Analysis Of Connelly's Three Dirges

Unjustifiable measures taken by the Spanish toward Native Americans, like the Mayans, was a prominent part of history that negatively affected a large portion of Native Americans and surviving Natives began to lash back at the Spanish in multiple ways – one being through the power of literature. So, “Three Dirges” presents a conflicting situation between a Spanish military force that controls a Mayan tribe in its potential development and education. The author, Marshall Bennett Connelly, writes of the situation in three different scenes that correlate with each other, but, as an acknowledgement in ton to develop theme, the story line does not follow a chronological order. Analyzing the irregular chronology, each of the three scene’s individual
For example, beginning the passage with the mayor’s rhetorical question of: “What can a man say to something like that, and what’s a man supposed to do,” already sets an initial tone that is inevitably unoptimistic. (Connelly). Support for this statement include: Rolando Semitosa recalling “what the militaries did in Cuarto Pueblo,” Josue Vallez additionally acknowledging “the massacre of Puente Alto” where the women and girls were trapped inside a school that the military proceeded to bomb, the men taken to a church to be clubbed to death and the younger boys left to die in the outhouse. (Connelly). Following the horrific recollections, it is felt by the whole group – consisting of mothers, fathers, the five catechists and Don Lazaro – that the military force will not be one to break consistency in their acts of brutality. Seeing that there is an undeniable and completely evident conclusion to the situation at hand, this scene, as it is introduced first, already foretells what and how this situation will conclude to – there is no happy ending for the Mayan citizens of this time. Don Lazaro firstly opens the scene with a question of desperation and closing this scene, the five catechists also desperately seek an answer to the growing issue that threatens their existence in the world – the catechists
Bad, unfortunate events occur in a dynamic way in which Connelly prescribes to the reader in a solemn point of view. Connelly empathizes with “the little village of San Martin Comitan” and with that, the development of them is set under tones of frantic hopelessness, depressed acceptance, and harsh and hostile treatment. These layering of scenes reiterate a story in which steadfast the tonal margin of unfortunate events and unhappy emotions. This story holds a whirlwind of events; it is fast-paced due to means of time-constraints and force. The level of intensity given to the Mayan people and given off by their reactions also holds a huge factor to the reasoning behind such events and how and why they are completed. The threat of a potential massacre given by Colonel Guzman fails to allow the Mayans any sort of leverage to control the situation therefore that is their biggest and most detrimental downfall. The Mayan people are working under means of fear and lack of experience for such events so they unfortunately oblige. Once again stating, this is a utility that the Spanish military use to control the Mayans that, without it, occurrences of situations like so would not be likely to go as favorably to the