NATIONALISM IN
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA’S LIFE
AS
REFLECTED THROUGH THE SETTING AND MAIN
CONFLICTS IN
THE STORYTELLER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SAVERIN PUNKAS
Student Number: 084214023
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
NATIONALISM IN MARIO VARGAS LLOSA’S LIFE AS
REFLECTED THROUGH THE SETTING AND MAIN
CONFLICTS IN
THE STORYTELLER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SAVERIN PUNKAS
Student Number: 084214023
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
ccc
‘Human is condemned to be free;
because once thrown into the world,
he or she is responsible for everything
he or sh
e does’
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for You to whom I owe the life,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Considering the process I underwent to do this thesis, I must say that I owe much to some people who have contributed their supports in various ways. I address my first gratitude to my advisor, Dr. F. X. Siswadi, M. A.,for he is very helpful in terms of not only academic advice but also motivation. His ‗don‘t -get-down-hearted‘ and ‗do-your-best‘ phrases always came along with his advice on my undergraduate thesis. My gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., M.Hum., for his corrections and notes on my undergraduate thesis. I also thank Mbak Ninik for her help during my study in English Letters Department and especially during my thesis making.
I admit that in terms of academic learning, I benefit much from everyone in LSR (Lembaga Studi Realino) especially Romo Budi Susanto who has introduced some confusing abstract things that help me learn to see the world not only from my point of view but also from others‘. In terms of spirituality, I owe much to everyone in YSC (Youth Spirituality Center), SLP (Service Learning Program), and Cana Community. I thank them for the love, the conflicts, and, of course, the learning of life.
My gratitude then goes to my friends in the English Letters Study Program: Sisil, Rania, Lando, Ellysa, Arin, Yeyen, Putrie, Winda, Momon,
Topan, Ajeng, and Acen. I thank them for the togetherness, tears, and laughter that come along with our study.
vii
sometimes for fighting in ‗cold war‘. I also thank Ari Kristianto for supporting me in his patience and silence.
I understand that I owe much also to many names that I cannot mention one by one. Thus, I deliver my big gratitude for their supports and understanding during my study in Sanata Dharma and especially during my undergraduate thesis making.
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C. Mario Vargas Llosa‘s Life Background ... 20
D. Review on Peruvian Society ... 23
a. Setting of Place outside Peru... 33
i. Firenze ... 33
ii. Madrid and Paris ... 36
b. Setting of Place inside Peru... 37
i. Lima ... 37
ii. Quillabamba... 41
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iv. Yarinacocha ... 46
2. Setting of Time ... 48
3. Setting of Social Circumstance... 55
a. The Whites and Mestizos ... 55
b. Indigenous People ... 59
i. The Aguarunas and Huambisas ... 60
ii. The Shapras ... 62
iii. The Machiguengas ... 64
B. Main Conflicts in The Storyteller ... 66
1. The Conflicts Related to Saúl‘s Experience Encountering Indian Community ... 67
a. The Narrator‘s Conflicts with Himself Related to Saúl‘s Experience 69 b. The Narrator‘s Conflicts with Saúl Zuratas Related to Saúl‘s Experience ... 70
2. The Conflicts Related to The Narrator‘s Experience Encountering Indian Community ... 73
a. The Narrator‘s Conflicts with Himself Related to the Narrator‘s Experience ... 74
b. The Narrator‘s Conflicts with Saúl Zuratas Related to the Narrator‘s Experience ... 76
3. The Conflicts Related to the Subject of Hablador ... 78
C. Mario Vargas Llosa‘s Nationalism in The Storyteller ... 85
1. Setting of Peru as Llosa‘s Nationalistic Imagination ... 86
2. Ironies in the Setting and Main Conflicts Related to Nationalism ... 89
3. Mario Vargas Llosa‘s Nationalism ... 93
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 99
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 102
x
ABSTRACT
SAVERIN PUNKAS. Nationalism in Mario Vargas Llosa’s Life as Reflected Through the Setting and Main Conflicts in The Storyteller. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2012.
The understanding of nationalism always develops. It used to be an abstract thing which could lead people to do violence just to struggle for such a national imagination. Nowadays, some people still extremely express their nationalism while some have already thought that this idea should not be taken too strictly. This study analyses how Mario Vargas Llosa through The Storyteller articulates his understanding nationalism to solve shortsighted imagination.
There are three objectives in this study. The first one is aimed to get the depiction of setting in the story. The second one is to figure out conflicts. The third one is to see how setting and conflicts in The Storyteller articulate Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism.
This undergraduate thesis applied a library research. The main data were collected from a novel entitled The Storyteller written by Mario Vargas Llosa. To support the analysis, some books and references from the internet were borrowed. The intrinsic and extrinsic data then were analyzed through a framework of biographical approach for it dealt with the relation between The Storyteller and Mario Vargas Llosa as its author.
xi
ABSTRAK
SAVERIN PUNKAS. Nationalism in Mario Vargas Llosa’s Life as Reflected Through the Setting and Main Conflicts in The Storyteller. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012.
Pemahaman terhadap nasionalisme selalu berkembang. Nasionalisme dulu menjadi hal abstrak yang mampu membuat orang-orang melakukan kekerasan hanya untuk memperjuangkan imajinasi nasional mereka tersebut. Di masa kini pun beberapa orang masih secara ekstrem mengekspresikan nasionalisme mereka. Sementara, yang lain telah berpikir bahwa hal ini tidak seharusnya dipikirkan sebagai harga mati. Studi ini menganalisis cara Mario Vargas Llosa mengartikulasikan pemahamannya tentang nasionalisme untuk memberi solusi atas banyaknya imajinasi yang sempit akan hal tersebut.
Ada tiga tujuan dalam kajian ini. Tujuan yang pertama adalah untuk mendapatkan penggambaran mengenai latar dalam cerita. Tujuan yang kedua adalah untuk mengungkap konlik-konflik dalam cerita. Tujuan ketiga adalah untuk melihat bagaimana latar dan konflik-konflik dalam cerita dapat mengartikulasikan nasionalisme Mario Vargas Llosa.
