Sobre la autora y la obra
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Matute
o
Barcelona, 1925-present
o
Novelist of the posguerra period
o
Lived
during Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship
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Recurrent
themes in her works are violence, alienation, misery, and especially the loss
of innocence.
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Matute
is known for her sympathetic treatment of the lives of children and
adolescents, their feelings of betrayal and isolation, and their rites of
passage. She often interjected such elements as myth, fairy tale, the
supernatural, and fantasy into her works.
Comps ideas to consider
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Otras narradoras: de Barcelona al
exilio: Ana María Matute y Mercè Rodoreda
What Cambridge Companion: Spanish Novel says
(Chapter 10)
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New
novelists of the time period from 1900 to 1936 sought to break with the
realist-Naturalist tradition (170)
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These
novelists influenced later, post-Civil War novelists such as Camilo José Cela,
Carmen Laforet, Ana María Matute, Luis Martín Santos, and Miguel Delibes (170)
o
Elliptical
plot structures
o
Poetic
language
o
Linguistic
representation of thought processes
Notes from
article From Childhood to Adulthood:
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Matute
presents children victimized by social and economic problems and torn between
reality and fantasy
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Children
fear adulthood and seek ways to avoid it by prolonging immaturity through lit
(e.g. Peter Pan), play, and imagination
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Chaotic
world surrounding characters become chaos within self, which drives them
towards self-discovery
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Adolescent
Matia is the central figure through whose eyes all others in the story are
seen
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Main
Themes:
o
Estrangement
o
Escape
through imagination
o
Cain
and Abel
o
Misunderstanding
between generations
o
Nostalgia
for lost childhood
o
"mercader"
atmosphere
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Matia:
incarcerated by domineering, shrewd Abuela, geographic isolation, and Spanish
civil war
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Matia's
father: Republican / Borja's father Nationalist "we see children
identified with the causes of their respective fathers, indirectly involved in
fratricidal strife, in a Cain and Abel conflict.
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Borja
often wins affection through hypocritical statements that parallel those made
by adults in the novel.
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Borja
becomes jealous when he finds out Manuel is the illegitimate son of Son Major,
charismatic, well-liked figure. This drives Borja to accuse Manuel of a
crime Borja has committed (the money box) -Matia does not speak on Manuel's
behalf until he's sent to reform school. "In her silence, she betrays
Manuel and shares in Borja's guilt." This moment is the symbolic end of
childhood-Borja enters adulthood through an evil action.
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Classes
are represented:
o
Working-class
group, "ellos": Guiem (blacksmith's son), Toni, etc.
o
Middle-class,
"nosotros"....Interaction through childish war play-children inherit
parental feud
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"In
keeping with his desire to use people to his own advantage, Borja finds Guiem
an appealing and potentially useful friend."
Characters
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Matia
– protagonist, young girl
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Abuela
– overbearing and unpleasant, symbolic of the clash between older generations
and newer/younger ones
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Borja
– Matia’s cousin
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Emilia
– Matia’s aunt, pretty cool – lets the kids try some drugs/drinking
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Manuel
– another boy from the area, rejected socially somewhat because he’s
illegitimate
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Guiem
– older boy who alternatively hates and likes Borja; he’s from lower working
class and there is some anger/tension due to this
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Jorge
de Son Mayor – man in the town with an interesting reputation; rumored to be
the father of both Borja and Manuel
Summary
The book follows
Matia, who comes to live with her grandmother in Mallorca
after her father goes to the war and the servant who was charged with watching
her becomes sick. Her grandmother is an overbearing and unpleasant woman. She
passes all her time with her cousin Borja and they are watched by Lauro “el
chino,” the son of one of grandma’s servants, Antonia. He’s a failed priest
whom no one takes seriously. Borja is a big liar, and he hams it up around G-Ma
all the time to stay in her good graces while also being a huge dick to Lauro.
