La Muerte De Artemio Cruz

Synopsis of La muerte de Artemio Cruz

This novel by Carlos Fuentes is the story of Artemio Cruz, who semiconsciously recounts and reflects on his life in the torment of his agony from his deathbed. He conveys two worlds that seem to be mutually exclusive: the first deals with his present, which has to do with the room where he spends his last hours, while listening to the voices of his wife and daughter; the second, more complex, is the past that begins to crowd into his head, bringing all the memories that attest to a turbulent life. The general tone of this novel is that of materialism and power, where personal gain is the goal at any cost.

Artemio Cruz is a wealthy, powerful and corrupt man. He recalls many events of his life, from the Mexican Revolution through the development of the Party of the Institutional Revolution. Furthermore, within his memories he divulges how he enters in the business of politics without any desire to be just or loyal. He also tells how and why he married the daughter of a landowner and used political family ties to start amassing a vast fortune. He is a major political player, who owns companies and a newspaper.

This novel presents definite aspects of morality, where corruption occurs in both politics and economics. Although Artemio Cruz is in agony, can't talk and is immobilized, he doesn’t seem to feel remorseful for all the wrong that he has done; on the contrary, he wishes he could have done more.

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