In the book, The Old Gringo, Carlos Fuentes writes about Ambrose Bierce who he portrays as the "old gringo" who journeys through Mexico as he awaits his fate to die.
Fuentes depicts him as a fearless brave man who looks at death in the face, but one can argue that the "Old Gringo" is in fact a coward and is trying to live a heroic life to in order to redeem his past.
The reader learns from reading that the gringo has failed his family both as a husband and a father. His own daughter vows never to speak to him, "She told me she would never forgive the mortal pain she suffered before the two bodies of her brother. You killed them both, she told me, both of them(Fuentes75). The reader can only begin to imagine what the gringo must have felt. Feeling empty, hopless, and loveless, the gringo cowardly runs away from his life and begins on a journey to end it. In a conversation with Harriet Winslow, the gringo thinks to himself "I came here to die, I am a writer, I want to be a good looking corpse I am a bitter old man(Fuentes67)." It is clearly stated that the purpose of the gringo's stay is to die in Mexico with hopes of looking well. He admits that he is a bitter man but also thinks that by dying in Mexico he could die with honor because he would not be remembered in his own land but only looked down upon. " Everyone dismounted. Except the old man But the old man continued straight on while the burst of machine-gun fire passed over his head (Fuentes54)" This can illustrate how the gringo can be portrayed as a brave soldier fighting fearlessly but to me this just demonstrates how badly the gringo wishes to pass. He strides along with hopes of being shot and in the end he is not happy but perhaps upset that he survived.
When reading a book, the author depicts many ideas to the reader and portrays characters in particular way. When Carlos Fuentes wrote The Old Gringo, he gave the reader a story that allowed for us to think and look at it from different perspectives.
