Setting of Place Inside Peru Lima

41 narrator clearly stated that there were lots of vehicles contributing the crowd on a corner of this city. But there were some other places in Peru that were also significant and described in the story. ii. Quillabamba Quillabamba is part of Cuzco region in Peru. This city is well-known for its vast area of higher jungle. In the story, Quillabamba was mentioned when Saúl visited this place for a trip. He was invited by his uncle to spend his holidays there Llosa, 1989: 17. The fact that part of Quillabamba was jungle could be seen from how Saúl‘s uncle adjusted to living there. This place seemed to provide raw materials such as land and wood to cultivate. It was described on how Saúl‘s uncle explored the jungle to find mahogany and rosewood for making a living Llosa, 1989: 17. From the story of Saúl‘s uncle, it can be understood that Quillabamba itself was one of places in which the natives of America, Indians, dwelled and survived. It was told that some Indians Saúl‘s uncle hired to help him in timber cultivation lived in an area of camps. The location was surrounded by two big river, Alto Urubamba and Alto Madre de Dios, and also some other bayous. Through his encountering with the Indians, Saúl had a chance to visit their camps. Saúl had to ride a raft to reach the camps area since it was one of transportations used for river. This geographical condition in Quillabamba apparently provided Saúl a chance for adventure. Not only did the Urubamba challenge him with its torrent but also its canyon, Pongo de Mainique, and some whirlpools. It was 42 described how he felt excited when the journey forced them to meet canyon of Pongo de Mainique, part of Urubamba River, which was challenging due to its whirlpools. It was seen through the below quotation. He spent an entire night enthusiastically telling me what it was like to ride a raft hurtling through the Pongo de Mainique, where the Urubamba, squeezed between two foothills of the Cordillera, became a labyrinth of rapids and whirlpools Llosa, 1989: 17. The jungle of Quillabamba, for Saúl, was challenging not only in terms of transportation but the geographical condition also forced anyone dwelling in that place to survive in wildlife. It was then explained that the jungle of Quillabamba offered whatever available there to eat and drink. They ate animals such as monkey, turtle, and insects, which actually were considered strange for those who had never consumed them. Saúl himself seemed to complete his adventure by trying to eat and drink the way the Indians did. He also tried traditional alcoholic beverage made from cassava called masato , ‗Saúl had eaten monkey, turtle, and grubs, and gotten incredibly soused on cassava masato,‘ Llosa, 1989: 17-18. In short, Quillabamba for one of the setting places in The Storyteller is depicted as a typically wildlife place. This is due to not only the domination of jungle and some rivers but also the way people there survive. For the people or the community originated from that place, wildlife seems to be very common to face. However, it turns out differently when someone like Saúl coming from another place with its modernity visited this place. It becomes such an adventure for him. 43 iii. Alto Marañón Alto Marañón is another region located in Peru. It is in the surrounding of Marañón River, one of Amazon‘s tributaries. Alto Marañón appears in the story when the narrator was offered a chance to visit Amazon jungle. This was several years after he listened to Saúl‘s experience. ‗I first became acquainted with the Amazon jungle halfway through 1958, thanks to my friend Rosita Corpancho,‘ Llosa, 1989: 70. The chance was an expedition conducted by a linguistic institute called Summer Institute of Linguistics. It was being done in Alto Marañón. ―There‘s a place available for someone on an expedition to the Alto Marañón that‘s been organized by the Summer Institute of Linguistics for a Mexican anthropologist,‖ she said to me one day when I ran into her on the campus of the Faculty of Letters Llosa, 1989: 70. The narrator then decided to take the chance. For it was a research on languages and dialects, he and the other researchers had to encounter with certain Indian tribes. In this region, the narrator met other Peruvian indigenous communities different from the one Saúl had told him. We went first to Yarinacocha and talked with the linguists and then, a long way from there, to the region of the Alto Marañón, visiting a series of settlements and villages of two tribes of the Jíbaro family: the Aguarunas and the Huambisas. We then went up to Lake Morona to visit the Shapras Llosa, 1989: 72. Previously in the discussion about Quillabamba, Machiguenga is mentioned as one of Indians Saúl encountered. In the above quotation, some other tribes with whom the narrator encountered in Amazonian jungle were the Aguarunas, the Huambisas, and the Shapras. The Aguarunas, Huambisas, and Shapras are scattered through the jungles in Alto Marañón. The narrator, then, 44 went on describing how he reached one of villages in Alto Marañón in which the Shapras dwelled. We traveled in a small hydroplane, and in some places in native canoes, along river channels so choked with tangled vegetation overhead that in bright daylight it seemed dark as night. The strength and the solitude of Nature−the tall trees, the mirror-smooth lagoons, the immutable rivers−brought us to mind a newly created world, untouched by man, a paradise of plants