Skripsi ini menerapkan penelitian studi pustaka. Data pokok diperoleh dari novel berjudul The Storyteller karya Mario Vargas Llosa. Beberapa buku dan referensi dari internet juga dipakai untuk menunjang analisis. Bingkai kerja untuk menganalisis data dan referensi dalam studi ini adalah dengan pendekatan biografi karena pendekatan ini menunjang pemahaman tentang hubungan novel The Storyteller dan Mario Vargas Llosa, penulisnya.
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
On April 26, 2012, one of websites named www.foxnews.com posted a report about a young American rising star, Justin Bieber. The site responded to Justin Bieber‘s comments on Indonesia. According to the site, Bieber mentioned that his new tracks were recorded in some ―random country.‖ He also said, ―I
recorded it in a studio. Some little place," Bieber continued. "They didn't know what they were doing.‖ Apparently, his manager told him that it had been done in Indonesia. His words, for some people, were considered as a mockery to Indonesia.
Many people thought that his comment was somehow irritating. However, Bieber‘s words precisely stimulated a kind of ‗supporting response‘ from one of
Indonesian local singers, Syahrini. On an article in hiburan.kompasiana.com, Syahrini‘s response was discussed. Syahrini, on Twitter, surprisingly argued that
Justin Bieber‘s saying, no doubt, described how Indonesia was. She criticized the
corruption, the governments, and also the Sea Games held in Indonesia in 2011. Syahrini even let people judge her as a person lacking nationalism but she confidently argued that she had more nationalism than they had.
giving comment to that article might also show his or her nationalism by saying, ―He [Justin Bieber] may not say that way to my country because, whether bad or good Indonesia is, this is still my beloved country.‖ Some people uphold the pride
of their country or even their nation beyond their own lives. Some others prefer the way of ‗criticizing‘ to manifest their ‗love‘ to their country and nation. Those
imply that that the understanding of nationalism has always been changing and perceived differently since its emergence in Europe.
In Benedict Anderson‘s Imagined Community, European continent is believed as the place in which nationalism was first born. Language and print-capitalism are two of some important keys to showing that people began learning about nationalism. In this era, having Biblical texts translated into their mother-tongue was such a revolution to build their pride (1991: 37-40).
The understanding of this term also developed as well as Europeans‘
‗dynastic expansionism.‘ Their effort to colonize other people in other places later
stimulated resistances that apparently brought new understanding of nationalism for the non-Europeans (1991: 45-46). Thus, the understanding of nationalism developed from the pride only among Europeans into the pride of the colonized people revolting for their independence from colonialization. This era offers some figures to notice such as Soekarno and Mahatma Gandhi who was confronting against the European colonialization (Kennedy, 1968: 38-51). Those names were nationalist for their own people. They burned their people‘s spirit to be conscious
Up to now, the meaning of nationalism for every person is still in the process of redefining. As time goes by, circumstances will always influence how people understand nationalism. There is also an understanding that nationalism is not exclusively a matter of pride of one‘s country or nation. Even for someone
living outside the place where he or she comes from is not an obstacle to have nationalism. In this case, nationalism is perceived in universal context or cosmopolitanism. In Imagined Communities, Anderson seemed to accommodate this kind of nationalism understanding. Firstly, he placed the understanding of the term nation as the basic step to know how people can realize their nationalism. He then offered his own definition that a nation is ‗an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign,‘ (1991: 4-6). In his definition he said, ‗It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation
will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion,‘ (Anderson, 1991: 6).
Through that explanation, it can be concluded that learning to imagine a nation helps people to understand nationalism. Their capability to imagine their nation then enables them to feel the communion although they are separated miles away. Later on, they will manifest their nationalism to make their nation accepted as a political community which is sovereign and different from other communities. As Anderson quoted from Gellner, ‗Nationalism is not the
nation encourages people to figure out the existence of their imagination as a real political community. The emphasis of this understanding of nationalism then lies on the freedom of people to experience their nationalism from wherever and whenever.
To see how the concept of nationalism develops, especially the one in universal context, people can learn not only through the record of history but also through literature. The Storyteller can be one of many considerations to learn about nationalism. This novel seems to present new understanding of nationalism in universal context.
Written by Mario Vargas Llosa, The Storyteller seems to bring nationalism put in the context of Peru, Latin America. With El Hablador as its original version, this novel creates atmosphere of nationalism through its setting and main conflicts. It is interesting to notice that although The Storyteller is considered as a novel of nationalism, its author, Mario Vargas Llosa, during his giving Nobel lecture ever said this.
I despise every form of nationalism, a provincial ideology – or rather, religion – that is short-sighted, exclusive, that cuts off the intellectual horizon and hides in its bosom ethnic and racist prejudices, for it transforms into a supreme value, a moral and ontological privilege, the fortuitous circumstance of one‘s birthplace (http://www.nobelprize.org, May 24, 2012).
Another interesting fact about this novel is that its setting took place in Peru around 1950s until 1980s. That period was more than a century after the independence of Peru in 1821.
reaching adulthood, was moving from the spurious peace of General Odría‘s dictatorship to the uncertainties and novelties of the return to democratic rule in 1956, when Saúl and I were third-year students at San Marcos (Llosa, 1991: 12).
That quotation from The Storyteller shows that the narrator told that it happened during General Odría‘s dictatorship in 1956. Peru, under General Manuel A. Odría‘s regime, was still on its ‗sustained capitalist development.‘
Political stability invited many investments to this country. It affected the growth of the economy. However, this condition did not satisfy all Peruvians. Apparently, it caused new gap (http://motherearthtravel.com, May 24, 2012).
The two interesting things stimulate a question of what concept of nationalism the author tried to put in The Storyteller if he, himself, despised some forms of nationalism he had mentioned in his giving Nobel lecture. The fact that this novel takes place in Peru more than a century after its independence also raises the same question. It must have something significant since most of nationalistic novels such as Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal and Rumah Kaca (Glass House) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer were written or, at least, its setting took place during independence war in colonial period (Anderson, 1998: 229-234) & (Anderson, 1991: 184-185). Different from those novels, The Storyteller is depicted in 1950 until 1980, more than a century after Peru‘s independence era.
living in other places far from his hometown like Madrid and Paris. Now, he lives in London (http://www.nobelprize.org, May 24, 2012).
His life in politics and his concerns to social and cultural subjects are the things that decorate his works in literature. Those themes mostly appear in his works as a part of his reflections of personal life and a way for criticizing historical calamities especially the ones related with Latin America (The New York Times, October 7, 2010).