Matia and Borja spend a lot of their free time in the declive that’s behind the house and leads down to the edge of the
sea. They have a little boat, the Leontina,
that they take to a little cove where they hide treasures, smoke, drink, and
play cards with their friends. One day, they come upon a body at the cove—it is
the father of Manuel Taronjí, a boy from the island, who has been killed by the
thugs, the Taronjí brothers, that terrorize the town. Manuel borrows their
boat, although Borja doesn’t want to let him, to take the body away. He later
brings it back, although Borja whines about how he didn’t bring it back to the
cove.
Tía Emilia is
pretty cool—she lets Matia smoke and drink some, and sneak out during the
siesta. She’s always reading letters and, allegedly, waiting for her husband
(tío Álvero) to come back to the island from the war. He’s a coronel and Borja
brags about how he has people shot all the time. It’s implied later that Borja
is actually the son a man named Jorge de Son Major. No one talks to Manuel’s
family, nor do they help them out. It turns out that his mother has had an
illegitimate child (Manuel) with Jorge de San Major also. Therefore, lacking
the protection of Matia’s abuela,
they have been cast out by society. Manuel had been in a good private school
with clergymen, but he left to come and help his family out. Guiem enters the
story, an older boy who alternately hates and befriends Borja. Sometimes Borja
and Matia go to a cafe owned by a man named Es Mariné, and they get their black
market goods there. Borja is learning how to be a man from older people like
this, and he longs to be like Jorge de Son Major, who it is rumored has dabbled
in black magic. Sometimes there are surprisingly brutal fights between the
groups of small children—Borja gets stabbed at one point.
Manuel and Matia
become friends eventually, because Manuel listens when she talks and doesn’t
try to control her like Borja. He doesn’t say too much and just looks sad.
Borja doesn’t like this though, especially not when several of them go to see
Jorge de Son Major and he puts Manuel’s hand on Matia’s right in front of
Borja. Even when the rest of the kids are afraid to go see Jorge, Manuel does
it, even though Jorge is his father that has disowned him. Eventually, as the
first Christmas of the wartime years comes and goes, Matia and Borja have to go
to school. This means that Lauro el chino is sent to the front (where he dies)
and Manuel is falsely accused by Borja of stealing money (Borja stole it from
G-Ma originally then he got Manuel to take it somewhere for him and told people
that Manuel stole it from him when he was “confessing” his crime). So, as Matia
prepares to leave the island, Borja cries on her as Manuel is taken to jail.
Later, Matia reveals the truth of what happened to tía Emilia, who just kind of
shrugs it off, thus implying that in the adult world, such types of
betrayals/lies/manipulation is normal.
Themes / ideas
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Writing
style
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First
person narration (child, Matia)
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Stream-of-consciousness
writing
o
Mainly
in present but sometimes goes back in past to explain some semi-relevant detail
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Novela de guerra – de Barcelona/exilio
o
You
can see the influences of the Civil War within the text, but it’s somewhat
fuzzy, influenced by the separation from the thick of it. The town is rather
focused on itself, so only fuzzy mentions of the war and references to it sneak
in. (This is also in part due to child narration)
o
There
is never any explicit description of the war
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Childhood/adolescence
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Idea
that childhood reflects adulthood
o
Narrator
is the child, Matia – entire book is in first person, from her perspective
o
Many
characters are also children, it’s a book focused on what childhood / growing
up was like in this type of society
o
Idea
that the children fear adulthood due to what they see of it within this
post-war society (escape through fantasy, imagination, literature); they try to
avoid growing up yet simultaneously chase it (trying drugs/drinking, etc.) –
inner conflict
o
The
children’s vices (lying, cruelty, etc.) parallel those of the adults --- idea
that vices begin in childhood and are only cultivated into adulthood
o
Cain and Abel vibe (especially between Borja and Manuel)
o
Betrayal
– Borja betrays Manuel (lying that he was the one that stole the money), and
Matia betrays him as well by not speaking up in his defense
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Violence
o
Subtle
background violence of war
o
Violence
of the children – they have brutal fights sometimes
o
Idea
that the worlds of both children and adults are equally cruel
o
Idea
that there is the big war occurring (Civil War), but there are smaller wars occurring
on the island as well – ex: the Taronji brothers, Matia’s grandmother’s war to
maintain control of the household, the children’s constant play at war
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Social
class
o
The
children are from different social classes
o
Children
like Matia and Borja are in a higher social class (middle class) than others,
like Guiem --- the middle class is we/us, while the working class is them/they
Piecemeal
quotes/ideas from book:
El declive
-Habla
de su abuelo. Borja hereda su galardía/falta de piedad. Ana: su tristeza
-El ama
de llaves “dicen que en el otro lado están matando familias enteras, que
fusilan a los frailes y les sacan los
ojos…¡Dios tenga piedad!”
