arise, more issues emerge. Unless one possesses the literary skill of Paz himself - and this book is nothing if not an example of excellent writing - it is impossible to address them all with the same economy of expression the author employs. Nevertheless, from the wealth of material presented, certain recurrent themes appear to interweave themselves among the essays as foremost in Paz' thoughts:
1. The solitude of the human in and throughout history.
2. History as a set of circumstances related to human behavior.
3. Revolution as a backward, not forward, movement.
For Octavio Paz, solitude is the explanation and experience of life. It is interwoven into almost every social and economic problem; it is an integral part of history itself. "Death and birth are solitary experiences. We are born alone and we die alone" (196). This is the conclusion Paz reaches near the end of The Labyrinth of Solitude, an understanding
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