1. The Underdogs By. Mariano Azuala<br />The author integrates real history into the novel by you experiencing what people lived with and adding characters lives into the novel. Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco – March 1, 1952 in Mexico City) was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. Azuela wrote many pieces including the newspaper piece quot;
Impressions of a Studentquot;
in 1896, the novel Andrés Pérez, maderista in 1911, and Los de abajo, (or The Underdogs), in 1915. During his days in the Mexican Revolution, Azuela wrote about the war and its impact on Mexico. He served under President Francisco I. Madero as chief of political affairs in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco - his home town. After Madero's death, he joined the military forces of Julián Medina, a follower of Pancho Villa, where he served as a field doctor. He later was forced for a time to emigrate to El Paso, Texas. There he wrote Los de abajo, a first-hand description of combat during the Mexican revolution, based on his experiences in the field. In 1917 he moved to Mexico City where for the rest of his life he continued his writing and worked as a doctor among the poor. In 1942 he received the Mexican national prize for literature. On April 8, 1943 he became a founding member of Mexico's National College. In 1949 he received the Mexican national prize for Arts and Sciences. He died in Mexico City March 1, 1952 and was placed in a sepulchre of the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres. Mariano Azuelo’s “The Underdogs” was originally published in 1915. It appeared between October and December in an El Paso newspaper. By 1952, the novel was recognized worldwide as the classic story of the Mexican Revolution. The book tells us the story of peasant Demetrio Macías, who becomes the enemy of a local cacique (leader, or important person) in his town, and so has to abandon his family when the government soldiers (Federales)come looking for him. He escapes to the mountains, and forms a group of rebels who support the Mexican Revolution. Some of them are prototypes of the sort of people that would be attracted by a revolution, like Luis Cervantes, who is an educated man mistreated by the Federales and therefore turning on them, or Güero Margarito, a cruel man who finds justification for his deeds in the tumultuousness of the times. Also Camila, a young peasant who is in love with Cervantes, who cheats her into becoming Macías` lover, and whose kind and stoic nature gives her a tragic uniqueness among the rest. With a concise, unsympathetic tone, Azuela takes us along with this band of outcasts as they move along the hills of the country, seemingly struggling for a cause whose leader changes from day to night. The rebels, not very certain of what or whom they are fighting for, practice themselves the abuse and injustice they are used to suffer in the hands of the old leaders. So the Mexican people, as the title of the book hints, are always the “ones below”, no matter who runs the country. In the end, Macías has lost his lover and most of his men, and reunites with his family with no real desire or hope for redemption or peace. He has forebodings of his destiny, and the last scene of the book leaves him firing his rifle with deathly accuracy, alone and extremely outnumbered by his enemies. The main character, Demetrio Macías, joins the rebel forces and eventually earns the position of general in Pancho Villa’s army. Villa and other generals in “The Underdogs” are presented as the Robin Hoods of the Mexican people—taking from the rich and giving to the poor. The Underdogs also draws comparisons to Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and the French revolutionaries attempts toward democracy and equality. The Underdogs is a story that tells of the Mexican Revolution through the eyes of a leader that was thrown into his position not by choice. Demetrio Macias is our protagonist in the story of “The Underdogs”. The leading character is Demetrio Macias, a naïve, peace-loving Indian who finds himself compelled to join the rebels to save his family. He becomes a successful soldier of the Revolution and eventually ends up leading a sizeable part of Pancho Villa's army. In The Underdogs the story of the Mexican Revolution is told through the experiences of a common man and those willing to fight alongside him. First those who followed our protagonist where his immediate friends and it later became people who did not know him, but knew of him and his battles that he fought like those at Zacatecas. In this book characters are made to represent different aspects of the revolution from its innocence to its brutality at the most extreme. Through the use of the characters and subtle symbolism the author, Mariano Azuela, is able to portray the revolution in a way that is both informative and entertaining. In the beginning we start in a typical setting of the home, and in the end the author brings us back to where it all started. Mariano Azuela in this book writes in a style that makes for very simple reading and tells a great story of the Mexican Revolution at the same time. Azuela was able to create the common Mexican man and tell the story using that perspective. This novel examines the political and historical realities in Mexico as well as the social aspect of a civil war. War, the main theme in this story, is supported by themes of power, social class, corruption, justice, morality, and religion. The most important underlying theme though has to be that of the portrayal of women. Azuela uses this war time atmosphere to describe just how important women in Mexico were at that time. Whether they were a part of the battles, or just a faint memory in a soldiers mind, the Mexican women had a major impact on the revolution. Women in general, were portrayed in