and animals Llosa, 1989: 72-73. Along the way to reach the village, the narrator seems to feel amazed by what the nature offered him to see. The dense of foliage made him feel as if it was night although it was noon. He described the jungles and the river as newborn world, home for plants and animals. It is all about a pack of wildlife. The pack of life and atmosphere in Alto Marañón the narrator described are similar to what Saúl had experienced in Quillabamba. The jungles, the river, the creatures, are all the impression that they got from their first visiting to those places. Not only did the narrator encounter with the nature in Alto Marañón but also he finally understood how Peruvian indigenous communities survive in wildlife when he and the other researchers arrived at the Shapra village. When we reached the tribes, by contrast, there before us was prehistory, the elemental, primeval existence of our distant ancestors: hunters, gatherers, bowmen, nomads, shamans, irrational and animistic. This, too, was Peru, and only then I did become fully aware of it: a world still untamed, the Stone Age, magico-religious cultures, polygamy, headshrinking in a Shapra village of Moronacocha, the cacique, Tariri, explained to us, through an interpreter, the complicated technique of steeping and stuffing with herbs required by the operation−that is to say, the dawn of human history Llosa, 1989: 73. The narrator was, again, amazed by another part of Alto Marañón. The nature had impressed him first with its pure and untouched wildlife. When he visited the Shapras, he was astonished by the human life in that settlement. The 45 community lived in an extremely traditional way. The narrator contrasted the way the community lived with his own life which seemed to be far from the term ‗traditional.‘ He even said that the community lived as if it was prehistoric period. He described how those people represented ‗primeval existence of our ancestors.‘ Among them were some people hunting and gathering foods. The other ones might be shamans. They still hold local beliefs which the narrator considered as ‗irrational and animistic.‘ He then realized that in other parts of his country were there people still mingling with nature. They relied on what the jungle in Alto Marañón provided. They narrator, then, went on telling about another settlement he visited. He went to Urakusa village, the settlement of Aguaruna community. For this visit, he sensed similar atmosphere to the Shapras settlement. In an Aguaruna village, Urakusa, where we arrived one evening, we saw through the portholes of the hydroplane the scene which had become familiar each time we touched down near some tribe: the eyes of the entire population of men and women, half naked and daubed with paint, attracted by the noise of the plane, followed its maneuver as they slapped at their faces and chests with both hands to drive away the insects Llosa, 1989: 74. After some visits to several settlements, the narrator became ‗familiar‘ with the things he saw. The communities are quite alike also in the way the members let their bodies covered with almost no dress but paint. They were distracted by the sound of the hydroplane and felt curious with it as the narrator and the researchers were approaching them. The things amazed the narrator were sort of description of Alto Marañón. This region is depicted in the story as a place with natural atmosphere. The jungle, 46 the river, the plants, and the animals create the impression of wildlife. Besides, it is seen from how the communities dwelling in that place survive. iv. Yarinacocha Yarinacocha is one of significant places in the story since it includes in the moment when the narrator went to Alto Marañón with the linguistic institute. This place is the base camp for the research. It is located on ‗the banks of Ucayali,‘ a river with which Marañón River form Amazon River Llosa, 1989: 71. Yarinacocha is mentioned several times in the fourth chapter for it is the location where the researchers made several transits and discussion before the narrator and the other researchers started the expedition. We went first to Yarinacocha and talked with the linguists and then, a long way from there, to the region of the Alto Marañón, visiting a series of settlements and villages of two tribes of the Jíbaro family: the Aguarunas and the Huambisas. We then went up to Lake Morona to visit the Shapras Llosa, 1989: 72. The narrator in that quotation mentioned that they went to Yarinacocha and had a talk with the linguists before they went to Alto Marañón and Lake Morona. It describes that this place is significant for the researchers and the linguists to have discussion. Yarinacocha as the base camp for the research is then emphasized when the narrator told that it was also a place for the natives to be educated in this place so that they could be bilingual teachers. The cacique was a quick-witted and determined man, and the Institute linguist working with the Aguarunas encouraged him to take a course at Yarinacocha so as to become a bilingual teacher. This was a program drawn up by the Ministry of Education with the aid of the Institute of Linguistics. Men of the tribes who, like Jum, seemed capable of setting up an educational project in their villages were sent to Yarinacocha, where they took a course−a fairly superficial one, I imagine−given by the 47 linguists and Peruvian instructors, to enable them to teach their people to read and read and write in their own