Jose Enrique Rodo's Ariel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Jose Enrique Rodos Ariel - Essay ExampleAs Carlos Fuentes explains in the prologue, Ariel appears as the emotional and intellectual response of Latin American thought and Latin American spirituality to growing North American imperial arrogance, gunboat diplomacy, and big stick policies.1United States utilitarianism is seen negatively by Rodo, since it represents a cultural conquest that could easily take over the Spanish American way of life. Rodo criticizes the United States drive to dominate the world and force his ideals onto the world, causing the axis of the world to shift in the direction of a new Capitol.Jos Enrique Rodo published Ariel in 1900, at the turn of a new century and at times where modernists were discussing and questioning the role of society, as well as the idea of powerful masses versus the individual self. This text basically deals with the question of how Latin American culture is to survive in a modern mass society that often admires the United States democrat ic and utilitarian way of life.The essay, one of Rodos most powerful works, uses Shakespeares characters from Tempest, Ariel who represents the spiritual values, and Prospero, a teacher who represents the intellectual, and is faced with a choice between losing power or allying himself with the masses.In Prosperos character, the author incarnates the Latin American concern of whether succumbing to the ut