three ways throughout the story. Women were related to religion in terms of the Virgin Mother. However, on both sides, in the government and in the rebel ranks, there is so much treachery, betrayal, cynicism, assassination and lack of moral leadership that the movement can hardly do anything else but fail. When the rebels win some form of victory they aren't a whole lot better than the people they replace. The poor are still poor. The first covers the peasant Demetrio Macias’ flight from his home, his wounding and recovery in a small village, medical student and journalist Luis Cervantes’ joining his ragged band of rebels, and the Revolution’s victory at Zacatecas. The second details the now General Demetrio Macias’ wanderings about Mexico and his love affairs with War Paint and Camilla. Between skirmishes, he and his men plunder and loot and rape everything in sight. The final section finds them all either already dead or dying of thirst. The great Pancho Villa is defeated, and Macias body lies in a canyon not far from where his journey began. The central conflict of this novel stems from Macias’ inability and/or refusal to find a purpose for his and his people’s actions. Demetrio Macias often admits how bereft he truly is. “What are we fighting for? That’s what I’d like to know”, he asks Cervantes early on. When Pintada stabs Camila to death, all he can do is repeat an old refrain: “Someone plunged a knife/Deep in my side/Did he know why?/I don't know why/Maybe he knew/I never knew”. More than once, when his men look to him for leadership beyond mere bravado, he has nothing for them. To a point, the character of Luis Cervantes serves as a voice of reason for Macias. It is this young intellectual who articulates for the other men why they are fighting and what they must continue to fight for, namely “to reclaim the sacred rights of the people”. He tries to provide them with ambition and purpose beyond their farms, and later, with his invitation to a business opportunity outside Mexico, beyond the endless death. It is Cervantes who advises Marcias to join Natera at Juchipila, therefore making his greatest moment of victory in the battle at Zacatecas and his promotion to general possible. <br />The Alienist by Caleb Carr<br />Caleb Carr was born in Manhattan August 2, 1955 born in New York City, New York and continues to reside in the Lower East Side. He attended Kenyon College and then subsequently New York University where he earned his B.A. degree in history. In addition to being the author of novels such as the bestselling The Alienist, he contributes on military and political affairs and is a contributing editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. He has also worked in television, film, and theater. The Alienist is a crime novel by Caleb Carr first published in 1994. It takes place in New York City in 1896, and includes appearances by many famous figures of New York society in that era, including Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan. quot;
The Alienistquot;
is Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychiatrist whose theories on the relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior have led him to advocate modern forensic and psychological profiling techniques as the means of solving crimes in 19th century New York City. His ideas have been met with stiff resistance from within the city's hide-bound police department. The plot summary is in 1896, the city is faced with something it's never seen before: a serial killer on the loose. Within a matter of weeks, six young boys all of them recent immigrants to the United States have been mercilessly slaughtered by a bloodthirsty monster on the loose in New York. Enter Dr. Kreizler, who wants to employ the forensic and profiling techniques that he's so long advocated. With the grudging approval of Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, he assembles a team of what can only be described as misfits to assist him in his efforts. What follows is a completely engrossing, lightning-paced, thrill-a-minute story as Kreizler and his team gather evidence from the crime scenes, analyze that evidence, and begin formulating a picture of the serial killer. It soon becomes evident that the person they're looking for is deeply disturbed; highly intelligent; and, as it turns out, watching them as they go about their work. The seven main characters in “The Alienist” are Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the eminent psychologist who leads the investigative team. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of his notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about him by other characters in the books. Sara Howard, who is on a mission to become the first female police officer in New York. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of her notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about her by other characters in the books. John Moore, a crime journalist and friend of Dr. Kreizler. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of his notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about him by other characters in the books. Stevie Taggert, a teenager under the guardianship of Dr. Kreizler. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of his notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about him by other characters in the books. Cyrus Montrose, Dr. Kreizler's valet and driver. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of his notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about him by other characters in the books. Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, brothers who are Detective Sergeants in the New York City police force. Included is a profile page, a biography, a collection of his notable quotes, and a selection of comments made about him by other characters in the books.<br />