(Beatifully narrated…much less dialogue than El Jarama)
Borja:
impío, débil, and soberbio pedazo de hombre (direct characterization)
Ana’s mom had died, Mauricia got sick, so now grandmother
would take care of her
Lauro
studied in the seminary a long time, but couldn’t become a priest “A veces,
mirándole, pensé si le habría pasado en el Seminario algo parecido a lo que me
occurió en Nuestra Señora.”
“Recuerdo.”
Simple sentence, 1st person testimony.
entering
declive
2
grandparent
house has nice things- regalos del rey al bisabuelo (social status)
“Bien es
verdad, Borja-, que si no pudimos querernos como verdaderos hermanos, como
manda la santa madre iglesia, al menos nos hicimos compañía.
Location
“la isla”
“En la
plazuela de los judíos nos encontrábamos a veces con los otros
Lauro:
“En un pueblo de Extramadura han rociado con gasolina y han quemado vivos a dos
seminaristas que se habían escondido en un pajar…Están matando a toda la gente
decente…Mártires” (Mythical, fairy tale feel)
3 Father of Manuel washes up on shore... “Parecía mentira, parecía algo raro, de pesadilla. Pero era Manuel, su
hijo, quien lo contaba.” First dead man Ana ever saw.
“Desde
su gabinete, las casitas de los colonos con sus luces amarillas, con sus mjeres
cocinando y sus niños gritones, eran como un teatro diminuto.”
4.
Borja lo
decía “Mi padre es coronel y puede mandar fusilar a quien le parezca” (classic
child-ish thoughts-that your parents are strong and invincible.)
Juan
Antonio y su “amigo-enemigo” el Diablo “era glotón y comía muy mal”.
“Mosén
Mayol vestía hábitos de tela gruesa, que descendían en pliegues generosos y
producían, al andar, un frufrú inconfundible.” (wealth in the Church!)
5. Back
to fancy furniture in grandmother’s house + decline/…yet “La bañera era vieja y
desportillada, con patas de león barnizadas de blanco amarillento, y tenía
grandes lacras negras, como estigmas de una mala raza.”
“El
jardín estaba muy descuidado, y la abuela se lamentaba de ello. ‘Pero’ dijo
‘corren malos tiempos para ocuparse de estas cosas. Vivimos días de
recogimiento y austeridad.”
También
la casa de la abuela era sombría y sucía….telarañas y polvo.
Juan Antonio asks Ana if her parents are divorced. She thinks it’s not true “Pero él se reía con una malicia que yo no
entendía del todo.” She pushes him off of her. “Mi madre era una desconocida,
sólo una desconocida.”
7. Drinking bad, sweet wine in the
alcalde’s house.
La Escuela del Sol
1. Remembers storms: wind scares her, but thunder doesn’t.
(novelistic memories…)
Re: guy who left the seminary “The priests didn’t want you,
right?” “You didn’t believe in God.”
Nosotros
éramos: Borja, el que mandaba, Juan Antonio, el hijo del medico, y los dos
hijos del administrador de la abuela. (León y Carlos, who seem “a little different” than “us”)
Mentions black market where the boys would bet/spend money
in Es Mariné. (She can’t go because she’s a girl)
Small town gossip, the devil, blah blah.
