The Motorcycle Diaries Themes

Over the course of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s youthful motorcycle trip across South America, he learns about the class system that structures South American societies, and he comes to understand the injustice of oppressing the working class (called the “proletariat” in the Marxist terminology that Ernesto uses). Ernesto, an ambitious young man from the middle class who has many opportunities available to him, does not at first understand the importance of class-based analysis of social issues…

Ernesto travels across a continent in which, ever since the arrival of the first conquistadors, white Europeans have controlled cultural institutions and historical narratives. European landmarks, religions, and languages have replaced pre-Columbian ones, and serious study of indigenous culture is a rarity. Moreover, the impoverished proletarian classes are mostly comprised of indigenous people whose economic and political oppression coincides with the erasure of their culture. Ernesto makes the connection between class and culture, asserting that…

Ernesto begins his road trip through South America as a bourgeois medical student seeking an adventure before resuming his studies; he finishes it as a budding revolutionary with a growing awareness of the faults of the social and political systems within which he lives. As the memoir progresses, Ernesto shifts from narrating personal escapades in a lighthearted manner to conducting serious class and cultural analysis based on his observations and experiences. Alberto also matures significantly…

As Ernesto grows into an avid Communist during his trip, he has to decide whether to prioritize his own needs and desires as an individual or the demands of the broader ideology to which he is committed. Structuring his memoir as a collection of impromptu notes jotted down in medias res, Ernesto gives the reader a compelling self-portrait of himself as a unique individual with his own set of personal goals and questions. He…