A Whole Day of Arlt

I genuinely spent almost the entirety of yesterday reading Mad Toy by Roberto Arlt. To my surprise, I actually fairly enjoyed this piece of literature. However, one thing I struggled with was the number of characters that were introduced in the first couple pages. It normally takes me a lot of time to remember character names. Therefore, I kept getting myself confused with all the different names and I quite literally had to write myself a character map.

The first chapter reminded me of children playing in a treehouse. In a way, it felt as though the robberies were simply a part of a child’s imaginative journey. Another thought that occurred to me was how novels may have been used to represent people’s socioeconomic status. From my personal understanding, Silvio’s mother tells him that Lila must borrow books from the library. To gain knowledge, one must either read or go to work. I related this to how Silvio’s family is challenging their social class and attempting to escape it.

Following this, another part that stood out to me was when Silvio started working for the owner of Don Gaetano’s bookstore, which I found slightly ironic because his first robbery took place at a school library. In particular, when Silvio visits the River Plate Market with Don Gaetano, it seemed like he was being mocked. This is just a personal opinion, but I believe this is partly because of how the foods were described. 

Additionally, Silvio was told that his new job would provide him a room and that he would be living like a prince. In reality, Silvio is expected to have brought a mattress to sleep on, despite not being told anything. This made me recall the working experiences of immigrants, something I learned about last term in one of my courses. Individuals would move to a different country after being promised a whole new life. They would arrive with hopes of earning a lot of money, which they planned to send to their family back home. However, they experienced precarious working conditions and their labour was taken advantage of. Also, when employers provided housing, it was often to surveil the workers. This connects to the lecture video as I discovered that the novel depicts how Argentina was transformed through mass migration. To this respect, the conversation video discussed the idea of disillusionment, which piqued my interests.

While I have so much more to write about, I would like to end off with a quote I enjoyed reading: “Now I was navigating the darkness, leaping over fences, trembling with the surge of feeling that raced through me.” (94)

In my perspective, this quote encapsulates Silvio’s betrayal and his attempt to make a name for himself. He goes from jumping fences when committing robberies to “leaping over fences” after betraying Rengo. How do you think this portrays the shift in Silvio’s life? What other meanings does it have?