{"id":25,"date":"2024-01-21T00:14:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T07:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/?p=25"},"modified":"2024-01-21T00:19:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T07:19:23","slug":"roberto-arlt-mad-toy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/2024\/01\/21\/roberto-arlt-mad-toy\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto Arlt, \u201cMad Toy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roberto Arlt\u2019s novel, \u201cMad Toy,\u201d was a refreshing coming-of-age novel that invited readers to follow the harrowing journey of a struggling youth named Silvio Astier. In the first chapter, \u201cThe Band of Thieves,\u201d Silvio befriended Enrique Irzubeta and Lucio. Together, the three adolescents became members of the \u201cClub of the Midnight Horsemen,\u201d entangled in a life of petty crimes and thievery. The narrator used Enrique and Irzubeta interchangeably, which I found peculiar as he didn\u2019t stay consistent with just a first or last name. Additionally, Silvio described his friendship with Enrique as \u201cthat of Orestes and Pylades (p. 26);\u201d this interested me to search for the historical context behind the two characters to better understand the relationship dynamics between the two boys. From the beginning, this book was much more engaging for me in comparison to \u201cCombray\u201d by Proust. Although it was also told in the first-person, the narrator immersed the readers with descriptive dialogue and exciting action that conjured a sense of danger and thrill for readers. In chapter 2, \u201cWork and Days,\u201d Silvio leaves the days of thievery and mischief behind to find work, signalling the start of adulthood. Although the \u201cClub of the Midnight Horsemen\u201d disbanded, Silvio still looks for traces of his old friends during his time working at a run-down bookstore, he stated that Dona Maria\u2019s smile \u201creminded me of Enrique Irzubeta\u2019s smile when he was slipping through the fingers of the police (p. 76).\u201d This reflects the universal experience of growing up and leaving childhood friendships behind, which most university students can resonate with as they face similar transitions into adulthood. The next chapter, \u201cMad Toy,\u201d highlights Silvio\u2019s intelligence. Despite the barriers of poverty, Silvio\u2019s curiosity and self-education, from books and literature, emphasize his resilience and determination to pursue knowledge and advance his skillset in constructing gadgets and explosives. Overall, this reading successfully depicted the journey of a troubled youth navigating through the complexities and hardships of life. Silvio was constantly growing and adapting to the obstacles thrown his way as he discovered new aspects of himself in the quest for identity in this ever-changing world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions:<\/b><\/p>\n

In chapter three, Silvio was fired from his new position as an apprentice airplane mechanic, but what was the reason behind it? The school director stated, \u201cWe don\u2019t need smart people here, just dumb brutes who can work (p. 99),\u201d so was Silvio simply too smart to stay in the army? That doesn\u2019t make sense to me as I thought that the Military School was looking for youth who wanted to study and had an interest in engineering to build engines and repair planes. Even Silvio was confused, \u201cThey threw me out of the army for no reason (p. 100).\u201d Another question I have is whether Silvio\u2019s previous life in crime influenced his decision to turn in Rengo to the police, what was the pivoting point when he made his decision? Why did he decide to turn Rengo in and was this another turning point in finding his identity and morals? <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roberto Arlt\u2019s novel, \u201cMad Toy,\u201d was a refreshing coming-of-age novel that invited readers to follow the harrowing journey of a struggling youth named Silvio Astier. In the first chapter, \u201cThe Band of Thieves,\u201d Silvio befriended Enrique Irzubeta and Lucio. Together, the three adolescents became members of the \u201cClub of the Midnight Horsemen,\u201d entangled in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,11,15,14,12,16,13],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-argentina","tag-arlt","tag-crime","tag-identity","tag-madtoy","tag-poverty","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fionazng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}