From the brief description about Mario Vargas Llosa, it is quite clear that some aspects of his life must have influenced the description of certain concept of nationalism in The Storyteller. He must have his own understanding of nationalism. Thus, in this analysis, the writer wants to figure out how the author‘s
understanding of nationalism is reflected in The Storyteller through the setting and main conflicts. The topic is chosen since it is eternal and debatable issue and also can be put in the context of Indonesia. Moreover, it can give another perspective of understanding nationalism.
A. Problem Formulation
To analyze how Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism reflected in The Storyteller, three problems are formulated.
1. How is the setting in The Storyteller described?
2. How are the main conflicts in The Storyteller presented?
B. Objectives of the Study
Considering the purpose of this study that is to figure out nationalism in Mario Vargas Llosa‘s life, the analysis is aimed to identify, first, the setting and
main conflicts presented in this novel. Secondly, the findings in setting and main conflicts will be used to identify nationalism in Mario Vargas Llosa‘s life.
C. Definition of Terms
There is a terms related to the topic of this thesis and the analysis that follow that need to be defined. As the key concept of this study, the definition of this term is worthwhile to clarify any misunderstanding that may arouse. The term is nationalism.
There are a lot of definitions of nationalism. The one used in this topic refers to Benedict Anderson‘s idea that nationalism is the result of certain
people‘s capability to imagine which community (nation) they belong to. They
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Regarding the need to get more information about The Storyteller and the author, Mario Vargas Llosa, the writer uses some related studies. The significance of these related studies is to provide the writer not only more information about The Storyteller and Mario Vargas Llosa but also to give other perspectives related to the topic.
Juan E. de Castro in of his journal entitled Mario Vargas Llosa Versus Barbarism discussed that Llosa, according to him, is a neoliberalist whose works deal with rearticulation of the opposition between civilization and barbarism. Although Llosa, himself, refused to be called a neoliberalist, his works show many new understanding about certain issues. Related to civilization and barbarism, one of the footnotes in Castro‘s journal described Llosa‘s
understanding in one of his novels, The Storyteller.
That footnote explains that through The Storyteller, Llosa tried to say that he is against racial discrimination. He put that through the depiction of God in the word Tasurinchi. It implies that different people in different places have their ways of naming God. Besides, he wanted people to respect local tribe like Machiguenga.
Upashana Salam gave another perspective related to the discussion about Llosa‘s The Storyteller. Salam wearing glasses of postmodernism wrote this.
Mario Vargas Llosa‘s El Hablador or The Storyteller presents the postmodern emphasis on diversity quite effectively as the story itself is based on the lifestyle of an indigenous tribe of Amazonian forests. Llosa‘s novel gives an unbiased look into the customs and traditions of the Machiuenga tribes, providing the readers with the myths and legends of the tribes instead of stating an objectives history that could not possibly encompass their various cultures as the tales of the storyteller do. The hablador or the storyteller, thus, becomes a narrative of their history, a source through which their culture is kept alive (2009: 5).
Salam revealed postmodernism issue in The Storyteller by looking at how Llosa put culture, especially the local one, in a position where people will see it as the way it is. It means no matter how illogical a certain culture is, it still should be respected. The rejection of hegemonic power in The Storyteller was used by Salam as the key to reveal the postmodernism issue.
The rest of this long chapter proceeds anonymously in this manner, and in the process the reader begins, as it were, to enter into the cosmology, the history, the terrors, and the everyday lives, of the Machiguenga. At fitful intervals, images of the penetration of their wolrd by the dark external force of ―unfortunate/damned Peru‖ appear: for example, there are references to the terrible time of the ―tree-bleeding‖ (which the reader can read as the brief rubber boom of 1900-18), and to the ―white fathers,‖ who are evidently missionaries (1998: 341).
This quotation became one of the keys for Anderson to uncover how Llosa defined nationalism. Llosa tried to show the condition of his country whatever it is. He even used the word ―unfortunate/damned Peru‖ to describe his country in
The Storyteller. Thus, nationalism is not only a matter of pride of country or nation but also realizing that his country also consists of bad facts.
The three studies mentioned are helpful to give the writer more information about The Storyteller and Mario Vargas Llosa. However, the most significant thing is that they become the stand point for the writer to put the position of her thesis. Both Castro and Salam spotlighted how Llosa, in The Storyteller, brought redefinition or rearticulation of certain ideas related to Peruvian cultures. They used opposing dichotomy, such as civilization and barbarism; and also old and new cultures to explain Llosa‘s concerns put in The Storyteller. This thesis also works with the term ―redefinition‖ but the subject is on nationalism. It is different from Castro‘s and Salam‘s on the way that it does
not focus on rearticulating two opposing ideas about culture but on how many description about Peruvian cultures, including civilization, barbarism, inspired Llosa‘s redefining nationalism. This thesis is a contribution to Anderson‘s work
explained this as a nationalistic novel through the art of storytelling as a way to preserve history and culture of a tribe, the focus of this study is to analyze The Storyteller as Llosa‘s way to show as well as to question nationalism itself. Thus, the writer considers the setting and the conflicts in this novel worthwhile for the study.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Setting
The use of setting in a literary work is very significant since it brings the readers or the audience‘s mind to imagine the description of where, when, and
how a story happens. Roberts and Jacobs in Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing said ‗Setting refers to the natural and artificial scenery or environment in which characters in literature live and move, together with the things they use,‘ (1987: 229). What they meant by natural setting is the location
that refers to the real condition inspired by nature such as sea and forest. Different from the natural one, artificial setting refers to location or any objects created by human. Despite the difference, both natural and artificial setting are chosen and created with intension to provide stage for a story but also to deliver certain message related to the condition of a character (1987: 229-230).
The overall setting of a narrative or dramatic work is the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which its action occurs; the setting of a single episode or scene within such a work is the particular physical location in which it takes place (Abrams, 1999: 284).
In that quotation, Abrams mentioned that setting covers three elements including the one explained by Roberts and Jacobs. He said that setting consists of the depiction of location or place, time, and social circumstance that inspire the story. The additional elements, time and social circumstance, are important to support the explanation about setting of place since it makes the readers or audience of literary work find it easier to imagine certain story.
