Resumo de The Family Of Pascal Duarte

This novel, published in 1942, marks the start of a revival in Spanish post Civil War literature. Although Cela does not speak directly of the war, the novel is crucial to the understanding of the origins of violence that tore apart Spanish society between 1936 and 1939. This is not Cela's best novel but his manner of writing influenced many of the young writers of the period. The novel is in many ways inspired by the ideas of Naturalism, and tries to explain the social conflicts in terms of genetics and the conditions of one's upbringing. The novel is written in the form of a memoir written by Pascual Duarte in prison while he is awaiting execution. In the memoir, Pascual tries to prove that destiny led him to commit all of his crimes. Born to poor, violent, and alcoholic parents, the main character felt a deep love towards his sister Rosario and his retarded brother Mario. At the same time, Pascual feels hatred towards his parents, which concentrates on his mother after Pascual's father dies. The fact that his beloved sister Rosario becomes a prostitute is a great blow to Pascual. When Pascual's girlfriend Lola gets pregnant, he succumbs under the pressure to marry her, albeit in spite of his will. When the young couple returns from their honeymoon, Lola falls off a horse and loses the baby. In a violent rage, Pascual kills the horse whom he considers to be guilty of the accident. Later on, he kills his favorite dog for looking at him in what he perceives to be an insolent manner. Gradually, Pascual becomes overpowered by his violent urges and his growing desire to kill his mother. He flees to La Coruna in order to escape from temptation. When he returns to his village three years later, Pascual finds Lola pregnant by Estirao, his sister's former kept lover. EStirao keeps accusing Pascual of not being a real man, which is something that Pascual's machismo cannot tolerate. He kills Estirao and spends three years in jail. In 1922 Pascual kills his mother, after discovering that he cannot control his violent urges any more. This is the point where his memoir ends.From the transcriber's note we discover that Pascual remained in jail until the beginning of the Civil War. After being released, he killed Count Torremejia for unknown reasons. In jail, Pascual tried to reconcile himself with God and accept his imminent death. Nevertheless, this attempt at resignation failed, and at the time of his execution Pascual kept resisting and proclaiming his desire to live.

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