82
found it difficult to reveal about this secret. And that was apparently that led the narrator to keep on figuring it out: the hablador subject was kept secretly even
more than spiritual taboo. He emphasized that in this way. ―I know that,‖ I said. ―You explained that to me the first time. And that‘s
precisely what moves me. That the Machiguengas consider mere storytellers so important that they have to keep their existence a secret,‖
Llosa, 1989: 175.
Although it was difficult to figure it out, this question about hablador is slowly revealed when Edwin Schneil admitted that he had ever met the storyteller
twice. However, for his twice meeting with hablador, Mr. Schneil had never succeeded to figure out who hablador was since he always fell asleep and
unconscious every time the hablador ended his tales. ‗I fell asleep and, and when I woke up, the storyteller had gone
. And since the Machiguengas don‘t like to talk about them, I never heard anything more about him
,‘ Llosa, 1989: 179. From Mr. Schneil‘s experience, the narrator had not yet been able to figure
out about hablador. But when Mr. Schneil described how the hablador looked, the narrator seemed to know who the hablador was. Hablador as described by Mr.
Schneil was younger man in almost the same age as the narrator. ‗But certainly younger than I am. About your age, or perhaps a bit younger,‘ Llosa, 1989: 182.
He had white skin and red hair. For the people were not really sure if he was white or albino, he was called ‗the gringo,‘ Llosa, 1989: 179-182.
The characteristics of hablador did not really disgust the narrator until he was told one significant thing
related to hablador‘s look. Apparently, the hablador had an enormous birthmark. It is described in this way.
83
―He had a huge birthmark,‖ Edwin Schneil said. He paused, searching his memories or looking for words to describe them. ―And hair redder than
mine. A strange person. What the Machiguengas call a serigórompi. Meaning an eccentric; someone different from the rest. Because of that
carrot−colored hair of his, we called him the albino or the gringo among ourselves,‖ Llosa, 1989: 181.
Knowing habl ador‘s characteristics especially his having enormous
birthmark, the narrator felt somehow shocked. He could not give anymore comments and question to response Mr. Schneil‘s information. Instead, he
suspected a new thing. He felt that the reason why hablador subject seemed to be kept secretly among the Machiguengas was not because it was taboo but because
it was aimed to protect the identity of who hablador was. His suspicion was revealed in a tone which signified that the narrator had known who the hablador
was from the moment he knew the characteristics. It is contemplated in this way. I now knew the reason for the taboo. Did I? Yes. Could it be possible? Yes
it could. That was why they avoided talking about them that was why they had jealously hidden them from anthropologists, linguists, Dominican
missionaries over the last twenty years. That was why they did not appear in the writings of modern ethnologiest on the Machiguengas. They were
not protecting the institution or the idea of the storyteller in the abstract. They were protecting him. No doubt because he had asked them to. So as
not to arouse the Viracochas‘ curiosity about this strange graft onto the tribe. And they had gone on doing as he asked for so many years now,
providing him refuge by way of a taboo which had spread to the entire institution, to the hablador in the abstract. If that was how it had been, they
had a great deal of respect for him. If that was how it was, in their eyes he was one of them Llosa, 1989: 185.
The narrator kept in his mind his suspicion about who the hablador was. While keeping his presumption, he collected other proofs. His mind stepped back
on finding the information about Saúl Zuratas. It was then he realized that one of his partners at work could give him information about his best friend who was
previously suspected moving to Israel. Saúl‘s father apparently died in Peru. The
84
family never moved to Israel. ‗As for his son, your friend, he may have gone to
Israel, but I couldn‘t find out for sure. None of the people I asked knew anything about him,‘ Llosa, 1989: 188. But nobody knew about where Saúl was.
By the time he heard about Saúl‘s family, the narrator seemed to be quiet sure about his suspicion that hablador was Saúl Zuratas, his best friend.
‗But I do, I
thought. I know everything,‘ Llosa, 1989: 188. He expressed that in mind when he was told that nobody knew where Saúl was after the death of his father.
Along with his last curiosity about hablador, the narrator apparently suspected that the storyteller figure was Saúl. He even strongly believed that.
However, until the end of his story, he still could not prove that and even he was still haunted by Saúl‘s decision.
To sum up, t he narrator‘s argument that it was good for Peru to develop
was apparently a n opposing side to Saúl‘s altruism to viability of the Indians. It
develops in to the narrator‘s personal conflict when he always felt haunted by
Saul‘s figure every time topics related to natives aroused. When the hablador subject aroused, the narrator‘s curiosity became more intense. The quest of who
hablador was precisely led him to the fact that this figure was actually Saúl Zuratas.
His curiosity about Saúl Zuratas‘ altruism to Indians was answered with his best friend‘s decision to be part of the tribe. However, his story was not close
ended for he did not yet prove the truth of Saúl‘s being hablador. Meanwhile, this story had led him into deep contemplation that consisted of some questions about
why Saúl decided that way. His being haunted by Saúl‘s debating his argument of
85
the development for Peru was answered by an action which he never thought Saúl would do. It is described in this way.
The rest of the story, however, confronts me only with darkness, and the harder I try to see through it, the more impenetrable it becomes.
Talking the way a storyteller talks means being able to feel and live in the very heart of that culture, means having penetrated its essence, reached the
marrow of its history and mythology, given body to its taboos, images, ancestral desires, and terrors Llosa, 1989: 244.
For his questions had not been answered yet, the narrator suspected that being the hablador among Machiguenga community was the action that he chose
to realize his altruism. Through that way, Saúl could immerse with the natives and understood as well as experienced being part of the community.