language. They then returned to their native villages with classroom aids and the somewhat optimistic title of bilingual teacher Llosa, 1989: 75. The quotation shows how a cacique from the Aguaruna community was taken to undergo process of language learning at Yarinacocha in order to make him be able to be a bilingual teacher when going back to his village. Thus, Yarinacocha is described in the story as a place functioning not only for the linguists and the researcher for gathering but also to give education for the natives so that they can share their knowledge to the other members of the community. Still at Yarinacocha, the narrator and the other researchers discussed not only about linguistic groundwork but also characteristics of some indigenous communities they visited. Once they had a discussion at Mr. and Mrs. Schneil‘s house, a couple of linguists. It was about Machiguenga community which was different from other Peruvian indigenous communities. It is described by the narrator when they were sitting together having a talk at the Schneils‘. Yarinacocha at dusk, when the red mouth of the sun begins to sink behind the treetops and the greenish lake glows beneath the indigo sky where the first stars are beginning to twinkle, is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We were sitting on the porch of a wooden house contemplating, over the Schneils‘ shoulders, the horizon line of the darkening forest. It was a magnificent sight Llosa, 1989: 81. Despite the domination of the depiction of Yarinacocha as a setting a place in which the narrator and the researchers did the project, the above quotation put little side of beauty of this place. The narrator described that he enjoyed the twilight he spent at the Schneils‘ house. He mentioned that he could see the reflection of glow from the surface of a lake. Similar to the description of 48 Quillabamba and Alto Marañón, forest is one of the main content of these three places. The narrator depicted that by saying that he could see ‗the horizon line of darkening forest‘ behind Schneils‘ shoulders.

2. Setting of Time

The story in this novel is a series of flashback. The most recent time in this story is put in 1980s. It is seen from the setting when the narrator, who was in 1985, started to recall his memory of his country Peru especially when he was entering college life in 1950. The story is then continued with some moments in 1960s and 1970s. Finally, the period of 1980s appears again in the end of the story. Thus, the narrator told the whole story in 1980s which covers flashback moments in 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The narrator began to the story by telling a moment in Firenze when he was just visiting a gallery in that city. This gallery apparently displayed some pictures about Machiguenga, an indigenous community in Peru he had ever encountered. One of the photographs really attracted him and made him feel curious about how the photographer could get that picture. He even wanted to buy it but he was not allowed 1989: 3-7. Despite his interest and his curiosity toward the pictures, this moment in Firenze finally brought his mind back to his life as a college student until he worked. The story is then continued with some moments in 1950s. The period of 1950s as setting of time is used to describe the time when the narrator was dealing with college life. The narrator joined Faculty of Letters in San Marcos University around 1953 because he described that three years later, in 49 1956, he was in his third year in that university. In his description, he mentioned one significant moment in Peru related to political condition in that year. He was finding out gradually during the months and years of our friendship, the fifties, in the Peru that, as Mascarita, myself, and our generation were reaching adulthood , was moving from the spurious peace of General Odria‘s dictatorship to the uncertainties and novelties of the return to democratic rule in 1956, when Saúl and I were third-year students at San Marcos Llosa, 1989: 12. The narrator described that in 1956, he reached his third-year at San Marcos University. Along with his junior degree, he, as well as other students in his generation, were experiencing transfer of power in Peruvian political life. It is seen from the narrator‘s explanation that it was a moment when authoritarian governmental system ruled by General Odría turned into democratic system. It was somehow an important historical moment in their generation since it signified an outbreak of revolution toward dictatorship. Another year in 1950s used as setting of time in this story is 1958. It is told that in 1958, the narrator started his first expedition to Amazonian jungle. ‗I first became acquainted with the Amazon jungle halfway through 1958, thanks to my friend Rosita Corpancho. ‘ The expedition which was offered by Summer Institute of Linguistics apparently attracted him even if it lasted only few weeks. He finally managed his time to join it before he left for Spain Llosa, 1989: 70- 72. The overall setting of time in 1950s explains about years he spent for bachelor degree at San Marcos University. Along with that, 1950s introduces the narrator to Amazonian jungle through his relation with his best friend, Saúl 50 Zuratas. By the end of this decade, after visiting Amazonian jungle in 1958, he left for Spain to take a fellowship for postgraduate degree. T he setting of 1958 signifies the end of the narrator‘s finishing his