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A Life Told Backwards

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A Life Told Backwards

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Carlos Fuentes's 1962 novel The Death of Artemio Cruz narrates the last day in the life of a dying newspaper magnate and former revolutionary through three alternating narrative voices, a first person present tense, a second person future tense addressed to the dying man himself, and a third person past tense recounting episodes from his life out of chronological order. The fractured structure lets the novel expose the gap between the idealistic young revolutionary Cruz had once been and the corrupt oligarch he became, using Cruz's single life as a lens on the broader betrayal Fuentes saw in the Mexican Revolution's aftermath.

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Source Carlos Fuentes (Wikipedia)
Sources
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
The Death of Artemio Cruz (Encyclopedia.com)
Encyclopedia.comThe Death of Artemio Cruz, narrative-structure section
Quote, The Death of Artemio Cruz, narrative-structure section
The novel alternates among three voices and tenses, with Artemio employing the first-person I and present tense for thoughts about his physical deterioration on his deathbed; the second-person you and future tense to judge his past actions and entertain alternate choices he could have made; and the third person he and past tense to narrate the course of his life events.
View the Source
Carlos Fuentes (Wikipedia)
  • Lead section
    Carlos Fuentes Macias was a Mexican novelist, essayist and ambassador to France.
  • Article On: Carlos Fuentes
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