2. Theory of Plot and Conflict
When talking about conflict in a literary work, it is always connected with a discussion about plot. Two theories about plot from Roberts and Jacobs, and Abrams stated that plot is dealing with what-so-called chronological order of actions. Roberts and Jacobs said, ‗A plot is a plan or groundwork of human motivations, with the actions resulting from believable and realistic human responses. In a well-plotted work, nothing is irrelevant; everything is related,‘ (1987: 98). There are two important things in that quotation. The first one is their mentioning about ‗groundwork of human motivations‘. It indicates that the
Abrams focused his explanation about plot not only on order of actions but also the difference between a plot and a story. He said that
Narratologists, accordingly, do not treat a narrative in the traditional way, as a fictional representation of life, but as a systematic formal construction. A primary interest of structural narratologists is in the way that narrative discourse fashions a story—the mere sequence of events in time—into the organized and meaningful structure of a literary plot (1999: 173).
It can be understood that plot is made from several stories that are constructed to build a meaningful narrative. Each story occupies different part in the plot. It can be in the beginning, in the middle, or in the last.
There are many ways to understand construction of plot. One of them is introduced by Gustav Freytag. In Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams explained about Freytag‘s design of a plot which is known as Freytag‘s Pyramid. This design divides the order of plot into three levels. The conflicts introduced occupy the first level called rising action. When the development of the conflicts reaches the highest point, it becomes the second level called climax. The climax then will be followed by the third level called falling action. In falling action, a story reaches its conclusion as a result of all conflicts presented (1999: 227).
From the explanation of plot, there is a significant question of how several stories develop into a plot. This answer might be answered by the previous quotation about ‗groundwork of human motivations.‘ In a narrative, human
motivations become the sources of plot development.
causes another thing happen. In response to that, they said, ‗It is response,
interaction, causation, and conflict that make a plot out of a simple series of actions‘ (1987: 98).
In their explanation, Roberts and Jacobs also signified the importance of conflicts as a result of human motivation in developing the organization of stories in a plot. They even said, ‗The most significant element, the essence, of plot is conflict.‘ Conflicts, according to them can happen between two people or between
a person with many people. The point is that conflicts require the existence of certain characters. Even when it is only one character, the conflict may arise. When a person is confronting with himself or herself, it can be categorized as conflict. To make the term ‗conflict‘ understandable, Roberts and Jacobs
concluded that to notice conflict is to be aware of certain discord of ideas in stories which can develop into a plot (1987: 99).
Harmon and Holman in A Handbook to Literature emphasized that conflicts are not only the presence of two or more opposing ideas but also how the clash between them grows the story. ‗The struggle that grows out of the interplay of two opposing forces,‘ (2009: 123). As they remarked, Harmon and Holman
categorized conflicts into at least five different types depended on what the character faces: ‗(1) a struggle against nature, (2) a struggle against another
person, (3) a struggle against society, (4) a struggle for mastery by two elements within the person, (5) a struggle against Fate or destiny,‘ (2009: 123). Harmon and
also when he or she faces something abstract such as his or her own motivations. In this case, conflict is categorized as inner conflict (2009: 123).
3. Theory of Nationalism
a. Definition and Description
Nationalism, since its emergence in Europe, has been understood, described, and defined differently by people all over the world. This understanding has kept changing along with the development of human thought and various problems in many parts of the world. Benedict Anderson, in Imagined Communities, offered a way to understand nationalism. He, firstly, proposed an understanding that people can understand nationalism if they can understand what a nation is. Anderson himself gave his definition that a nation is an imagined community.
In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.
It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion (Anderson, 1991: 5-6).
Thus, his definition implies that a group of certain people believing that they and certain other people are in a unity, though they may not know each other, is called a nation. He further explained that it is not only a matter of ‗imagining‘
means no matter how big the number of the members of certain community; they are still limited to particular characteristics showing that they belong to certain community (nation) (1991: 6-7).
The last thing he identified about the term nation is sovereign. The word sovereign is to identify that when the members of a community (nation) have understood that they are limited and tied each other in their group, and then they realize the need for sovereignty. Sovereignty is the key of a nation to show its existence among many other nations in the world. Moreover, it guarantees its freedom from being intervened by other nations (Anderson, 1991: 7).
The three characteristics, of what-so-called a nation, proposed by Anderson imply that a nation is in the minds of its members. It builds comradely relationship among the members. Then it can be understood why certain people feeling that they belong to a certain nation sometimes make irrational acts or even killings because of their nation. ‗Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings,‘ (Anderson, 1991: 7).
Snyder‘s The Meaning of Nationalism exemplifies another way of how people show their nationalism. He explained how nationalist movements were sometimes irrational and they triggered hatred toward the foreigners among their people. He took a case of Lolito Lebrón, a member of terrorist nationalist party from Puerto Rico, who brutally shot the chamber of the House of Representatives and caused five Congressmen from United Stated bleeding and wounded (1968: 3).
Those examples of nationalism or nationalists‘ manifestation are to give
understanding that a deep love to a country or a nation is perceived and carried out differently by some figures.
It is no doubt that nationalism is the impetus for a nation or a country in developing itself or, at least, releases itself from hegemony. Not only is the spirit of nationalism needed but also a figure of leader. This leader or someone called nationalist stands in the front line of nationalism movement and also burns his or her people spirit.
It is important to notice Anderson‘s point that the thing that stimulates a
person‘s willingness to do whatever for his or her nation, or maybe country, is,
like mentioned previously, the power of imagining the community. However, again, the deeper questions about how this consciousness is formed in people‘s
mind and how it can influence other members in a community rise. To respond that, it seems important to notice at three factors playing roles in the movements.
drive nationalism. The first one is ‗a particular script-language‘ in religious community. This script somehow unites certain members in a community although they do not know each other. He exemplified the case when a Maguindanao and a Berber meet in Mecca. They might not recognize each other, not even have a talk. But they are connected due to the sacred texts written in classical Arabics. They are Muslims that understand the written language inherited in their sacred texts (1991: 12-19). What he means with this example is that the script with certain language can connect people in a nation so that they imagine who their brothers and sisters are.
