Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries

Che Guevara and Alberto Granado were Argentinian medical experts who traveled all around indigenous villages in South America, in order to help people who did not have connections to medicine and were very ill. As they travel, they are moved by the destitution that they witness, which leads Che to become a communist. This motorcycle trip is a life changing experience because they are able to get on these poor civilians level and experience the way they live, which not only strengthens them, but forever changes Che's political and social beliefs. After experiencing some of the oppression and injustices that many of the dark skinned, lower class individuals they visited were facing, they could not help but get more enthralled in their journey and to want to truly save these peoples lives.

Che develops throughout the story by first starting off as this sheltered, naive, and good-willed individual, who becomes educated in a way that school and living in his hometown in Argentina could not by educate teach him what he learns on this trip. Through seeing the horror and disillusionment that individuals change, and learning how to fend for himself, he is able to mature and essentially becomes more humbled as a result of the down-trodden lives that he is able to share with. It seems that as the film progresses, Che gradually progresses into a fearless, strong, convicted, and grateful man, all thanks to having had this opportunity to look outside himself and help others in a way that was considered dangerous and unthinkable at the time. Since there were so many racial problems, social injustices, and political disparities when they traveled the countryside to help primarily the oppressed, then it makes sense that the fact that they were able to experience the political turmoil of the time face to face through seeing it lived out in everyday life would lead them to become communists as a result.

*Some side notes/important events:
-When Che goes to visit a young girl that is dying, he helps her out by giving her the $15 that his girlfriend had given him. This to me is a marking point because he shows how committed he is to the cause based on this kind and selfless act. Che's sincerity and straight-forward nature can be seen when he says to the poor, dying girl: "You gotta fight for every breath and you have to tell death to go to hell." This part of the film is important because it has a deeper meaning to it, in that he is referring to life in general on how hard it is sometimes, but how that pain can be used to get stronger and fight to get through things.

-Che's development psychologically, morally, and physically can be seen through various examples that mark his growth and pinpoint his true nature that is merely revealed through some of the things he endures. Some of the examples are when he goes to the leper colony, during the football game, the encounter at the fireplace with the communist couple, when he swims across the ocean to the other side to reveal "oneness," and when he gives money to the sick girl in the tiny hut.