments and historical fact that are fragmented in the primary sources, they must only limit themselves to the truth.