Dead Stars

The story Dead Stars was written by Paz Marquez Benitez in 1925. The story revolves around three people, Alfredo, Ezperanza and Julia. Alfredo, a lawyer in his thirties was enganged with Ezperanza, his fiancée. Six months before his wedding with Ezperanza, he fell in love with another woman, Julia Salas. Julia had fallen in love with Alfredo too. In the story, it was obvious that Alfredo was undeniably a lot happier with Julia than with Ezperanza. Julia possessed traits that made Alfredo fall crazily in love with her. But then, Alfredo decided not to nurture his feelings for Julia anymore so he married his fiancée since he did not want to shatter her heart into pieces and a lot of people would raise eyebrows if he cut off the engagement just like that. There was a flash forward of eight years in the story and there, Alfredo got the chance to visit Julia in her house. He reminisced, he missed how he was with her company and by her side but noticed that something was lacking. He held her hand and found out that there was nothing left. There were no feelings left after eight long years, it didn’t bother him anymore whether he still cared for her or not. His love for her was like a dead star. It brought light and exuberance to him once, and with time, those feelings faded, died and all that’s left was memories - memories of the past.

This story of Paz Benitez captured my heart. I couldn’t understand the story in one reading but after reading a few analysis of the story in the internet, I finally understood what the story meant. I finally found out what the writer of the story wants to tell the readers. The symbol used in the story is “Dead Star”. For Alfredo, dead star was referred to as things that he remembers. He certainly didn’t miss the person. He missed the feeling of happiness he experienced with the person. He missed who he was when he was with Julia. The story reflects on a lot of things. First Alfredo was in a dilemma. He was torn being