Facundo Cabral Short Story

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The human experience is often a tale of struggle and perseverance, however in Facundo Cabral’s short story it is this endeavor that truly pushes us to be true to our inner self. Cabral’s short story illustrates that true happiness isn’t found through power, money, or social rank, but rather inner peace with yourself and others. As depicted in the short story, even when the “best human available” (Cabral. 27) was picked to run the town and consequently enjoy all the material benefits that accompanied, it still paled in comparison to genuine happiness.
Never before has there been a time in history that society has placed such an importance of material wealth and accumulation in determining social status. Somewhere along the line things have gotten mixed up; happiness has been associated with having more stuff, and two don’t come separately. Cabral’s short story reminds us that these riches in life serve only to distract us from what’s really important, as shown here. “So the people put both the present and the future of our town in his hands, but in the long run he got more and more tired of everyone agreeing with him all the time, being waited on hand and foot by the loveliest beauty queens, and no one allowing him to lose at poker games.” (Cabral. 27) Even with all of the success that came along with leading the town, it left him with an emptiness that ultimately led to his demise, “He was desperate to resign, but that was out of the question, and so the solitude of power was bound to kill him.” (Cabral. 27)
With every end comes a beginning, and such is the case in Cabral’s tale. Before his death the leader of the town decided to give the people one last gift, leaving behind eight orders to which the people were to live by. “And starting today all money will carry an expiration date so that no one can accumulate it to buy power and dominion over others.”

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