As a whole, the experience of humanity is defined through emotion and feelings. Latin American Literature holds testament to this idea. In Latin American literature, uncensored imagery is used to provide both feelings of pleasure and disquietude. Pleasure is a feeling that is described as a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment, while disquietude is the opposite, and is defined as a feeling of anxiousness, or uneasiness. These two elements brings an entirely different dimension to literature, and provide more background to the meaning of literature. The use of pleasure and disquietude in literature helps the reader understand the meaning and overall idea of a story. Latin America’s writing is extremely uncensored, and is home to a…show more content… In Continuity of Parks, it soon comes to light that the man reading in the once soothing green velvet chair, is reading of his own murder. At the very end of the scene, the author describes the scene of the murder; “and then the knife in his hand, the light from the great windows, the high back of an armchair covered in green velvet, the head of the man in the chair reading a novel” (364). The reader may not realize quickly, but once they do, it brings about a sense of shock, discomfort, and betrayal. With Cortázar's pleasant use of imagery, it may have taken multiple reads to truly understand the ending of this short story. The feeling of realization and surprise from the ending quickly morphs with those of discomfort, and even anxiousness for some. These are typically not emotions that are shared with the previous calm, content feeling that was shared before when the man rested ”comfortably on the green velvet of the chair with its high back” (363). This mix of emotions is seen at the end of Light Is Like Water as well. There is the beautiful description of waters, light, and hard working, determined, and bright kids. The persistence of light, and radiance, gives us a feeling of satisfaction and glee, and overall happiness for these…show more content… With foreshadowing, there is disquietude virtually right before the reader’s eyes. Due to the such pleasant imagery, it’s not apparent through the soothing literature of the two stories. The children in Light Is Like Water persisted, and begged their parents for the boat that caused their untimely death. “ the children asked for a rowboat again…we’ll buy it when we get back to Cartagena” (359). The parents showed weariness, and the reader looks past it because they want the children’s happiness. Ultimately, the children die and the reader realizes how they were warned beforehand. “They had opened so many lights at the same time that the house had overflowed” (361). The man in Continuity of Parks has a similar experience, and is always too busy to sit down and read his book. Once he is murdered, one realizes that the man being busy puts small halts to his own demise. It just so happens, he was reading a murder mystery, and ends up getting murdered, which also foreshadows his death. Foreshadowing plays a large part in being able to instill both happiness and anxiety in a
