“The magic of the celestial and the odyssey of the earthbound”
Good Luck Charms
-
When Marisol returns to her apartment after her near-death encounter with the Man with Golf Club, she comforts herself with a collection of charms.
-
Each one signifies luck in a different culture, but combined they seem either overwhelming or numerous to the point of uselessness.
-
Crucifix
-
Horseshoe
-
Rabbit Foot
-
Prayer Cards
-
Milagros​
-
Medicine Bundles
-
Statuettes of Buddha
-
-
The jumble of spiritual charms foreshadows Marisol's loss or change from her Catholic religion later in the play.
-
This passage also symbolizes the syncretic nature of Latina/o-American spirituality by mixing together symbols from different cultures and traditions.
Ghosts
-
Is Marisol dead from the beginning when she is bludgeoned by the Man with Golf Club?
-
Savran argues that after the opening scene, "she wanders through the devastated city as a kind of ghost whose body 'fits into [her] clothes all wrong'”
-
Rivera has noted in interviews that in earlier versions of Marisol he included a doppelganger that followed the title character through her journey. He later cut this second Marisol because he thought it was too literal to show the character both within and outside of herself. This is potential evidence that, at least in Rivera's imagination, she is dead from the beginning.
-
Marisol can also be considered a ghost in the final scene, after she is shot by the Woman with Furs, as she delivers her monologue about the celestial war and the triumph of the Angels.
-
-
Is Man with Scar Tissue a ghost?
-
If he was literally ​burned by Nazis as he described, it is reasonable to imagine he is a ghost returned to Marisol to save her and educate her in the apocalyptic second act.
-
Old Gods and the New:
Syncretic Religion, Catholic And...
-
Rivera applied the pagan concept of Gods aging out of their roles as leaders with the Catholic theology of one omnipresent God and many Angels. He mixed the concept of the one true God of the Catholic Church with more ancient mythology around ritual sacrifice and human-like gods.
-
According to Rivera, Marisol is based on the journey of discovery of spirituality.
-
Marisol is never tied down to one belief, but the syncretic mix sustains her.
-
Rivera uses religious iconography to symbolize all the personal gods that disappoint, such as friends, jobs, societal convention, and religion itself.
-
Key examples of these religious symbols are the fire hydrant draped in rosaries and the charmed chicken blood sold on Taylor Avenue. ​
-
