The Cemetery of Forgotten Books
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the author of The Shadow of the Wind, was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1964. Becuase of the obvious disparody of timeline between the author’s birth and the occurance of the Psanish civil war that he writes so much about, it is unclear as to why Zafon would have such an in-depth knowledge of the events. However, owing to his strong sense of nationality, as exemplified by the publishing of multiple pamphlets in his 20s that detailed the reasons for Spain to become an economic powerhouse and financial leader of Europe, his decision as to why he would choose this subject is fairly obvious. The book in question was published in 2001, eight years after Mr. Zafon had moved to Los Angeles, again raising a question of the personal ties that he has to the novel and the motivation behind its writing. While Carlos clearly has a strong emotional connection to his homeland, it is not quite as obvious as to the reliable of his writing and the incentives, other than constant patriatism, that drove him to write the novel. Thus, it should be analized what effects a culture has on an individual, in this case a writer, when compared to the cultural upbringing of the same person, and how these influences reflect themselves in the subsequent writing and expressions of the subject.
On the one hand, it could be argued that external cultural influences that are separate from the initial, birthplace cultural influences that an individual experiences have little to no effect on that person and his or her writing, with the cultural background of an individual gaining priority and prominence over any other cultural stimuli. This is apparent in the writing style in The Shadow of the Wind, with multiple spanish words being implimented in order to further immerse the reader in the Spain setting and Spanish dialogue, as well as to add to the already shaky credibility of the author’s expertice on the Spanish civil war. The language used also adds depth to the characters, with certain native words being used more frequently by characters who have more difficulty leaving the past behind, and recurring theme throughout the book. Thus, with this infussion of Sspanish language, Zafon expresses his own cultural background and underlying lingual alliegence, but also, intentionally or inadvertantly, develops the characters and their movement in the storyline and maturity timeframe in the amount of “native” langauge used. Subtly and moderately worked into the piece in the appropriate amount, the Spanish that Zafon was born into is used as a sylistic ploy to entice the reader all the more.
However, it is rather difficult to distinguish between the language of the book that is taken from Barcelona and the Spanish that is a product of the Los Angeles and Mexican-influenced culture that the author now resides in. For example, the main character constantly uses the “tu” tense when referring to his partner in adventure, an informal addressing that, should the novel stick to the strict outline of Spain Spanish, would have been expressed by using the “vos” form. Slang words inherent to the Mexican and Latino cultural scene are also evident in the novel, and thereby the prior conclusion that the primary tongue language of the book should be seen as a product of the author’s cultural upbringing is brought into question. If Mexican spanish has as large a role in the novel as the mere writing itself would suggest, then culture has a far greater and longer lasting effect on language and indentidy than previously hypothesized. Ethnicity may play a secondary role to the nature of the language used in a novel, but the driving force behind “foreign” words besides English that are used could instead be the culture that the piece is written in, thus eliminating the significance of cultural rearing. Although the subject matter for the book was certainly taken and derived from the birthplace of the author, the styles used within the novel and the language implemented are a direct result of the Los Angeles cultural scene.
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