The second cultural root is that certain people can understand from which monarch they inherit. They then will show their loyalty to their ancestor. This means that nationalism can emerge from people‘s understanding that they are from certain dynasty that bear their brothers and sisters (Anderson, 1991: 19-22).
To explain the third cultural roots, the case of Maguindanao and Berber is borrowed. In the case of Maguindanao and Berber, people in ‗stable‘ circumstance can understand the communion with other members in their community. In other parts of the world, lots of people that are still in ‗under pressure‘ circumstance can
importance that, without taking it fully into account, we will find it difficult to probe the obscure genesis of nationalism.‘ However, the main learning from that case is that people from different time or era with their own conditions can feel nationalism because the previous generation had taught about this spirit to their children (Anderson, 1991: 22-30).
b. Nationalism in a Novel
Anderson continued the explanation about simultaneity in the word meanwhile by exemplifying through literature. He explored how José Rizal‘s novel Noli Me Tangere clearly describe that simultaneity of events in different time can create nuance of nationalism (1991: 22-30). In Spectre of Comparisons, he also described how Noli Me Tangere can create the imagination The Philippines people. The author put several characters in different settings to create a story containing series of events that seem separated but actually are closely related to each other. By looking at the description of different events put in Noli Me Tangere, the readers‘ minds are brought to the imagination of what-so-called The Philipinos.
Yet the geographical space of the novel is strictly confined to the immediate environs of the colonial capital, Manila. The Spain from which so many of the characters have at one time or another arrived is always off stage. This restriction made it clear to Rizal‘s first readers that ―The Philippines‖ was aa society in itself, even though those who lived in it had as yet no common name. That he was the first to imagine this social whole explains why he is remembered today as the First Filipino (Anderson, 1998: 230).
society, from liberal-minded peninsular Captain-General down through the racial tiers of colonial society−creoles, mestizos, chinos (―pure‖ Chinese) to the
illiterate‘ and limited with the place named Manila, he described as the beginning of imagining a nation of The Philippines. Noli Me Tangere finally brought other people in The Philippines to realize that they are in one community and have a communion until later they reached their sovereignty.
All this examples are to explain that nationalism is coming from the ability to imagine that certain people in certain places and in whatever circumstances belong to a certain community. The analogy of the word meanwhile is to emphasize that the communion is also built in diversity. Some may realize that they are connected with other members in a community because of certain similarities but the example of Noli Me Tangere gives an understanding that a nation may also contain of ‗different‘ people as long as they can imagine their
communion.
C. Mario Vargas Llosa’s Life Background
After leaving Cochabamba, he continued his fifth grade in Lima. In his adolescence, Llosa had ever entered military school for two years but then continued his high school in Piura. In 1953, he went back to Lima and took Law and Literature in San Marcos University. It did not please his father though (http://www.centrorisorse.org, July 23, 2012).
Despite the fact that his father did not agree with his studying Law and Literature, it would finally be revealed that he could make a living from what he had learned in San Marcos. He experienced several jobs that were not too far from law and literature. He used to write news for in Peruvian local radio. In the early of 1960, he began ‗travelling‘ in some European countries. He went to Madrid in
1959 and then encountering quite difficult life in Paris a year after. Fortunately, he got an opportunity to teach Spanish in that city. His speaking in the French ORTF and his being journalist in France Press, apparently made his relation to literature was getting closer and closer. One of his starting points might be his writing a play entitled The Flight of the Inca. Later, he went back to Peru to get data about Amazonians, travelled to Havana and Cuba, and in 1967 he started living again in Europe with his family from the secondary marriage until 1971 (http://www.centrorisorse.org, July 23, 2012).
Latin America. He used to encounter with socialism world by supporting Cuban revolution. Later, when the movement showed authoritarian characteristics, he started exposing his own views by leaving Fidel Castro‘s ways. Llosa put ‗liberal
pluralism, democracy, and free market‘ as the things he struggled for the people.
This turning of view was remarked ‗His changing political inclination brought with it a new way of understanding Latin American problems.‘ In 1990, he was
the candidate for the President election in Peru but apparently it was Alberto Fujimori who won it (http://www.nobelprize.org, May 24, 2012).
In 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. His works are considered as his reflections on problems in Latin America and his upholding democracy for the people. It is not only about political issues that have decorated his works but also his concerns to the inhabitants in Amazon. Moreover, his different perspectives on reflecting the problems might be another reason why he deserved to get the award (Stavans, 2010).
His decision to get Spain citizenship and to live only three years after he failed the presidential election might be one of the ways he articulated his ‗own views‘ on problems. This decision, no doubt, became a controversy. He was
considered as a traitor to his own country. Another case is showed in the below quotation.
Those cases showed that Llosa tried to reveal his different views on things. Sometimes people question his nationalism and also loyalty to his own country. However, he argued in this way.
I never felt like a foreigner in Europe or, in fact, anywhere. In all the places I have lived, in Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Washington, New York, Brazil, or the Dominican Republic, I felt at home. I have always found a lair where I could live in peace, work, learn things, nurture dreams, and find friends, good books to read, and subjects to write about. It does not seem to me that my unintentionally becoming a citizen of the world has weakened what are called ―my roots,‖ my connections to my own country – which would not be particularly important – because if that were so, my Peruvian experiences would not continue to nourish me as a writer and would not always appear in my stories, even when they seem to occur very far from Peru (http://www.nobelprize.org, May 24, 2012).
His different view on things is, no doubt, influenced by his experiences living across his city, even across his country. The experiences have enabled him to be aware that there are several perspectives to see a problem that should be respected even in the case of showing his loyalty and nationalism to his country. Thus, many people consider him as a cosmopolitan. One of them is Geordie Williamson, Australian's chief literary critic, who argued in this way. ‗Vargas Llosa is a cosmopolitan figure, a man whose political conservatism is almost at odds with his liberated fiction. He's a radical Tory with an amazing imagination,‘ (Romei, 2010).
D. Review on Peruvian Society
civilizations, the Incas and the Spaniards, which contributed their inheritances and systems among Peruvian people.
The Incas used to place their capital in ancient Cuzco mostly in high Andean terrain where jungles and highlands. After the Spaniards‘ coming to Peru, they remained stable dwelling in highlands for the geographical condition could protect them from Spanish civilization. While the Incas dwelled in high terrain, the Spanish conquerors, who used to place their capital in Lima, occupied coast areas and lowlands for there were the entrance to this island (Garcia, 1985: 402).