C. Mario Vargas Llosa’s Nationalism in The Storyteller
In Anderson‘s theory, nationalism is understood as an idea resulted from the capability of certain people to imagine and realize which their nation is. This
capability also enables them to know who their people are and where they belong. Mario Vargas Llosa in The Storyteller seems to reveal nationalism in a way
explained by Anderson when he explored Jose Rizal‘s Noli Me Tangere 1991: 22-30
. Using the analogy of the term ‗meanwhile,‘ there are some descriptions of places in Peru and its societies which are put simultaneously in the story.
However, for certain contexts, Llosa precisely put some ironies along with the description of Peruvian places and societies. First, although it seems that this
novel is a nationalistic one, the setting is put not in the era of Peruvian independence war but more than a century after Peruvian independence. Second,
although most of places described in the setting are in Peru, the author put
86
significant place outside Peru. Third, through the depiction of main conflicts, the Llosa does not seem to bring The Storyteller exclusively as a nationalistic novel.
The main conflicts precisely create some questions to respond to nationalism. Thus, in this last analysis the writer firstly works with the description of
setting to see how Llosa put the imagination of Peru to define the context of nationalism. Then, the writer analyzes the ironies put in the novel despite the
imagination of Peru that is built by the author. Lastly, the imagination of Peru and the ironies are connected with Mario Vargas Llosa‘s life to understand how he
defined nationalism.
1. Setting of Peru as Llosa’s Nationalistic Imagination
Llosa in The Storyteller puts most of its setting of places in the context of Peru. Some cities and regions he described in this novel are the representation of
those found in Peru. They are Lima, Quillabamba, Alto Marañón, and Yarinacocha. Each place is described with its own characteristics.
Lima in this novel is described as a place in which the narrator spent his college life. Lima, as one of significant places in which the narrator underwent a
phase of the narrator‘s life, represents the capital city of Peru. In the novel, as well
as the real condition, Lima is described with atmosphere of modernity and development. This atmosphere is first described with education and it is seen from
the description of the narrator and Saúl‘s togetherness in San Marcos University which is located in this city Llosa, 1989: 8-9. Secondly, this place is described
with its business life which is seen from the decision of Saúl‘s father who wanted to move to Lima to prolong his business Llosa, 1989: 9. The clearest proof of
87
Lima as the representation of one of places in Peru is that it is described as capital city.
His problem, he said, was that his father had made too much money with his general store back home; so much that one fine day he‘d decided to
move to Lima. And since they‘d come to the capital his father had taken
up Judaism Llosa, 1989: 9. Quillabamba and Alto Marañón are regions in Peru which are well-known
for their vast area of jungle. Besides, these places are where the tributaries of Amazon River flow. In the story, they are described in almost similar way.
Although they are in different part of Peru, both of them are places where jungles belong. These places are depicted with their natural and wildlife atmosphere for
there were tributaries of Amazon River, jungles, and even the narrator described them as the paradise of plants and animals.
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.
Yarinacocha in Peru is a place where a linguistic institute named Summer
Institute of Linguistics works its project. In the story, that condition is represented clearly. Yarinacocha is several times mentioned for it is a linking place where
education is trying to reach the natives. It is a base camp of a linguistic institute where natives learn to be literate.
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 linguists and Peruvian instructors, to enable them to teach their people to read and read
and write in their own language Llosa, 1989: 75.
88
The places mentioned and described are to give proofs that The Storyteller are put in the context of Peru for most of the setting of places describes the real
places and its condition in Peru. Moreover, these places represent locales where Llosa was born and grew. Lima, especially, was place where he spent his college
life at San Marcos University. Some rural areas also represent his experiences going into the deep Amazonian jungles http:www.centrorisorse.org, July 23,
2012. Thus, the setting of place represents not only Peruvian territory but also Llosa‘s background related to these places.
To create imagination of Peru, Llosa does not only describe the locales but also the societies. Peru was a country in America Latin which was colonized by
the Spain. Thus, the culture and the societies are influenced and inherited by Spain people. A term characterizing Spanish societies in Peru is mestizo or creole.
Mestizo societies are mentioned to describe mix-blood people living in Peru. They are those inherited from a mixture marriage between white people and natives. It
is described in the story when a figure named Fidel Pereira appears. He was a son of a white man and a Machiguenga woman. This make him be considered as
mestizo 1989: 19. Another significant society depicted in the story is the natives. In the
Peruvian context, they are well-known as Indians. Natives in the story are described in their traditional lives.
‗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
,‘ Llosa, 1989: 73.
89
They mostly live in the jungle and banks of river with their pre-history-
like way of life. There are many of tribes considered as Indians but only some are depicted in the story. They are Aguarunas, Huambisas, Shapras, and
Machiguengas. Through the description of places and societies in the story, it can be
understood that this represent an imagination of Peru. It is true that the simultaneity of some places and some societies depicted in The Storyteller can
explain that, borrowing Anderson‘s theory of imagined community, this novel represents nationalism in the context of Peru because the societies in the places
mentioned can feel imagine the connectedness with other Peruvian. Besides it explain the cultural roots of the people. They can be connected by language and
they are inherited from Spaniards, Incas, even Indians.
2. Ironies in the Setting and Main Conflicts Related to Nationalism
In a way of imagination of Peru, Llosa can be said that he conveys his nationalism in The Storyteller. However, it cannot be concluded that easy since
this novel is not put in the era of independence war. This novel is put in the era of 1950s until 1980s.
The story is put in the era of 1950 as a description at which the narrator underwent college life. Along with that, it is described in the story that this period
is a moment when President Manuel Odría‘s dictatorship regime was broken
down 1989: 8-11. This period of time seems to be the representation of Llosa‘s
journey of life. In 1953, he took Law and Literature at San Marcos. However,
