A deconstructive reading of Octavio Pazs The Blue

Bouquet
A deconstructive reading of Octavio Pazs The Blue Bouquet
We are being programmed to perceive the world in a particular
perspective, and most of us are unaware of it. What we consider
natural or common sense is based on societal norms and
standards. Most of us do not see, however, that these norms and
standards are set by a dominant group that influences the rest of the
world to see things the way it does. This necessarily becomes what is
objective and everything else is measured against it. People try to
make sense out of their experiences with this in mind, unconsciously
defining reality according to what they have been influenced to
believe.
The character in Octavio Pazs Blue Bouquet is an example of
someone conditioned to see things a certain way. He inhales the
country airand hears the breathing of the night. His romanticism of
the country and towards life in general, becomes apparent in these
lines:
I breathed the air of tamarinds. The night hummed, full of leaves and
insects. Crickets bivouacked in the tall grass. I raised my head: up there the stars
too had set up camp. I thought that the universe was a vast system of signs, a
conversation between giant beings. My actions, the crickets saw, the stars blink
were nothing but pauses and syllables, scattered phrases from that dialogue.
What word could it be, of which I was only a syllable? Who speaks the word? To
whom is it spoken? I threw my cigarette down on the sidewalk. Falling, it drew a
shining curve, shooting out brief sparks like a tiny comet.

He is one of those who believe that ones life has a purpose

and that there is a reason for everything. The lines I walked a long
time, slowly. I felt free, secure between the lips that were at that
moment speaking me with such happiness, show that he is reflective
and at that moment seems to be at peace. When he said that the
night was a garden of eyes probably referring to the stars, this
revealed not only a foreshadowing event, but also that the character
was poetic.
His poetry, however, is confronted with the harsh reality of a
man wanting to take the formers eyes out. The man said that his

girlfriend had a penchant for a bouquet of blue eyes. This very striking
image is one that is difficult to get out of ones head. But there is more
to it than its absurdity why is there an obsession with blue eyes?
Blue eyes are usually a signifier for American. The fact that
the man wanted to take out blue eyes from people does not only show
a simple act of obsessive violence but obsessive violence towards the
American. The man said, Dont be afraid, mister. I wont kill you. Im
only going to take your eyes. The desire to remove peoples blue
eyes may symbolize the desire to stop them from seeing things the
American way.
But while there seems to be anti-American present in the text,
the line my girlfriend has this whim. She wants a bouquet of blue
eyes. And around here theyre hard to find can also be construed as
an obsession to see things through American eyes, because that is
something hard to find around here. This could mean that while the
dominant way of perceiving the world is through blue eyes, the
situation in the country was different. The owner of the boardinghouse
was described as a one-eyed taciturn fellow. As for the man who
wanted to take peoples blue eyes out, there was no mention of his
eyes, except that half his face (including his eyes perhaps) was
covered by a sombrero.
When the character insisted that his eyes were brown and not
blue, he could very well have meant Spare me, I am not who youre
after. I am different from them. But the fact that he was mistaken for
one of those with blue eyes can be taken to mean that even if his eyes
were brown and not blue, it was as if he saw things through blue eyes.
Another striking image is when the mans machete grazed the
characters eyelids and the flame from the match burned the latters
lashes. It is a threat to the character in more ways than the obvious,
and he responds by leaving town the next day.
The symbol of the eyes is very appropriate to refer to how the
world is perceived. The bouquet of blue eyes is foreshadowed by the
night being described as a garden of eyes. Night is the binary opposite
of day, and day is usually associated with light. Light is the root word
of enlightenment and to be enlightened means to understand things
better and come out of the dark or come out of ones confusion. But
when the night is described as a garden of eyes a variety or

assortment of ways of seeing, instead of a blue bouquet, it seems to

undermine the privileged term light, and position night in the
positive, over day or light. The insecurity, instability or relativity the
night offered is preferred to the certainty and objectivity of daylight. It
was after all, during the Age of Enlightenment that categorical truths
were established, the flaws of which were later on revealed through
deconstruction.
While it remains unclear whether the girlfriends obsession for
blue eyes is in order for her to use them or destroy them, the blue
bouquet calls our attention to seeing or perceiving realities through the
dominant culture, leading most of us to dream the American dream.
The blueprint to success that we follow is Western, in spite of the fact
that our culture and context are different. This illusion has led most of
us to desire created needs and wants that keep us in poverty as we
succumb to a system that furthers its own interest. But the West sees
itself in its interest, and so to see things the way it does may be
against our own interest. Knowing this forces us to re-examine our
own worldviews on national as well as international issues and assess
just how blue our black or brown eyes have become.