That historical background brought many impacts for the Peruvian people nowadays. The Incas seemed to contribute some remains of their civilization in highland. However, they could not cover all areas of the Andean sierra due to its ruggedness. As a result, there are still many natives (Indians) that remain living in their traditional ways and far from civilization until now. One of them is Matsigenka (or Machiguenga) community that dwells in upper part of Amazon jungle surrounded by Andes Mountains, Urubamba River, and Madre de Dios River, in Cuzco region, southeastern part of Peru as a result of the Incas civilization and also the Spaniards civilization which disturbed their areas. However, as time went by, they could be touched by modernization. Some of them nowadays are educated in Pucallpa where Summer Institute of Linguistics trains literacy to the natives (Johnson, 1996).
what-so-called: caste system. It forced others inhabitants in this land even the natives to work for them as slaves. It is explained in this way.
Having conquered the Incan homeland, the Spaniards proceeded to assault the culture of the people and created a complex, multilayered caste system—which lasted for four centuries—in which Indians provided what amounted to slave labor for white masters (Garcia, 1985: 402).
Although it is not applied anymore among the people, it seems that the impacts affect Peruvian people nowadays. Peruvian society, conscious or unconsciously, is structured economically into three layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class. The upper class is a group of landowners and entrepreneurs; the middle class is a group of workers managing the upper class‘ companies including hiring employees; while the lower class is group of some workers, farmers, and also rural people including the Indians hired for the upper class‘ companies (Garcia, 1985: 412). From this condition, it reflects that caste
system, which was inclined to gave benefits to white masters (the Spaniards), has been prolonged into an economic structure which gives burdens especially to the native Indians nowadays. They are still treated as if they are slaves in Spanish colonialization era.
It is not only the human resources that have been raped by the whites from the Indians but also their culture. To strengthen the economics, the whites even take the culture as commodities for economic. It is explained in this way.
Not only economic had the Spaniards influenced Peru but also they had made new generation born. A generation of mixture between Indian and Spanish: mestizos. Although this generation is mixed, mestizos people still had their dominant role like what whites do. They are mostly considered as upper class. This phenomenon sometimes contributes certain argument that considers that Peruvian nation consists of mestizos while the Indians are only workers. This is explained in this way.
Almost by definition, most Indians work for, but are not a part of, the Peruvian nation. The vast majority live in the sierra and are employed as farm workers, peasants, or small merchants. The rest of the people are considered mestizos, or of mixed Indian and Spanish lineage (Garcia, 1985: 412).
The fact that Peruvian society is so multicultural precisely reveals the phenomenon that the people are structured economically. This structure, of course, gives much more benefits to the upper class (whites and mestizos). The rest is inequality for the natives of Peru.
E. Theoretical Framework
The above theories are used to help figuring out Mario Vargas Llosa‘s
nationalism in The Storyteller. To answer the first research question, the writer uses Abrams‘ theory of setting. His theory categorizes setting into three elements.
They are setting of location or place, time, and social condition. Thus, the analysis of the setting in The Storyteller is divided into three elements of setting.
between two main characters (the no-name narrator and Saúl Zuratas) and the conflicts between the no-name narrator with himself.
28
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study was a novel entitled The Storyteller. It was written by a Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa. The Storyteller was first published in Spanish in 1987 with El Hablador as its original title. The novel used in this study was the English version published by Picador in 1989, with 246 pages including 8 chapters. The author of this novel, Mario Vargas Llosa is also well-known for his works such as Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977), The Feast of the Goat (2000), and The Bad Girl (2006).
arguing that a study about Machiguenga is a kind of immoral act. He considered that as ‗destroying‘ their culture. The main conflict, then, rose when the narrator got a question about an important figure among Machiguenga community who liked sharing stories. This figure was called ‗storyteller‘ or hablador. Hablador apparently became a big mystery for the narrator since he was told that this figure made his or her listeners fall asleep before his or her story ended. The mystery was not easy to solve though. It made him curious and keep finding out if this figure really existed since the Machiguengas kept silent whenever they were asked about it. During the quest of this figure, later, the narrator felt suspicious that hablador was his friend, who disappeared from them several years. He tried to figure out if hablador was Saúl‘s way to emerge with Machiguengas and preserve their inhabitants.
B. Approach of the Study
Considering expressive criticism in Abrams‘ A Glossary of Literary Terms that tries to place a work of literature as a significant result of author‘s expression, the writer worked with this point of view for this study. Abrams‘ explanation
about expressive criticism states that a work of literature is a product of its author‘s feelings, thoughts, and even psychological conditions. Thus, people can
get a description about what kind of person the author is from his or her work. It can be understood from this quotation.
Expressive criticism that sees a work of literature from its relation with the author has led the writer to choose historical-biographical approach from Guerin for this study. This approach is chosen since it is appropriate with the objective of this study that is to reveal nationalism in the author of The Storyteller. Historical-biographical itself according to Guerin ‗sees a literary work chiefly, if not
exclusively, as a reflection of its author‘s life and times or the life and times of the
characters in the work,‘ (Guerin, 1999: 22).
To figure out Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism, the history of the circumstance surrounding him and also his own life-history are needed. Thus, it makes the historical-biographical approach suitable because treats a work of literature from its relation with the author and his or her circumstance.
C. Method of the Study
The method mostly used in this study was library research. It means that the data and theories collected were mostly taken from books and references in the library. Besides, the second important method was through finding other significant sources from the internet.
that was important after formulating was to note some important points from the object related to the topic.
The second main way was to find related studies and theories. Related studies put in this study were aimed to provide other perspectives for the same object and a chance for the writer to decide her position toward her study. The theories in this study were chosen and organized according to the problems formulated.
32
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
Regarding the problems formulated, this chapter is divided into three sections. The first section is the analysis about the setting of place, time, and social circumstance in The Storyteller. Then, in the second section, the focus of the analysis is on the main conflicts in the plot. The last section is meant to figure out Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism through the depiction of setting and main conflicts.
A. Setting of The Storyteller
The first problem is discussed in this section. The answer of the problem is based on the setting of the novel The Storyteller. It is divided into three parts; they are setting of place, time, and social condition.
