Analysis of the Motorcycle Diaries Film - Essay Example

? Making of a Revolutionary The Motorcycle Diaries is a film about the voyage as well as written biographyof a 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara, who would for numerous years in the future become globally recognized as the iconic socialist guerrilla commander as well as revolutionary Che Guevara. The film narrates the 1952 voyage, initially by motorbike, throughout South America by Ernesto Guevara together with his friend and colleague Alberto Granado (Drinot18). As the escapade, originally centered on youthful pleasure-seeking, unfolds, Guevara finds himself changed through his observations of the living conditions of the disadvantaged indigenous peasantry. Via the characters they come across on their mainland trek, Granado and Guevara witness personally the injustices, face the deprived as well as meet the people and social-classes they could have never came across before. To their astonishment, the road portrays to them a real and enthralling image of Latin-American identity. Consequently, the trip correspondingly establishes the beginning of cognitive dissension and revolution within Guevara Ernesto, who apparently would later consider armed revolution as a technique to confront the continent's widespread economic disparities (Drinot17). In Cuba, Guevara discovered that the peasants had no electricity, schools, accessibility to healthcare and that 40% of the grown-ups were uneducated. Guevara established workshops to impart military tactics, health clinics as well as a newspaper for information disseminating. Guevara was instrumental for devising novel strategies for Cuba’s political, social as well as economic development. Guevara ensured revolutionary justice against the traitors; he also instituted the Agrarian land-reform as well as the Agrarian Reform Law. This resulted in land redistribution and equality. Guevara was instrumental in instituting universal accessibility to higher education through introducing ‘affirmative action’ to institutions of higher education (Elena 45). Guevara is portrayed in The Motorcycle Diaries as a first-timer tourist: a freshman finally wriggling out of his upperclass bubble and understanding the world as it is. Eduardo Elena’s article “A Point of Departure” contests this by indicating that this was not Guevara’s first voyage (26). In the movie, Guevara tells Granado that he had not traveled before, though Elena articulates that Guevara’s upper middle-class social rank gave him the chance to travel on holidays with family, and he travelled as a youth before getting on this specific expedition. Elena emphasizes that it is this tour in all over South America that is broadly thought to have opened Ernesto Guevara’s eyes to the miseries of the publics as he departed from his accustomed life in Argentina from 1951 to 1952. Guevara’s trips had him witness the divide between the haves and the have-nots (Drinot 10). The Motorcycle Diaries portrays Guevara persistently disregarding his fortunate social status to go through his explorations as an ordinary person. Elena supposes that this transpired as one approach in which Guevara started to display his non-conformist outlook towards a conventional community; his non-conformist explorations had a reflective impact upon how Guevara viewed the society around him. Ernesto had the aptitude to decide to rough-in, and this provided him with a distinctive perspective to see the predicament of the underprivileged he came across on his explorations (Drinot 11). Guevara’s discoveries made him have a negative attitude towards the prevailing upper and middle class standards, cultural expectations, as well as the political tendencies of the 50s. Elena states that this was Guevara’s choice, as demonstrated many times in the movie through his endeavors to interact with the common people they came across in their exploration rather than renting home services or lodging (34). While Granado sought to exchange their skills for food and shelter, Ernesto preferred to interact with people and see places, which were dissimilar from the built-up regions he was conversant with. Granado represents the attitudes of the upper class that have no regard for the deprived, unlike Guevara, who could not disregard the injustices that the poor people faced (Drinot 6). Guevara was extremely swayed by the persons he met in this journey, though The Motorcycle Diaries undertakes numerous liberties when linking those interactions with the revolutionary’s radical interests. Elena indicates that The Motorcycle Diaries’ audience does not offer an adequate description of the political environments of the areas Guevara voyaged through. Paulo Drinot, the author of “Awaiting the Blood of a Truly Emancipating Revolution: Che Guevara in 1950s Peru,” contends that the lack of this information led to a lack of how the dogmatic climate shaped his outlook; the movie only displays to the audiences how Guevara was disturbed by the social climate (Drinot13). Drinot articulates that since there are extremely few indications to political circumstances in Guevara’s diaries, a great shift to a fundamentalist, as The Motorcycle Diaries portrays him, would be impractical (6).  