This my final paper for my Third World Literature class.
Jose Donoso’s short story entitled Paseo reveals the isolationist life of a family in mid-twentieth-century Chile, a situation which goes hand in hand with the lives of the Chilean people under strict military rule and a conservative regime. The suppression of dissent which occurred in Chile during this time is captured by the story’s conclusion, wherein the narrator’s Aunt Mathilda, the character who embraces her freedom and who breaks away from the lifeless status quo, dies. However, this death, as was the dullness of the restrictive life in Chile, is met with silence; life, with all its meaning exhausted, goes on.
Written in 1959, Paseo captures the rigidity of Chilean life, particularly that of a family, in the twentieth century. During this period, Chile experienced being ruled by military officials and politicians who, while calling themselves reformists, perpetuated conservatism in Chile (Rector 133-154).A culture of conservatism, nationalism, and counterrevolutionary thought and practice thus prevailed from the 1900s until the 1950s, a period which is partially ignored due to the more notorious authoritarian regime of Augusto Pinochet in the 70s.
Although this socio-political context is not Donoso’s primary basis for writing the story, it nonetheless provides the reader with the dynamics of Chile as a country, which affects all units of society, from the individual to, in this short story’s case, the family. In an interview, Donoso admits the somewhat minor influence of sociology, history, and/or politics to his writing. He states that this “compulsion to explain and to place ourselves [Latin American writers] in a historic, sociological context...is very strong, and sometimes I think it mars many novels in Latin America which could have been much better if they have not been so explicitly sociological” (Leiva 178). Yet, even if the themes of his works revolve around memories of a family, he sees himself as a writer who is part of a bigger world: “I consider myself...a very small thing, and then something bigger which is Chilean, and then something which is bigger still which is Latin American, and then something which is bigger still, which is let’s say the world. I can’t separate all these planes of existence, all of them are me” (Leiva 176). Given this approach, Donoso’s Paseo can still be viewed within the realm of Chilean society and politics.
In this analysis, it is of great importance to put emphasis on the characters and the symbols used by Donoso to deliver his message. Almost serendipitously, this message coincides with the larger reality of lifelessness, rigidity, and conservatism experienced by the Chileans in the first half of the 1900s.
Looking at the characters, one can see the different paths taken by Mathilda and her brothers; the former “shuns her routine existence to descend into the animalistic night world accompanied by a stray dog” while the latter continue to exist in silence and lifeless perfection (Feal 53). Prior to Mathilda’s freedom from the shackles of an all-too-predictable way of living, both she and her brothers operate in a space of rigidity and propriety. All emotions are bottled up, therefore rendering love as an expression which is unnecessary and even dangerous. Thus, Donoso notes that this tenderness “found itself stylized now in the form of certain actions, useful symbols which did not require further elucidation” (615). In short, being secure, “to be neither hungry nor cold nor uncomfortable,” is given far more importance than embracing one’s liberty (616).
This tension between security and liberty becomes truly visible when Mathilda decides to go for walks with the dog she harvests a relationship with. Mathilda now yearns for freedom, lives a life in the streets, and truly engages with ‘the other.’ Her brothers, meanwhile, bury their feelings, continue to live in comfort, and remain apathetic. The path taken by the aunt certainly breaks the mold which has always been offered to her by her lifeless world. Indeed, it is a new life, the exact opposite of her brothers’ lives, a world “without anything fortuitous and unexpected” (617).
These different paths or types of personalities are, of course, parallel to historical realities. The fact that initially, the whole family is subjected to a life of adherence to proper decorum may refer to the events in 1925-27, wherein the powers of the presidency were increased and General Ibanez established a dictatorship (Rector 132). Needless to say, the lives of the Chileans during this time made it riskier for them to go against law and order. In the story, the narrator prays that his father Pedro, who, with the rest of the family were playing an ‘orderly’ game of billiards, “would rebel against the order,” but to no avail. There simply are severe repercussions for those who dissent. Under a strict government, the Chileans, particularly those who held demonstrations in the late 1920s, were repressed by the conservatives and the military, which led to the Marusia and La Coruna Massacres (Collier 212).