2. Si
Borja tenía la carabina y el viejo revolver del abuelo para los días enemigos,
y Juan Antonio la navaja, y los del
administrador los látigos….” everyone
has their weapon.
People are rude, threatening to Chino, calling him “Judas”.
Ana would get up in the middle of the night to smoke with
Borja. He asks “¿Quién crees tú que ganará la guerra? A mí me
parece que los nuestros, porque son católicos y creen en Diós.”
Ana keeps a little black doll in her armario (seems to be a
“safe spot” for her)
3. “Borja era ladrón. No se cómo adquirió este
vicio o si nació con él.” Borja
is her cousin, Tía Emilia his mom. Steals from Mom and Abuela
Abuela “At your age, you still eat candy?” (child vs. adult distinction). “Una de las cosas más humillantes de aquel
tiempo, recuerdo, era la preocupación constante por mi possible futura
belleza.” Her mother was pretty and rich, but got carried away with
romantic sentiments. Father spent all of the family’s money. “Había, pues, que tener cuidado con la
belleza y con el dinero, armas de dos filas.”
Tía
Emilia: “Siempre me pides cigarillos y ahora resulta que aún juegas con
muñecos.”
4. Ana
feels alone- Borja-burlas, Abuela: rígidas costumbres, pereza y
despreocupación, Tía Emilia: inutilidad pegajosa
Ana is
14. “Había tanta confusión en mí, estaban tan torpes mis ideas, que sentí un
gran pesar.” El mundo, para ella, es incomprensible. Ella= “pequeña histérica”
(Gil and Gub)
In short, a not-too-happy childhood.
5. Ana tells Manuel her parents got divorced.
Las
Hogueras:
“pandilla”
of kids. “Te expulsamos!” “No quiero ser de los vuestos…Tengo mis amigos”
(typical kid conversation)
More taunting of the Chinito.
2. Borja finds a book about the Inquisition. There are
hogueras/ganchos in the town . Burned “muñecos de paja”.
“Y los
mismos Niños Perdidos, todos demasiado crecidos, de pronto, para jugar;
demasiado niños, de pronto, para entrar en la vida, en el mundo que no
queríamos--¿no queríamos?—conocer (Childhood vs adulthood)
Chino gets gash in his arm.
Talks about going to Naranjal with Borja y Chino before the
war had broken out, in March.
“Deseaba
ardientemente que no muriera nadie en el mundo, que todo lo de la muerte fuera
otra de las tantas patrañas que cuentan los hombres a los muchachos.”
Era mala que robábamos…but, still go on…read card from Tía
Emilia to Jorge. (Oh, sucías y cursis patéticas personas mayores.)
They occasionally read about the war in the paper.
3. Manos
entrelazadas con Manuel.
Jorge:
“No creáis que al morir recordaréis hazañas ni sucesos que os hayan
occuridos…ni grandes aventuras, ni momentos felicies…Sólo cosas como ésta: una
tarde así, unas copas de vino, esas rosas cubiertas de agua.”
El Gallo
Blanco
1.
“La
abuela se enteró. -¿Por qué fuistéis a Son Major?”.
Borja to Matia (who I have been calling Ana) “Pervertida. Enamorada a los 14 años de un hombre de 50.” Matia answers back-they get into physical fight.
2. Tía Emilia take Borja and Matia to town for new
clothes/haircut. Matia hates it. Matia takes Manuel to their secret island
place. Borja is there. Borja tells Manuel “I’m your friend.” (hmm. is this
genuine? doubtful…) Borja doesn’t want Abuela to find out about their place. He
givela Manuel his cofre of dinero that he’s stolen.
3. No
vió más a Manuel –Matia.
Es el
“último día de vacaciones. Borja
takes Matia to church to confess. Brins Mosén Mayol back to house with
Abuela. “El anillo brillaba en su mano como un ojo perverso que sobreviviría
nuestra pobredumbre.” Borja
confesses he robbed abuela’s money.
-going to reformatorio.
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