1. Setting of Place
Abrams remarked that every single thing describing ‗general locale,
historical time, and social condition‘ in which a literary work takes place is
a. Setting of Place outside Peru
i. Firenze
Several places outside Peru are mentioned in The Storyteller. One of them is Firenze. Firenze becomes a significant setting in this novel since it opens the story by its appearance in the first chapter and it finishes the story for it appears again in the last chapter. The placement of Firenze in the beginning and the last of the story seem to cover the whole story because the two chapters are put in present time which wrap a flashback part in the middle of the story.
The first chapter of The Storyteller directly mentions Firenze when a (no-name) narrator stated that he went to that place so that he could release his mind for a while from thinking about his country, Peru. ‗I came to Firenze to forget Peru and the Peruvians for a while, and suddenly my unfortunate country forced itself upon me this morning in the most unexpected way,‘ (Llosa, 1989: 3).
Firenze as the setting of place in the earliest part of The Storyteller can be seen not only from the direct mentioning but also from the description of some places belongs to this city. This can be understood when the narrator, who seemed to have a trip in this city, stated that he visited some places explaining the details of Firenze. The places were Dante‘s restored house, Church of San Martino del Véscovo, and Via Santa Margherita.
The description of Firenze as the setting of place in the first chapter is developed by a moment when the narrator visited a gallery. This gallery somehow describes Firenze in terms of art. It can be seen from the below quotation when the narrator was between feeling doubt and curious to enter the gallery since it had something to do with his knowledge about Renaissance works.
Naturally, I went in. With a strange shiver and the presentiment that I was doing something foolish, that mere curiosity was going to jeopardize in some way my well-conceived and, up until then, well-executed plan−to read Dante and Machiavelli and look at Renaissance paintings for a couple of months in absolute solitute−and precipitate one of those personal upheavals that periodically make chaos of my life. But, naturally, I went in (Llosa, 1989: 3-4).
Another description of Firenze is found in the conversation between the narrator and a girl watching over things in the gallery. The narrator asked the girl and she replied in Italian language.
The gallery was minute. A single low-ceilinged room in which, to make room for all photographs, two panels had been added, every inch of them covered with pictures. A thin girl in glasses, stting behind a small table, looked up at me. Could I visit the ―Natives of the Amazon Forest‖ exhibition?
―Certo. Avanti, Avanti,‖ (Llosa, 1989: 4).
Still, the description about Firenze in the first chapter is shown from language used. In almost the last of this chapter, the narrator asked the girl if he could buy one the paintings or meet the photographer. The girl replied that he could not since the photographer had already passed away. She replied this in Italian language as quoted below.
As mentioned previously, the use of Firenze as the locale in The Storyteller is to begin and to end the story. Firenze is described also in the last chapter of The Storyteller. If in the first chapter a part of Firenze precisely recalled his memory of his country, in the last chapter the narrator retold about that place in a way of making comparison to his own country, Peru. He compared the place, society, and also the atmosphere.
In the below quotation, the narrator seems to ask the reader to imagine Firenze in a way he understood some parts of his own country. He described the great number of tourists coming to Firenze is like the vast area of Amazonian river. ‗Florentines are famous, in Italy, for their arrogance and for their hatred of
the tourists that inundate them, each summer, like an Amazonian river,‖ (Llosa, 1989: 235).
Despite the description of Firenze as a setting of place in which the narrator recalled his memory of his country, the most significant role of this setting is that this city is a locale in which the narrator rearranged his flashback story. The story was opened and ended with the description of Firenze. Besides, the most important proof is that at the last chapter, the narrator, himself, confessed that he wrote the story in this city.
The quotation explained where story is arranged. In addition to that, it has explained the setting of place in which the story was retold in a form of written text. Thus, Firenze as a setting of place is functioned not only as a locale in which some parts of the story happen but also as the location where the whole story is arranged. It is known from the description of this city in the first and the last paragraph and also the confession of the narrator who wrote it in Firenze.
ii. Madrid and Paris
Madrid and Paris are other places outside Peru described in the story. These places take only a little part in the story. Yet, they are still important for the discussion since those places are the setting in which the narrator still recalled his memory of Peru. The writer put the description of these places together because both of them are connected with the time the narrator spent after he graduated from bachelor degree.
Madrid is a place where the narrator finally decided to take a scholarship for postgraduate degree. He first gave a sign that it was to Spain. ‗I had finally managed to obtain the fellowship to Europe I‘d coveted and was to leave for
Spain the following month,‘ (Llosa, 1989: 70). It is revealed specifically that the scholarship was to Madrid when he said goodbye to his best friend, Saúl. ‗I was afraid I‘d be off to Europe without having said goodbye to Saúl when, on the eve
The narrator took his postgraduate degree in Madrid. Yet, he did not directly return to his country. He continued living in Madrid or once in Paris. It is described in the below quotation when he explained that parts of Peru were still in his mind after spending four years living outside from his country.
Four years went by without any news of him. None of the Peruvians who came through Madrid or Paris, where I lived after finishing my postgraduate studies, was ever able to tell me anything about Saúl. I thought of him often, in Spain especially, not only because of my liking for him but also because of the Machiguengas (Llosa, 1989: 103).
The overall description of Madrid and Paris as setting of places is about several years he spent his study for postgraduate degree and several years he stayed in those cities after finishing postgraduate program.
b. Setting of Place Inside Peru
i. Lima
The Storytelller puts its setting of place mostly in Peru. Several regions, cities, districts, and also other small places in this country become the main locales in the story. One of them is Lima, the capital city.
Lima was first mentioned in the second chapter. It appeared when the narrator introduced a friend of him named Saúl Zuratas. Lima became significant here since it was a main place in which they first encountered until they became quite close. The narrator and Saúl met for the first time in San Marcos. It was a university they shared their first becoming freshmen (Llosa, 1989: 8-9). San Marcos itself was a national university located in Lima.
Talara, another city in Peru. ‗He came from Talara and was on familiar terms with everybody,‘ (Llosa, 1989: 9). But then due to successful business, his father, Don
Salomón, decided to bring the family move to Lima. It can be understood from the below quotation.
His problem, he said, was that his father had made too much money with his general store back home; so much that one fine day he‘d decided to move to Lima. And since they‘d come to the capital his father had taken up Judaism (Llosa, 1989: 9).
