The Motorcycle Diaries is a memoir that features two heroes in my opinion.Two young care free, adventurous men,Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, a medical student and his friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist who specialised in leprology set out on an adventure on a motor bike (La Poderosa II) in 1952.They traveled all across the Americas from Buenos Aires and finally finishing at Venezuela, oblivious to the fact injustice lies as they experience and witness traumatic events that change them forever. From having to forage from anyone that would help them, getting sick, witnessing exploitation from poor mine works, hiking and transferring himself to a lepory colony deep in the jungle of Peru.
The book is split into two parts portraying Ernesto and Alberto as young and care free, and with the second half portraying a more serious and concerned side to both characters. At first when I began to read the book, both Ernesto and Alberto appear to be jokers as they made the most of the situation that they were in .When Ernesto states that he acted drunk in order to hide some wine for the journey ahead with Alberto stalling. They are both alike as they stand as pillars for each other in the worst of situations.As I began to read on,it was hard to imagine how someone so care free could become a Cuban revolutionary leader who died for his beliefs.
The thing that stood out the most for me were the themes being:
Adventure and Survival
When Ernesto and Alberto leave Cordoba, Argentina on their trip, Ernesto is 23 years old, but turns 24 on the trip. Alberto is 29, but they are both still young driven my adventure and daring experiences . They went out on their trip on a sudden whim, driven to see the Latin America that they knew from books . They took a risks in, using La Poderosa as their transport as it continuously broke down, deterring them from their trip, sometimes putting it on hold or staying in a town, longer than intended.They hitchhiked across the country, traveled across the Andean desert with little or no supply of water. Sometimes Ernesto and Alberto would devise a plan to steal supplies and food and other times work little jobs like loading furniture onto trucks for a ride, a place to lay their head or even if it was to get to the next town. All these things contributed to their transformation especially Ernesto, as he was from a middle class family in Argentina, living a comfortable life.
Friendship and Solidarity
Without each other as support and the adventure that they endure together,their transformation wouldn't be significant as it is today. Their friendship is strengthened as they set out on their journey together, in need of each other.For example, when Ernesto had a fever and flu, Alberto cared for him as they went to a doctor who was a friend of Alberto. Alberto mentions, “I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts that my destiny is to travel, or perhaps it is better to say that traveling is our destiny, because Alberto is the same as me". They were meant to be friends and it is almost as if they were destined to be together living parallel lives. As they they traveled around, they met friendly people who were willing to give them something to eat and a place to stay out of the little they had. This touched them as they had nothing. The mine worker who was imprisoned because of his political view touched Ernesto because he especially had nothing as when he was in prison he could not work to feed his wife and kids and despite this his family still stayed loyal to him.Ernesto describes the working conditions that the mine worker were working in high up in
