Joaquin Murieta

Here are a couple random observations about Joaquin that may, or may not, have anything to do with one another.

Joaquin becomes a "monster" that disrupts the American western society by his numerous robberies and killings. Joaquin, and to some extent the narrator, justifies him becoming a monster because of the atrocities that he had endured. As seen in with a couple instances in the book Joaquin is a bandit with a couple of ground rules. Do not kill those who help you and do not harm women. My problem is trying to figure out if he is struggling with balancing these two persona's, the noble Joaquin and the "monster" Joaquin, or if over time through the company that he keeps is he slowly becoming another Three-Finger Jack, a character that eventually enjoys killing for the thrill.

It also appears that Joaquin is beginning to fall in love with his own legend. What I mean by that is that he is appears to be prideful of all of the stories and rumors that are circulated. There is one scene where Joaquin is sitting in a bar or saloon, it was either by himself or playing Monte, that he overheard a conversation. There was a group of Americans sitting near him with one man saying how if Joaquin Murieta was in the bar right now that he would shoot him between the eyes. Joaquin jumped up on the table and exclaimed that he was indeed Joaquin Murieta and that if there was anyone brave enough to step outside with him to go now. Joaquin left and no one followed. I can only believe that this cocky response of "here I am, what are you going to do" was not only influenced by the fact that he new everyone feared him, but it also fueled the rumor mill fire that much more.

These are just a couple of things that I found interesting about Joaquin so far. To end, if there was one thing I could do to change this book to make it better I would introduce chapters or some other breaks in the story, because the way it is constructed now drives me crazy.