Ways in which cela, undermines the claims made by pascual, the narrator protagonist, in la familia de pascual duarte.

Ways in which Cela, undermines the claims made by Pascual, the narrator protagonist, in La Familia de Pascual Duarte.
Camelio Jose Cela tells the story of a condemned man who is awaiting execution, in a fictional autobiographic novel entitled, La Familia de Pascual Duarte. He utilizes his unique writing style to present the novel in such a way that it creates a concomitant aura of doubt. Thismakes it hard for the reader to know the whole truth or even accept that which is presented as the truth. The ambivalence that is carried throughout the novel, though subtly done, undermines those claims made by the narrator protagonist, Pascual Duarte. Cela undermines these claims through the assignment of dual roles to Pascual (narrator and protagonist), contradictions in his storyline andcharacterization, through omissions as well as through the injection of supplementary documents into the novel.
Firstly, Cela gives Pascual the role of both Narrator and protagonist- a narrative approach which utilizes the least objective of points of view (the first person narrative). With the use of this narrative point of view Pascual gets to tell his own story. But what story will Pascual tell? Inorder to know what story Pascual will tell, it is necessary to know that Pascual is writing from his cell where he is awaiting execution for the murder of one Don Jesus , a dear friend of the man to whom he dedicates this memoir. As such Pascual does not only get the chance to tell his story but a story that will work in his favour, one that will justify his actions win him some amount ofsympathy. All this underscores the fact that Pascual has ulterior motive and that it is this motive that will determine what he writes and how he writes it, rather than the truth. Given his ultimatum Pascual’s opening statement of declaration comes as no surprise, “Yo, señor, no soy malo, aunque no me faltarían motivos para serlo”. Through this statement he shuns the core principle of existentialism bynot taking responsibility for his choices. Also, in telling his story of gruesome animal killing, uxoricide, murder and matricide he also has to find a way to detract the attention from his life of heinous crimes and as such he paints a picture of a flawed society and a dysfunctional family situation. Pascual presents cold and heartless family situation with an abusive ex- convict for a father, amother lacking in virtue as well as a prostitute for a sister. In general ha described his family by saying, “La verdad es que la vida en mi familia poco tenía de placentera” and he goes on further to say that inherited these undesirable qualities. He does all this to claim victimhood, as if to say ‘I did do all those killing but it was never my fault, I am a product of my society”.
Secondly,Pascual in fixing his story to fit his ultimatum overlooked the key element of consistency. This inconsistency raises the question of truth and the issue of doubt. Initially Pascual declares fate as the great determinant of an individual life- that one has no choice or control over his actions. In this very same chapter Pascual goes on to kill his dog Chispa for an unwarranted reason. We also see himmaking the decision not to kill Estirao when he first belittled his manhood. Likewise, he is presented in a penitent mode when he was in detainment the second time saying that things would not be the way they are if he had done things differently. In these instances he contradicts the main argument of his stance and here on out has made his story susceptible to systematic doubt. Pascual starts bypresenting to us the readers a dysfunctional family situation but later on in the novel relates episodes that are not consistent with this image. If Pascual’s family was really the way he had described it, the sense of community and the chattering women in his home at nights would be illogical. Neighbours came by when Mario was sick and Senora Engracia made frequent visits and the chattering...