Hey everyone,
This blog post is on this weeks reading “Mad Toy” written by Roberto Arlt, I was personally very excited to read this book, the story seemed compelling to me and was a no brainer when choosing my books for this course, and I have to say it was a great choice and I was pleasantly surprised with this book, my favourite part of the book was the way the characters were written, specially the main character.
The book is separated into four parts, each narrating different stages in the life of main Character Silvio Astier (who also acts as a first-person narrator, giving us a glimpse into his life), Silvio starts the journey on this book as a young boy from the lower social class of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he constantly gives us the perspective of the working class going into issues of poverty, social inequality, and the harsh realities of urban life. Silvio is mainly characterized by his rebellious nature which has been present since he was a young child, as well as is extreme disappointment with society.
The first part narrates Silvio in his early teenage years, he was free spirited and with a rich imagination, a current theme in the reading was introduced here: Reading, Silvio is a passionate reader, but not only him, his friends and family are too. To me what marks this part of the reading the most is the friendships he obtains with whom he is inspired by certain readings, they also engage in “bandit” behaviour such as non violent theft of smaller objects (books and other things to resell)
The Second Part is much more interesting, his mothers says he need a job in order to be able to pay for his studies since they are a lower income family and his sister is already studying, still Silvio finds a job, guess where, a bookstore.
On the third part he decides to put that ingenious brain of his to use and since he has always been a brilliant inventor he applies for a place as an apprentice airplane mechanic in the Military School of Aviation, however that dream of his, like past ones gets shattered, the reason being that he was smart and inventive but ultimately they were just looking for someone who would follow orders and him being the free spirit he was that seemed like an impossible task.
On the last part, Silvio finds a job selling paper, and even though it is not his dream job there is some comfort to it being that it is somewhat related to literature, blank paper could be treated as a metaphor on paper with the potential to be literature, just like Silvio has the potential to be a great writer.
Overall this book deals a lot with the theme of books and literature, showing that his dream to be a writer is present all throughout stages of this book even in different aspects. I think ultimately Silvio dreams of becoming someone great but is limited by the circumstances of the life he was born into.
My question is: Did you think literature was an interesting aspect like I did, or did you find other aspects being present throughout all parts of the reading? If so, wich ones and why are they important?
Ximena, this book does deal with a lot with ltierature and the production of writing, he even sells paper at one point! Good catch.
Thanks for the comment
Hello, I really enjoyed reading your post and I wanted to thank you for your thoughts. To answer your question I think the literature prevalent in the book plays a great importance in the way Sylio’s character arc unravels. He first gets the notion that being a thief is an illustrious life from the stories he reads in the candy shop in his small village. In his view, the “rougeish” lifestyle is the only way for him to escape the social class he was born into. Additionally, we find him communing with these texts at every other stage of his journey. Whether it is to compare his current situations to the characters or to seek advice from them it is clear the literature in Sylio’s novels plays an integral role in how his story plays out.