In the movie, the first occurrence of his radical interest emanates from his journey to Peru after Pesce offers him a manuscript of Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality. The movie juxtaposes scenes of Ernesto Guevara examining the manuscript with certain circumstances he encounters in his voyages that lead the viewers to think that this is the place where Guevara got his motivation to be a radical leader. Paulo Drinot (12) articulates that it is obvious Guevara is swayed by the Pesce’s work owing to its acknowledgment during the Guerilla Warfare. Guevara states that Pesce’s work, without realizing it, had triggered a great transformation in his outlook on the society and life; however, the manner in which it is shown in the movie depicts an “accelerated political awakening” for Guevara, which does not line up with the records in his diaries. Guevara, in the movie, is portrayed as somebody deeply affected by the condition of the indigenous people, for instance, the miners and the Incans. Nonetheless, in Ann Zulawski’s article, Guevara’s lack of information concerning peasants, working class as well as radical movements rendered him uninformed of what coalitions would be beneficial to him during his Bolivian campaign (Zulawski). However, both the movie and Drinot concur that Guevara was deeply influenced by their deplorable situations; Guevara’s empathy for the quarrying couple as well as the lepers in the settlement is portrayed in the movie. Drinot dwells in his article on how Guevara was disappointed that the upper class members and the government did not regard the poor with equality (Drinot 5). This depicts the political, social, and economic situations in the places that Guevara saw as lacking and deplorable. The common people had no one to speak for them since the ruling classes were more concerned with their welfares. Guevara’s reactions to the injustices reveal how much the economic status of the poor was degrading. Guevara’s involvement during the Cuban Rebellion is very interesting in the articles; it is disappointing to find out that the event is excluded from the movie. Zulawski, in her article “Nationalism and Bolivia in the 1950s,” states Guevara’s role as a commandant who trained new recruits in martial tactics as well as helped the uneducated learn to write and read. Elena’s asserts in his article that Guevara’s experience as a voyager that he chose to have as a common person as well as his visits to remote areas had influenced him to become a radical guerrilla (29). This was an incredibly smart connection and a stimulating avenue which could have truly contributed to the movie because it employs his voyage to justify his future actions. Conclusively, the political, social, and economic situations in the places that Guevara encountered influenced him to bring about revolution in Latin America (Anderson 23). The common people were neglected by both the government and the upper class members, and the only way to end these injustices, according to Guevara, was to use armed revolution, as portrayed in the film The Motorcycles Diaries. Guevara’s revolutionary endeavors were a result of the harsh conditions that the poor, deprived, and lepers were subjected to (Drinot 14). Furthermore, Guevara’s revolutionary endeavors were aimed at bestowing the underprivileged with a status of humans enjoying full rights. Guevara’s trips, therefore, opened his eyes to see the kind of life that the underprivileged lived and that contradicted with that of the well-off. This injustice prompted him to begin a revolution that would forever change the history of Latin America. Guevara’s legacy has, therefore, been prominent in influencing Latin American radicals, as depicted by Casey Michael’s Che’s Afterlife (Anderson 20). Works Cited Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Revised Edition. U.S.: Grove Press, 2010. Print. Drinot, Paulo. "Awaiting the Blood of A Truly Emancipating Revolution: Che Guevara in 1950s Peru." Che’s Travels: The Making of a Revolutionary in 1950s Latin America. Ed. Paulo Drinot. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 88-126. Print. Elena, Eduardo. "Point of Departure: Travel and Nationalism in Ernesto Guevara's Argentina.” Che’s Travels: The Making of a Revolutionary in 1950s Latin America. Ed. Paulo Drinot. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 21-52. Print. Zulawski, Ann. "The National Revolution and Bolivia in the 1950s: What Did Che See?" Che’s Travels: The Making of a Revolutionary in 1950s Latin America. Ed. Paulo Drinot. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 181-209. Print. Read More