LITERATURE - LATIN-AMERICAN STUDIES

Critical Review



Critical Review

Depiction of I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

I, Rigoberta Menchu (1983), is the story of the life of a young person Guatemalan Quiche Indian lady. Inscribed in the style of testimonial, her commanding and influential tone accounts the dilemma of the Guatemalan populace in the political fear of a 36-year Civil Warfare that finished in 1996. To continue to exist, the populace of Menchu's society integrate their inconsistent abilities next to equipped contenders who are set upon the complete abolition of a society that defends against them. The storyteller and leading role of I, Rigoberta Menchu finds herself on the edge for headship when her populace are victimized and subjugated by the authoritative Guatemalan tyranny. She swings between hopelessness and resentment as she gets the skilfulness and self-confidence that facilitate her to make a distinction in her society and in the globe. Intensely conventional, Rigoberta protects her familial and Indian people, rejoicing the folk traditions and customs that have been passed down for age groups. She frequently practises actions that are not distinctive amongst the women in her ethnicity. Ultimately, she turns out to be an activist political campaigner who moves all over the globe, narrating her storyline and promoting the Guatemalan peasant grounds (Arias, 2001).

Her reality is cruel Life is a struggle to continue to exist. As if knitting a corte material with several threads, she generates an account of bond in her Quiche society. One of Menchu's main goals is to sustain unified Mayan traditions. She accounts her culture's history throughout memoirs, describing formal procedures, traditions, and rites. She represents the Mayan society with wisdom of wonder and inscrutability. She denotes candles lighten up to greet the infant kids, of festive celebrations at wedding ceremonies, of the significance of maize, and of admiration for the aged of the society. The rites she portrays, unfamiliar to the Western thoughts, stir up a sentiment of astonishment and maybe even jealousy in the person who reads Chant, 2000).

Critical Reception

Menchu's commendable effort, particularly I, Rigoberta Menchu's, has been usually well-greeted, though contradictory views concerning the reliability of her stories do subsist. Many columnists have marked her enthusiasm, bravery, and talent for story-telling and verse. Other critics have unfalteringly declared that her book has finely concealed half-truths for the radical missing in what were acknowledged as Third World nations. The sharp split in critical outlook extended in January 1999, when an anthropologist asserted to have power over facts confirming that significant accounts and proceedings in the volume were either deceitful or unreal. The claim has generated a thorough discussion concerning Menchu, her inscription, her political position, and her acknowledgment of the Nobel Award. Her prize was not cancelled, in some measure as it was offered not just for I, Rigoberta Menchu, but for Menchu's many substantial attempts toward attaining worldly freedom from strife, and partly due to all biographical efforts that “exaggerated” details.

The argument over the level to which exaggeration should be authorized or ...