The Motorcycle Diaries Essay Questions

Is Guevara a heroic figure in the text? Why or why not?

If the reader only knows of Guevara from his later days as a revolutionary, they may be surprised at how normal of a figure he is in these diaries. He makes mistakes, suffers ignobly from illness and asthma and fatigue, pursues women, gets drunk, stows away on ships, and lives off the hospitality of others. To be frank, he's not much of a hero. However, this lack of heroism actually makes him a different sort of hero: an everyman, a youthful adventurer with a perspicacious mind and a compassionate heart. His heroism is evinced in his everyday actions, such as giving away his only blanket to a freezing couple or recognizing the humanity of lepers. He soaks in the culture around him and never judges people for being poor. He seeks ways to learn, help, and turn his convictions into action. Thus, even if he is not a traditional hero, he is something better: a real person who cares about other real people.

What, if anything, does Guevara learn on his journey?

Though most critics are reluctant to label this work a bildungsroman, as Guevara does not grow all that much, he does learn a few things about himself and the world around him. He gains firsthand knowledge of the sufferings of the people. He sees why Communism offers answers to people and why Spanish colonialism and United States imperialism have been detrimental to South and Latin America. He realizes that he is meant to be on the road, to explore, and to be among his people, rather than living a comfortable, sedentary existence. And finally, he learns that his place is in the resistance and that he is not afraid to die for it.

What role does nature play in the narrative?

Though Guevara does not seem to fixate on nature specifically, the diaries are laden with subtle commentary on how, despite man's power and ubiquity, nature is supreme. This comes through in the fact that a storm can derail the men's progress, freezing weather can sour their moods and bring them near death, heat and mosquitoes can vex them to an extreme degree, and a stag in the middle of the forest that reminds them of how diminutive they really are in the natural world.

How are indigenous peoples depicted throughout the narrative?

Guevara demonstrates a great deal of compassion for indigenous peoples, revealing their straitened and downtrodden situation after centuries of colonialism and conquest. He notes that they are "a defeated race. Their stares are tame, almost fearful, and completely indifferent to the outside world. Some give the impression that they go on living only because it's a habit they cannot shake" (93). A schoolteacher they meet tells them how they are "brutalized by modern civilization and their companeros" (97). They need education and to feel pride in themselves, though the education that they would attain would most likely be the white man's, and would therefore cause further problems.

How ought we to characterize Guevara's comments on Africans at the end of the text?

Guevara writes of the Africans he encounters in Caracas, saying the black man is "indolent and a dreamer, spending his meager wages on frivolity of drink; the European [Portuguese] has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself" (161). The Africans seem lazy and dumb to Guevara as he writes about how they do not understand his camera. He offers no real reason or evidence for his claims, seemingly falling back on racial tropes. It is an aberrant false note in a piece otherwise redolent with open-mindedness.