Method of the Study

34 The description of Firenze as the setting of place in the first chapter is developed by a moment when the narrator visited a gallery. This gallery somehow describes Firenze in terms of art. It can be seen from the below quotation when the narrator was between feeling doubt and curious to enter the gallery since it had something to do with his knowledge about Renaissance works. Naturally, I went in. With a strange shiver and the presentiment that I was doing something foolish, that mere curiosity was going to jeopardize in some way my well-conceived and, up until then, well- executed plan−to read Dante and Machiavelli and look at Renaissance paintings for a couple of months in absolute solitute−and precipitate one of those personal upheavals that periodically make chaos of my life. But, naturally, I went in Llosa, 1989: 3-4. Another description of Firenze is found in the conversation between the narrator and a girl watching over things in the gallery. The narrator asked the girl and she replied in Italian language. The gallery was minute. A single low-ceilinged room in which, to make room for all photographs, two panels had been added, every inch of them covered with pictures. A thin girl in glasses, stting behind a small table, looked up at me. Could I visit the ―Natives of the Amazon Forest‖ exhibition? ―Certo. Avanti, Avanti,‖ Llosa, 1989: 4. Still, the description about Firenze in the first chapter is shown from language used. In almost the last of this chapter, the narrator asked the girl if he could buy one the paintings or meet the photographer. The girl replied that he could not since the photographer had already passed away. She replied this in Italian language as quoted below. Making an effort to contain my excitement, I asked if the photographs were for sale. No, she didn‘t think so. They belonged to Rizzoli, the publishers. Apparently they were going to appear in a book. I asked her to put me in touch with the photographer. No, that wouldn‘t be possible, unfortunately: ―Il signore Gabriele Malfatti ѐ morto,‖ Llosa, 1989: 6. 35 As mentioned previously, the use of Firenze as the locale in The Storyteller is to begin and to end the story. Firenze is described also in the last chapter of The Storyteller. If in the first chapter a part of Firenze precisely recalled his memory of his country, in the last chapter the narrator retold about that place in a way of making comparison to his own country, Peru. He compared the place, society, and also the atmosphere. In the below quotation, the narrator seems to ask the reader to imagine Firenze in a way he understood some parts of his own country. He described the great number of tourists coming to Firenze is like the vast area of Amazonian river. ‗Florentines are famous, in Italy, for their arrogance and for their hatred of the tourists that inundate them, each summer, like an Amazonian river,‖ Llosa, 1989: 235. Despite the description of Firenze as a setting of place in which the narrator recalled his memory of his country, the most significant role of this setting is that this city is a locale in which the narrator rearranged his flashback story. The story was opened and ended with the description of Firenze. Besides, the most important proof is that at the last chapter, the narrator, himself, confessed that he wrote the story in this city. It means being, in the most profound way possible, a rooted Machiguenga, one of that ancient lineage who―in the period in which this Firenze, where I am writing, produced its dazzling effervescence of ideas, paintings, buildings crimes, and intrigues―roamed the forests of my country, bringing and bearing away those tales, lies, fictions, gossip, and jokes that make a community of that people of scattered beings, keeping alive among them the feeling oneness, of constituting something fraternal and solid Llosa, 1989: 244. 36 The quotation explained where story is arranged. In addition to that, it has explained the setting of place in which the story was retold in a form of written text. Thus, Firenze as a setting of place is functioned not only as a locale in which some parts of the story happen but also as the location where the whole story is arranged. It is known from the description of this city in the first and the last paragraph and also the confession of the narrator who wrote it in Firenze. ii. Madrid and Paris Madrid and Paris are other places outside Peru described in the story. These places take only a little part in the story. Yet, they are still important for the discussion since those places are the setting in which the narrator still recalled his memory of Peru. The writer put the description of these places together because both of them are connected with the time the narrator spent after he graduated from bachelor degree. Madrid is a place where the narrator finally decided to take a scholarship for postgraduate degree. He first gave a sign that it was to Spain. ‗I had finally managed to obtain the fellowship to Europe I‘d coveted and was to leave for Spai n the following month,‘ Llosa, 1989: 70. It is revealed specifically that the scholarship was to Madrid when he said goodbye to his best friend, Saúl. ‗I was afraid I‘d be off to Europe without having said goodbye to Saúl when, on the eve of my departure to Madrid, I ran into him as I got off a bus on a corner of the Avenida España ,‘ Llosa, 1989: 94.