Week 9 - Carlos Fuentes "The Old Gringo"

This week, I read “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes.

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't expecting any romance or relationship related content to be involved. I thought this book would mainly be about war or a person’s life journey, as it kept repeating “the old gringo came to Mexico to die”. It was really interesting as the old gringo was definitely an important character in this book, but his name was not known until the end of the story. 

I found the love triangle relationship between Harriet, the old gringo and Arroyo interesting but disturbing at the same time. Due to the age difference, The old gringo told himself not to fall for Harriet. However, despite him trying to suppress the feelings for her at the beginning, he still ends up falling for her. I think it is kind of romantic how an individual cannot conceal their true feelings when they are in love. However, at the end of the story, the old gringo said Harriet is like his daughter to him. I don't know how to explain it but I found the transition of his love a little bit too big(?)... like a little too sudden(?) out of nowhere(?)... The old gringo started off from loving Harriet as a lover to loving her as a daughter at the end. Even though both are love, the ‘loving’ between those two are very different.

I am not fond of the character, Arroyo. I believe he is more of an ‘action’ type of person. Arroyo knew the gringo’s feelings for Harriet and forced her to have a sexual relationship with him because the gringo did not obey his order. I am able to understand why Arroyo is unhappy about it but what I don't understand is the way he chose to get back to the gringo. He doesn’t need to drag and involve another person into this as it is between him and the gringo. Even though Harriet did agree to it in order to save the old gringo, I still think forcing someone or making them to have a sexual relationship with them just because of ‘revenge’ is too over. He also ends up killing the old gringo after the gringo burnt down his documents. He tends to use actions to justify many things.

The question I have for the class is: Are you able to sacrifice yourself in order to save another person?