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The Night Face Up
Symbols and Other Literary Devices
We will be looking at the story from 3 major viewpoints.
Theme:
central meaning or dominant idea
Contrast
Dreams Deal with Traumatic Experiences
About the Author
- parallel events / objects
- imagery: vivid descriptions of the Aztec world and contrasting colours used for the different worlds (white for hospital, black & red for Aztec world)
- diction used to emphasize contrast
- atmosphere / mood is created in both worlds
- hyperbole: everything is slightly exaggerated or heightened in the Aztec world
- irony: the ending is ironic because it contradicts the idea that the Aztec world was the dream and the hospital was reality
- juxtaposition: overlapping or mixing of opposite or different situations; this is used to heighten contrast and moods
- extended metaphor: can be used for the interpretation that the dream is being used to deal with traumatic events
- foreshadowing: way in which the hospital is described hints at the ending
Contrast
Which one is the dream?
Contrast is an integral part of The Night Face Up as it is implemented with the use of several literary elements to strengthen the theme of dream vs. reality and civilization vs. savagery. It is achieved with the use of two settings, the first being in the modern world and the second in the Aztec world, which are alternated throughout the story.
Carl Jung's theory states that dreams allow individuals to understand and express their true feelings and offer solutions to problems that exist in the person's waking life. The protagonist's dream mirrors his accident and its consequences, supporting this interpretation of the story.
In The Night Face Up, Julio Cortazar led the reader to believe that the narrator lived in the modern world and proceeded to end the short story with a revelation that the modern world was actually the dream. The Night Face Up is rather ambiguous since it is possible for both settings, the modern world and Aztec world, to be the protagonist’s material world.
- Diction choice and writing style created a very orderly and pleasant impression of the city.
- “He lets the ministries zip past (the pink, the white), and a series of stores on the main street.”
- Even when he falls off his motorcycle, the author still maintains the pleasant atmosphere and tone of the city by describing the bystanders are amiable
- “Voices which did not seem to belong to the faces hanging above him encourage him cheerfully with jokes and assurances”
- The modern world represents order, civilization, safety and goodness.
- In comparison to the modern world, the diction creates a disorganized image of the Aztec world.
- The Aztec world is described as being savage, wild and violent.
- This world is also described in vivid detail with constant reference to the smell of the world which is very unusual as the man states that he has never dreamt smells.
- This world is full of fear, darkness and death, and it is the opposite of the modern world.
Dreams Deal with Traumatic Experiences
Setting
So Which One is the Dream?
- based on Carl Jung's theory
- “Persona” : person you are in your waking life thought of as being a mask
- “Self” : person you appear to be in your dream world may appear different but you still know it’s you
- “Shadow” : antagonist in the dream represents the parts of yourself that you dislike
Evidence that the Aztec World is Real
Evidence that the Hospital is Real
"The historical time and place and the social circumstances that create the world in which the characters act"
If the Aztec World is the Dream ....
Julio Cortazar was born in Brussels in 1914 and shortly after the Argentina War he moved to Argentina. However, in 1951 he moved to Paris and did not return to Argentina after many years as he was exiled for his political views. Once the ban lifted he visited his home country many times. His background may have influenced the theme of civilization vs. savagery and the contrast between a modern world and a less developed Aztec world in The Night Face Up. Julio Cortazar’s stories were innovative for their time, borrowing elements from the Surrealism movement. He passed away in 1984 at the age of 69 and celebrated as one of Latin America’s greatest writers.
If the Original World is the Dream ...
- “He detached himself almost physically from the final scene of the nightmare” (Pg. 267)
- “It was unusual as a dream because it was full of smells” (Pg. 266)
• “marshy smell” (Pg.266)
• “fresh composite fragrance” (Pg. 267)
• “smell of war” (Pg. 267)
- “He felt thirsty, as though he’d been running for miles” (Pg. 268)
• He was running in the Aztec world, which may have brought about this thirst
- After waking up from a dream, the pain that was felt in the dream immediately subsides (The Neurocritic, 2011)
• Ex. Getting beat up in your dream, but waking up without any pain
• He hurt his knee in the motorcycle accident but did not perceive the pain while he was running through the forest in the Aztec world
- The protagonist is a round character who changes after being a fugitive and prisoner
• He progressed in the same way that we do in our lives
• At first, he was running away from death because he was scared
• At the end, he “was lying face up,” before death itself (Pg. 272)
- He seemed to well-versed on all of the customs of the Moteca, as well as the forest trails and the supplication prayer
- Dreams do not have smells but the protagonist observed a:
• “hospital smell” (Pg. 266)
- “A young intern arrived with some metal and leather apparatus”
• He is not familiar with medical apparatus and could not have dreamt about something he has never seen (Wenk, 2011)
- During slow wave sleep (SWS), you dream of events that are occurring really quickly and can involve older memories that are full of emotions (Wenk, 2011)
• Events in the Aztec world were occurring fairly quickly and he was full of fear (he was running from the Aztecs, he lost the trail, touches the amulet and mutters a supplication prayer, gets captured by the Aztecs, discovers that the amulet is missing, he was lifted and taken to the executioner priest with the stone knife)
