Crystal Frontier Term Paper

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Crystal Frontier: A Novel in Nine Stories by Carlos Fuentes. Specifically, it will contain a book report on the book, consisting of a general summery, character analysis, and author background. "The Crystal Frontier" is really nine short stories put together as a novel. The stories are all connected by one character a businessman named Don Leonardo Barasso. The crystal frontier itself is the border between Mexico and the United States, which Fuentes shows can change from place to place and person to person. (The author calls it "illusory").

This book is really kind of like reading several short stories all put together. At first, they do not seem to fit very well, but then they come together around the main character, Don Leonardo. Each story has some connection to him, and he affects each person's life somehow as he moves through the stories. Don Leonardo is in his 50s, and it is clear from the start of the story he is a powerful businessman, because he has his own jet, and he has served as a government official, among other things. In the first story, he brings his goddaughter, Michelina, to meet his son, who he wants her to marry, but he really wants her for his mistress, too. He does not seem to have many morals, and that shows throughout the book. Some of the characters in the other stories have a relationship to him, like Juan Zamora, who Don Leonardo helps put through medical school because Juan's father was Don Leonardo's administrative lawyer. Another man washes windows in New York City and remembers Michelina in school, and another character is a relative of Don Leonardo's who is forced to cross the border in El Paso each day to work in a television assembly plant. Each of these characters has their own version of the crystal frontier, and Don Leonardo, with his wealth and influence, has had an effect on their lives, somehow.

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In the end, and the last chapter, many of the characters come back together after Don Leonardo is shot. Juan Zamora is the first doctor to reach him, and Michelina is with him when he dies. Then, the author writes a poem that ties the book together. Sometimes, the book is hard to understand, but it is interesting and sad at the same time, and the Mexican characters are not stereotypical, they are all unique, and all looking for something better, except Don Leonardo, because he has everything. The book is about Americans too, and most of the Mexicans do not understand them. One thinks to himself, "How would the country put itself in order when it was full of religious lunatics who believed beyond doubt that faith, not surgery, would take care of a tumor in the lungs?" (Fuentes 65). It is funny, but it makes the reader think about what Fuentes is really saying about the borders between us, and how we all have them.

Don Leonardo is described as powerful, good looking, and commanding. He is wealthy, and he uses his wealth for various things, from scholarships to keeping mistresses. He has limousines, drivers, and anything and everything he could possibly want in life, but somehow, he never seems very happy. He seems like he is addicted to power, and that he is addicted to wealth, and when things, like terrorists and drug cartels threaten his wealth, he uses his power to try to stop them, but it does not work. He is arrogant, because he has never dealt with anyone like this before, and so, he underestimates them. Don Leonardo is really a sad character, because he is so powerful that most people….....

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