Preaching to the Choir

Shifting Tone

As Silvana Paternostro makes progress in My Colombian War, the tone with which she narrates shifts.

In the beginning of the book, when Paternostro tells the story of how she regained interest in Colombia, the tone of her writing can be seen as reflective or contemplative, using words like “realized” and “analyze”. It is during this period, when Paternostro develops an obsession for Colombia and decides to travel back home. Once here, here tone shifts again and becomes critical, with words such as “strife”, “chaos”, and “plagued”. Some of her experiences while in Barranquilla also seem to be told with an unintended patronizing tone, especially when she is shallowly theorizing about the roots of Colombian issues.

As the story goes on, Paternostro starts recalling her experiences. While doing this, she keeps a very intimate tone, increasing the use of personal pronouns like “I”, “myself” and “mine”, as well as words like “family” and “naïve”. I believe this to be one of the reasons that this book has become so successful; Paternostro’s intimate experiences are simply very entertaining. The problem then comes when she tries to interpret these great experiences in a shallow, unknowing, prejudiced manner.

Towards the end, Paternostro’s tone becomes reflective again. However, these new reflections have a tone of wisdom in the background. Paternostro has already been there and back; she has made her peace with Colombia.

I wonder if people perceive the tone differently depending on their particular background. If people were perfect readers, we would all find the same tone since with a proper analysis of word usage one can establish the actual tone. However, we are not perfect readers, and sometimes we see only what we want to see. I suppose an American would see Paternostro’s town as objective, knowledgeable, critical and intimate while a Colombian might find it patronizing, gullible and accusatory. Reading the same book, someone from Asia… well, someone from Asia would probably not be reading Silvana Paternostro.