The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

In this parable, it’s safe to say that each character represents an idea or theme of the story. As the main character, Antonio epitomizes the conflict, complexity, and destruction of colonialism. His character, like many others from the colonizing community, is complex. He loves the natural world of the jungle and the Shuar way of life. Yet he can never fully be Shuar. As a white man, he is forced back to a culture he was born into but doesn’t love. This ambivalence within Antonio demonstrates what happens when wealthy, powerful societies plunder pristine natural communities, destroying people, nature, and customs for their own financial advantage. No one wins. Antonio, who has known great love in both worlds, suffers the loss of them. He is an example of a tragic character left with only a facsimile of love. Antonio’s animosity is reserved mainly for the colonizer, though, and not native cultures. There are many facets to this character that make him emblematic of the good and evil of imperialism. With Antonio the message is that when greed and profit become motives for power, no one wins, and the biggest loss of all is love.