My growth as a writer and as a person have come hand in hand this quarter. Neither one a product of the other, but both mutually influential. The grueling process of getting a job is a perfect example. On the first day of class we talked about ways to become a better writer and we came to the conclusion that the best way to improve as a writer is to learn from good and bad pieces of writing. While applying for a job I encountered several unfamiliar forms of communication …show more content…
One who is widely known for helping the Spanish conquerors and betraying the native people of Mexico. The word malinchista, means one who betrays their own country. Her legacy, forged at a time when indigenous culture and Catholic religion were syncretizing, symbolizes the original sin. She is thought of as the Mexican Eve. However, in Cortez and Montezuma Donald Barthelme decides to leave the reader completely oblivious to the connotations of her name. Thus raising the question: Is Doña Marina truly to blame or is she merely a …show more content…
Cortes begins to laugh. Montezuma begins to laugh. Cortes is choking, hysterical”, make it obvious to the reader that the story is not historically accurate. He lets the events of the story unfold almost unavoidably by telling it through people’s actions, like on page 326 “Cortes strikes an effigy...Cortes is raving… Doña Marina is walking.... Cortes and Montezuma are walking”. Even though Cortes and Montezuma is set in the early 16th century Barthelme includes several modern images like, “lackeys to stand in pairs on little shelves at the rear of their limousines” (324), and “the report of the detective he has hired to follow Doña Marina, together with other reports, documents, photographs”(328). One could argue that by distorting historical events Barthelme is criticizing our subjective way of keeping track of