I wouldn't have changed anything in, "Anna in The Tropics," but reading it, along with "Lightness" by Italo Cavino gave me this idea.
Scene: In the factory, less than one week since Juan Julian was gunned down.
PALOMO: This silence is not good. It’s heavy, like death.
MARCELA: Ever since Juan Julian passed, he has been in my dreams! His eyes are dark and frightening.
Ofelia begins to collect some candles, the book Anna Karenina, a bottle of mostly gone rum, a potted plant, and a cigar. On the unused portion of a long metal table, she builds a small memorial for Juan Julian.
SANTIAGO: We’ll light the cigar, like grandma did back on the island--in
remembrance of him.
Ofelia lights the cigar, burying the other end of it into the dirt of the small potted plant.
PALOMO: Look at the smoke! It just sits in the air.
SANTIAGO: Juan Julian once said that Indians used smoke to communicate with the gods.
OFELIA: His spirit is still heavy in this room. His spirit is not free.
And so, Santiago and his family light one cigar each evening on the small memorial—the same time he used to read Anna Karenina---until the day comes when the smoke begins to rise in lightness.
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The lighting of the cigar at the end adds to the tone of this scene. The line Santiago speaks about the gods is an interesting insight to the character and the setting.
ReplyDelete"This silence is not good. It’s heavy, like death." This is a great simile. It is really powerful, because both silence and death are overbearing forces at different times. While they are very different, they are one and the same when they need to be.
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