Saúl and his father lived in Breña, a district in Lima. ‗They lived in Breña, behind the Colegio La Salle, in a depressing side street off the Avenida Arica,‘
(Llosa, 1989: 9). The narrator explained that when one fine day he was invited to have lunch with Saúl‘s father. He went there and found that Saúl and Don Salomón had a maid with them who also came from Talara. The maid worked not only with the housework but also with things in Don Salomón‘s store he had opened in Lima. And apparently there was one more creature living in their house. It was a talking parrot accompanying this family in a house decorated with old furnishings (Llosa, 1989: 9-10).
Saúl‘s house in Breña was one of silent witnesses in which he spent his
college life. Saúl and the narrator shared their togetherness in San Marcos until Saúl finally graduated after five years struggling for his bachelor degree. ‗The work Saúl did in the summer of ‘56 among Machiguengas later became, in expanded form, his thesis for his bachelor‘s degree. He defended it in our fifth
The description of Lima as the setting of place was more on its function as a place in which the narrator met Saúl and they shared their college life. They often spent time to have a discussion or even just for hanging out. However, their togetherness in Lima implies something significant to the description of Lima as a setting of place. The buildings and some places in which they usually go for hanging out reveal the atmosphere of modernity of a big city. It seems so because later in the description of the other places in Peru, the circumstances are quite different with the things described in Lima.
In addition to the description of the atmosphere of education and business describing modernity in Lima, some places to hang out or to have amusement are mentioned in the story. One of them is a bar Saúl and the narrator visited on a break between classes. ‗Every so often, between classes, we used to go over to a run-down billiard parlor, which was also a bar, on the Jirón Azángaro, to have ourselves a game,‘ (Llosa, 1989: 13). The bar is somehow described as a place for them to have entertainment during the class break. It is located on the street named Jirón Azángaro.
Another place depicting Lima is café. It is described in the fourth chapter that the narrator and Saúl were having farewell time before the narrator continued his study to Madrid.
The café on the Avenida España again describes another aspect of Lima. The habitual action of meeting or having discussion at a bar or café somehow gives portrayal of how Lima is. Still in the moment of their farewell, Lima as a big city is portrayed through the hectic situation surrounding the café. As Saúl was about saying goodbye to him, the narrator described the circumstance outside the café.
That was the last time I saw Saúl Zuratas. The image floats unchanged above the tumultuous surge of the years, the gray air, the overcast sky, and the penetrating damp of a Lima winter serving as a backdrop. Behind him, a confusion of cars, trucks, and buses coiling around the monument to Bolognesi, and Mascarita, with the great dark stain on his face, his flaming red hair, and his checkered shirt, waving goodbye and shouting: ―We‘ll see if you come back a real Madrileño, lisping your z‘s and using archaic second-person plurals. Have good trip, and lots of luck to you over there, pal!‖ (Llosa, 1989: 102-103).
That quotation somehow gives significant note for the depiction of Lima. As Saúl was leaving him in the café, the narrator portrayed the hectic situation of the city. He described how cars, trucks, and buses were trapped in the crowd of the circle of monument to Bolognesi.
narrator clearly stated that there were lots of vehicles contributing the crowd on a corner of this city.
But there were some other places in Peru that were also significant and described in the story.
ii. Quillabamba
Quillabamba is part of Cuzco region in Peru. This city is well-known for its vast area of higher jungle. In the story, Quillabamba was mentioned when Saúl visited this place for a trip. He was invited by his uncle to spend his holidays there (Llosa, 1989: 17).
The fact that part of Quillabamba was jungle could be seen from how Saúl‘s uncle adjusted to living there. This place seemed to provide raw materials
such as land and wood to cultivate. It was described on how Saúl‘s uncle explored the jungle to find mahogany and rosewood for making a living (Llosa, 1989: 17).
From the story of Saúl‘s uncle, it can be understood that Quillabamba
described how he felt excited when the journey forced them to meet canyon of Pongo de Mainique, part of Urubamba River, which was challenging due to its whirlpools. It was seen through the below quotation.
He spent an entire night enthusiastically telling me what it was like to ride a raft hurtling through the Pongo de Mainique, where the Urubamba, squeezed between two foothills of the Cordillera, became a labyrinth of rapids and whirlpools (Llosa, 1989: 17).
The jungle of Quillabamba, for Saúl, was challenging not only in terms of transportation but the geographical condition also forced anyone dwelling in that place to survive in wildlife. It was then explained that the jungle of Quillabamba offered whatever available there to eat and drink. They ate animals such as monkey, turtle, and insects, which actually were considered strange for those who had never consumed them. Saúl himself seemed to complete his adventure by trying to eat and drink the way the Indians did. He also tried traditional alcoholic beverage made from cassava called masato, ‗Saúl had eaten monkey, turtle, and grubs, and gotten incredibly soused on cassava masato,‘ (Llosa, 1989: 17-18).
iii. Alto Marañón
Alto Marañón is another region located in Peru. It is in the surrounding of Marañón River, one of Amazon‘s tributaries. Alto Marañón appears in the story when the narrator was offered a chance to visit Amazon jungle. This was several years after he listened to Saúl‘s experience. ‗I first became acquainted with the
Amazon jungle halfway through 1958, thanks to my friend Rosita Corpancho,‘
(Llosa, 1989: 70). The chance was an expedition conducted by a linguistic institute called Summer Institute of Linguistics. It was being done in Alto Marañón.
―There‘s a place available for someone on an expedition to the Alto Marañón that‘s been organized by the Summer Institute of Linguistics for a Mexican anthropologist,‖ she said to me one day when I ran into her on the campus of the Faculty of Letters (Llosa, 1989: 70).
The narrator then decided to take the chance. For it was a research on languages and dialects, he and the other researchers had to encounter with certain Indian tribes. In this region, the narrator met other Peruvian indigenous communities different from the one Saúl had told him.
We went first to Yarinacocha and talked with the linguists and then, a long way from there, to the region of the Alto Marañón, visiting a series of settlements and villages of two tribes of the Jíbaro family: the Aguarunas and the Huambisas. We then went up to Lake Morona to visit the Shapras (Llosa, 1989: 72).
