The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz Octavio Paz was born in Mexico City in 1914 in the midst of the Mexican Revolution. His father, a journalist and lawyer deeply involved in the Revolution, was rarely home, so Paz was raised mainly by his mother,...

Paz observes that solitude is responsible for the Mexican’s perspective on death, ‘fiesta’, and identity. Death is seen as an event that is celebrated but at the same time repelled because of the uncertainty behind it. As for the fiestas, they...

[In Labyrinth of Solitude] Paz shifts the focus of his analysis away from the Mexican ethos to a universal level, recognizing that the problems he has been discussing are basic to human nature. Paz develops his central ideas, solitude and search for communion, as follows: the foetus, at one with the world that surrounds it, senses loss and rejection at birth. As self-consciousness develops, this original sensation turns into one of loneliness. Self-awareness means solitude, and because of our solitude, we y...

Why does the writer write? Paz once stated that this was the only valid question. He himself has been writing, as early as his classical Labyrinth of Solitude (1950) shows, in order to understand Mexico. In Vuelta he continues this commitment. A privileged moment is his return from the East (in 1969) that allows him—as happened before with Diego Rivera's return from Europe—to see the Mexican reality as if he hadn't seen it before. Back in Mexico, Paz weeps not tears of love, as d...