A sense of hope glimmered in the late 1930s leading up to the 40s, when the Chilean leftist groups formed a Popular Front coalition and introduced new economic policies leaning towards social programs (Rector 151-152). This turn against restrictive law and order imposed by the military regime coincides with Mathilda’s character taking the path against the status quo. Evidently, Mathilda’s newfound spirit, a departure from security and comfort, brought “an animation in her eyes, an excited restlessness like that in the eyes of an animal” (627). As mentioned earlier, however, this act of freedom poses severe consequences. Much like how the communists were eventually banned by the right-wingers in the 1950s, Mathilda meets her end after being out in the streets. The installation of Gen. Ibanez, a nebulous and vacillating political figure, created an atmosphere of uncertainty and rigidity. Thus, and much like how the story ends, silence continued to prevail.
Of course, to further deepen one’s understanding of how the story plays within historical, social, and political events, it is necessary to focus on the different symbols found in Paseo. Most of Donoso’s works employ symbols which correspond to the disintegration of order. In this essay, the symbols of the house, which trapped the characters in a sense of order, and the dog, which triggered a kind of disintegration, are looked upon.
Going back to Mathilda’s rebellion, one can see how her relationship with the dog may epitomize solidarity with the poor. The dog, of course, with its description as an animal which is “sick and filthy” or something that simply “did not exist” heavily complements the image of those belonging to the lower strata of Chilean society (618-620). The narrator’s family, on the other hand, with their comfortable way of living based on their duty to maintain a misconstrued idea of perfection, might very well represent the bourgeoisie. Chile’s society, in the period leading up to the time when Paseo was written, had been deeply divided and was enduring an atmosphere of isolation. National industrialization in Chile led to massive urban migration and deep social inequalities (Torche 427). The relationship between the filthy white bitch and the all-too-proper family, ironically reveals the sameness between them, a sameness which is masked by societal differences. Inequality, at least from a historical view of Paseo, can only be abolished through solidarity, as Mathilda finds her equal and as the immobility of the dog enables the family to move and feel again (122-124).
As in most of his novels, Donoso operates within the theme of the ultra-secure life of the upper class, wherein some of the characters, like Mathilda, veer away from their crumbling homes in order to see the world fully, and, with all its simplicity, to live (Leiva 178-179). In light of this, the house itself serves as a good symbol of Chile as a country. In both, “what took place...was...an absence, a lack, which because it was unacknowledged was irremediable, something that, if it weighed, weighed by not existing” (615). While there is an acknowledgement of the possibility of a different reality, this exterior world, in the story, is filtered by windows, walls, fences, and thick doors. For the family, if the house they dwell into is ‘heaven,’ then mistaken thoughts of an alternative reality must always be corrected. The house appears to be complete and absolute; there is precisely no use in immersing oneself to the uncomfortable outside world. The effect of this kind of suffocation, for Donoso, is simply emotional coldness, the absence of any form of feeling. Given the fact that most historians consider this period in Chilean history as relatively stable, it is perhaps reasonable to assume that this historical quietism is indicative of the isolation of most people during that era. In a sense, the people were trapped in a culture of rigidity, much like how the narrator’s family is stuck within the confines of their home. From a personal standpoint, Donoso states that he “has been so rooted to a place absolutely and completely” but even if he belongs to a house, he “had to fight against a milieu which was reflected in these houses” (Leiva 177).
Donoso seems to suggest, therefore, the necessity of going outside and making contact with the ‘other’ to break away from a lifeless world of security. This desire of being able to release oneself is incidentally concurrent with the political events that took place within the timeframe of when the short story was written. Perhaps, as one final point of analysis, the title ‘Paseo,’ which means ‘walk’ is an invitation to live, and not just exist comfortably. And to justify the contents of this paper, perhaps this theme of going outside is parallel to an analysis of Paseo as a story which goes beyond just psychological and universal themes. It is, in a way, still a narrative which is in touch with history.
WORKS CITED
Collier, Simon and William F. Sater. A History of Chile 1808-2002. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Feal, Rosemary. “In My End Is My Beginning: Jose Donoso’s Sense of an Ending.” Chasqui 17.2 (1988): 46-55. Print.
Rector, John. The History of Chile. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Torche, Florencia. “Unequal But Fluid: Social Mobility in Chile in Comparative Perspective.” American Sociological Review 70.3 (2005): 422-450. Print.
