To me, it felt that Robert Arlt’s “El Juguete Rabioso” (“Mad Toy”) provides an interesting tale into the life of an adolescent as he struggles to fit in within the society that surrounds him. While the protagonist Silvio Astier is certainly a genius bookworm, his environment barely has a place for academic pursuit of any kind. In fact, it could simply be defined by one word: poverty. Yet, poverty hasn’t quite stopped Silvio from completely giving up in this world – as he spent an entire book exploring multiple solutions to try to fit in and make enough money to escape poverty: through creating a club dedicated to thievery (that eventually fell apart), joining a toxic workplace in a bookstore (which totally did wonders for his mental health), attending an academy for aviation (that he got kicked out of for being too smart, and almost drove him to kill himself), and working as a door-to-door salesman. Within the last job, he also faces a moral dilemma to either relive the dreams he had in his childhood (theft) or adhere to his values and rat out his co-conspirator.
Upon reading on all of the misfortunes that Silvio has faced in his adolescence, it really made me wonder “how?” How is a teenager like him capable of living in a constant state of turbulence without completely losing his mind for the most part? It was very admirable that he was mostly able to endure the pain and overcome it in the end, even though he barely had anyone he could count on. And he could only depend on himself to figure out the meaning of his own existence.
Yet as far as I know, the concept of identity is who you are and what you’ve done. From these two things, we create meanings. And these meanings tell us who we are. Yet, it could be complicated at times. We could start to worry over trivial matters and ask questions that we’ve never bothered to ask ourselves before. We feel more exhausted because more of our energy gets consumed by the emotional fight between the stresses that pressure us with the feeling that we must do something to answer that question, and the fear of the unknown. In this stage, we’re trapped in our minds within an isolated wasteland. There is so much pain, yet we experience too much fear to do anything about it. And to free ourselves from the war, the best thing to do is to find answers to our questions and take the appropriate action in order to progress further.
How would you define ultimately yourself as a person in comparison to Silvio? Has any fictional character inspired you the same way Silvio’s books about thievery did (they did have a heavy influence in his early adolescence annd early career choice, after all)?
2 Comments
“an interesting tale into the life of an adolescent as he struggles to fit in within the society that surrounds him”
Yes, he’s trying to fit in… but do you think there is also here a critique of that society? Is it the individual who has to change or adapt themselves to the world in which they find themselves, or is there the suggestion that the world needs to change, too?
Meanwhile… 1) Can you ensure that at least one of your questions is about the text more directly? 2) Why not add some more tags (poverty? identity?) to indicate the themes you are trying to address.
Your post was really interesting to read! I almost feel like Silvio did lose his mind a bit in the Mad Toy chapter where he tries to kill himself. I think Silvio’s mind is just in fight or flight at most times, so he doesn’t have time to think of anything much other than his survival. But I also think the big shift in him is seen at the end where he notes he sees all the beauty in the world and wants to experience it. I think he betrays his friend because he sees it as a final way out. The last chance for him to live a life not of survival. That’s what I got from the reading anyway!