Résumé
Résumé de Les laissés-pour-compte
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love fast, vivid war novels, anyone curious about Mexican history, and those who enjoy fiction that shows more than it explains.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Underdogs is a short novel of the Mexican Revolution, written by Mariano Azuela, a doctor who had served as a medical officer with revolutionary forces. He wrote it in 1915, during the fighting, after he fled to El Paso in Texas, and it first appeared there in a newspaper in installments. The Spanish title, Los de abajo, means those from below. It points to the poor country people who did the fighting.
The book follows Demetrio Macías, a peasant who becomes a rebel leader almost by accident, and the ragged band that gathers around him. You get the speed of the war, its wild good humor, its loot and its killing, all in short, sharp scenes. You also get a question that grows louder with each chapter. What are these men fighting for? Azuela does not answer it with a speech. He lets you watch what happens to people who start with a grievance and end with a habit of violence. Let us begin where Demetrio does, in a canyon in the state of Zacatecas, with a house that is about to burn.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A peasant is driven from his homeFree
- 2A rough band forms in the hills
- 3An educated stranger changes the band
- 4Victory brings loot and rank
- 5What the revolution is really about
- 6How the story is told
Point clé 1 sur 6
A peasant is driven from his home
The story opens in the canyon near Juchipila, in Zacatecas, where Demetrio Macías lives with his wife and small son. He is a farmer, not a soldier. Federal troops come hunting for him, and the first scene shows the hard country that will shape everything after. His wife hears the soldiers before he does, and the dogs bark in the dark.
Why are the soldiers after him? Demetrio has fallen out with the local boss, Don Mónico, a man with power in the district. The quarrel is a small, local one, over who holds authority in the village. Yet in a country already at war, a small quarrel is enough to make a man an outlaw. Demetrio does not choose the revolution. The revolution, and the men who rule his village, choose him.
The soldiers burn his house. His wife flees with the child, and Demetrio takes to the mountains with a rifle and a few loyal friends. This is the wound that drives him early in the book. It is personal, not political. He wants his land and his family back, and he wants to be left alone.
Azuela spends little time on feelings here. He shows a man, a fire and a hillside, and the reader supplies the rest. The loss is plain, and it sets the pattern for the book. People in this story are pushed along by events much bigger than they are, and they seldom stop to ask where they are being pushed.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Les laissés-pour-compte
What is The Underdogs about?
It follows Demetrio Macías, a peasant driven from his home, who becomes a rebel leader in the Mexican Revolution. It shows how a personal grievance grows into a life of war, and how the cause loses its meaning.
What does the title Los de abajo mean?
It means those from below, or the underdogs. It refers to the poor country people who do the fighting in the Revolution, while others above them take the rewards of victory.
Is The Underdogs based on a true story?
Demetrio is a fictional character, but the novel is rooted in real events. Azuela wrote it in 1915 after serving as a doctor with revolutionary forces, and it mentions real figures such as General Natera.
Is The Underdogs hard to read?
No. It is short, with brief chapters and a fast pace. The story is easy to follow.
What is the main message of The Underdogs?
Azuela shows how a revolution for the poor can be taken over by opportunists and carried along by violence. The novel mourns the gap between the ideals of the cause and what it became.