undergraduate degree at San Marcos and also the starting point he entered postgraduate studies in Madrid. The setting of time is then continued with the period of 1960s when he had finished his master degree and managed to spent several years to live in Madrid or Paris. During his staying in Madrid or Paris, he sent several letters to his best friend, Saúl, but none of them was replied. He was wondering about any information related to his friend until the setting took place in 1963 when he met his lecturer who seemed to be able to answer his curiosity. ‗It was not until the end of 1963, when Matos Mar turned up in Paris, to speak at an anthropological congress that I heard of Mascarita‘s whereabouts‘ Llosa, 1989: 106. The story only puts little part for 1960s as one of the setting of time. This decade is used more as a period in which the narrator spent his postgraduate studies in Spain or France. In addition to the use of 1960s as a phase the narrator spent for his postgraduate studies and living in Madrid or Paris, the story also places the setting of 1970s as a period in which the narrator spent to live outside Peru. The setting of 1960s and 1970s in this story are similar in a way that the two decades show the period of the narrator that were still living far from his country. It is mentioned in the story that in the early of 1970s, the narrator was still in Spain. Ever since I‘d lived in Spain in the early seventies, I had wanted to interview Corín Tellado, whose sentimental romances, radio soap operas, 51 photo-novels, and television melodramas are devoured by countless thousands in Spain and Hispano-America Llosa, 1989: 152. Although the period of 1960s and 1970s is used to describe years the narrator spent for living outside from his country, he still followed news from his country. He described social situation in Lima around 1960s and 1970s when the city seemed to be dominated by high-class lifestyle. It is depicted in the story when students from middle-class society protested against that lifestyle. In the sixties and seventi es―the years of student revolt against a consumer society―many middle-class young people left Lima, motivated partly by adventure-seeking and partly by disgust at life in the capital, and went to the jungle or the mountains, where they lived in conditions that were frequently precarious Llosa, 1989: 242. That quotation explains the period of 1960s and 1970s as a moment the young people in Lima especially those coming from middle class society carried out their voice against consumerism. They articulated their voice through a protest toward ‗a consumer society.‘ The young people went to the jungle and mountains to carry out simple way of life far from consumerism in the capital city. After telling the story in a frame of 1960s and 1970s, the narrator moved on revealing his life in the early of 1980s. The setting of 1981 began the story in 1980s. In 1981 the narrator had returned back to Peru. He spent six months in this year to work for a television channel. He and some friends were in charge of a program called Tower of Babel Llosa, 1989: 146. Six months in 1981 gave him not only a chance to meet some well-known writers but also a chance to have a contact with indigenous community in Peru, the Machiguengas. This chance was given by an old friend with whom the narrator had ever gone to Peruvian jungle in 1958, Rosita Corpancho, who 52 represented Summer Institute of Linguistics to ask if Tower of Babel would give a space for the institute to celebrate their ‗linguist-missionaries‘ in Peru. The narrator did not feel any hesitation when he was offered the chance since he was so curious about a mystery he had not yet found the answer related to the Machiguengas Llosa, 1989: 155-156. The narrator then described when he finally went back to some villages in Amazonian jungle where he had ever been. Since that trip in mid-1958 when I discovered the Peruvian jungle, I had returned to Amazonia several times: to Iquitos, to San Martín, to the Alto Marañón, to Madre de Dios, to Tingo María. But I had not been back to Pucallpa. In the twenty-three years that had gone by, that tiny, dusty village that I remembered as being full of dark, gloomy houses and evangelical churches, had been through an industrial and commercial ―boom,‖ followed by a depression, and now, as Lucho Llosa, Alejandro Pérez, and I landed there one September afternoon in 1981 to film what was to be the next-to-last program of the Tower of Babel, it was in the first stages of another ―boom‖ though for bad reasons this time: trafficking in cocaine. The rush of heat and the burning light, in whose embrace people and things stand out so sharply unlike Lima, where even bright sunlight has a grayish cast, are something that always has the effect on me of an emulsive draft of enthusiasm Llosa, 1989: 158. A moment in September 1981 was like a repetition for the narrator to visit the Amazonian jungle. He described that it was the duration of twenty three years that gave so much changes to the villages he had ever visited in 1958. In addition to the use of 1981 as a time in which the narrator could go back to Amazonian jungle, this year is also significant to explain that it was the time when he could finally get a chance to get in touch again with his research about Machiguenga storyteller called hablador. Ever since my unsuccessful attempts in the early sixties at writing about the Machiguenga storytellers, the subject had never been far from my