- Slow wave sleep is one of the first stages of the sleep cycle, during non-REM sleep (Roth, 2009)
• The images of the Aztec world would appear soon after the protagonist felt drowsy
• Right after the administration of anesthesia, prior to the surgery
• After drinking the broth, he let himself “drift off”
• “Now sleep began to take over again…the violet light was beginning to get dimmer”
• “It was difficult to keep his eyes open, the drowsiness was more powerful than he”
- the hospital is like a sanctuary for him
- it is safe and comfortable
- he is able to escape the idea that he will most likely die
- he creates a world where he is in an unfamiliar environment because of an injury, not because he is being chased away from his home and hunted down
- protagonist states that he is in shock after the accident, proving that it had a significant impact on him
- "he tried to fix the moment of the accident exactly, and it got him very angry to notice that there was a void there, an emptiness he could not manage to fill"
- originally recognizes the Aztec world as a dream
- "but he didn't want to go on thinking about the nightmare"
- his plan in the Aztec world is to hide and run from his problems
- pain from the accident doesn't exist in the Aztec world
- the Aztec world is dark and fearful, which could represent his negative emotions and his fear that he caused the accident (he sees himself as a killer)
- both worlds have several parallel images (stone slab & hospital bed, Aztec torches & hospital lights, amulet & water, stone knife & needle / surgery)
- "in the infinite lie of the dream, they had also picked him up off the ground, someone had approached him also with a knife in his hand, approached him who was lying face up, face up with his eyes closed between the bonfires on the steps"
Historical Context
Evidence that Both Are Dreams
- includes the temple and the jungle
- "war of the blossom" is taking place
- flower wars were ritual battles to capture prisoners to sacrifice at a temple
- the Aztec gods saw humans as flowers to be uprooted
- had already been occurring for 3 days and nights
- hunt would continue until ended by a priest
- the number of victims was not significant
- members of other cities / communities were targeted by these hunters
- NOTE: the flower wars were ended by the Spanish when they discovered the Aztecs
- takes place at night in a forest
- runs from the Moteca warriors dressed in traditional clothing
- once again the protagonist notices several smells: "marshy smell" "fresh composite fragrance" & "smell of war"
- dark and full of fear
- world is described in vivid detail
- disorganized and chaotic
- includes the city (the ambulance and the street where the accident took place) & the hospital (the hospital ward which had several beds and the room in which his X-ray was taken)
- city is modern and civilized - motorcycles, street lights, cars
- world is neat, organized, simple, pleasant and calm
- predictable - a specific procedure is followed after the accident; hospital has a predictable routine
- sunny “sun filtered through the tall downtown buildings”
- friendly and safe atmosphere shown by paramedics, doctors, man next to him in the hospital
- “encouraged him cheerfully with jokes and assurances”
- “A violet lamp kept watch high on the far wall like a guardian eye.”
- accident makes him go into shock, resulting in him having difficulty focusing and paying attention to every detail
- no details that point towards a specific culture or country (foreshadows the ending)
- Third-person point of view
• The effect of an imaginary person explaining the occurrences in the protagonist’s life
• The protagonist could be the narrator of the story and it is possible that he is looking at himself in a dream (similar to inception: a dream inside a dream)
- Selective omniscient narrator
• The author enters the protagonist’s mind and describes his feelings
• “To be afraid was nothing strange, there was plenty of fear in his dreams” (Pg. 267)
• He was scared to hit the woman with his motorcycle & was scared to be taken as a scapegoat by the Aztecs
Point of View
Tone
Plot
Characterization
• The Night Face Up is written in third person point of view (non-participant point of view)
• The author also uses employs a selective omniscient narrator who can only enter the mind of the main character
• This point of view is effective in conveying the message/ theme of the story as the reader knows what is happening in the surrounding environment as well as the thoughts of the main character
Flat Characters
CONFLICT
Rising Action
Falling Action
- acceptance
- the protagonist accepts that he will die
- he comes to the conclusion that the Aztec world is reality and that the hospital was a dream
- he can no longer make sense of what happened in the hospital
- "green and red lights that burned without fire or smoke, on an enormous metal insect that whirred away between his legs"
Round Character: The Protagonist
- The narrator introduces the setting and the protagonist goes for a motorcycle ride
- He hits the woman in the crosswalk and is taken from the accident by paramedics
- While at the hospital, he begins dreaming about the Aztec world where he is running from warriors whose goal is to capture him
- These warriors steal his protective amulet and he is captured
- He begins to heal at the hospital and drinks water
- He drifts in between the two worlds
- Each time he leaves the Aztec world, suspense is created through cliffhangers
- person vs. group - the protagonist is trying to escape from the warriors who want to capture and sacrifice him
- person vs. self - he struggles with guilt after he hits the woman with his motorcycle
- person vs. self - he struggles with his identity as he attempts to determine which world is the dream world
Climax
- The protagonist has been taken prisoner and starts to stop fighting, give up and accept his fate as he is taken into the sacrificial chamber
- "strained until the pain became unbearable and he had to give up"
- "he was screaming because he was alive, his whole body with that cry fended off what was coming, the inevitable end"
- this is reflected in his failures in the hospital
- " he made one last effort, he sketched a gesture toward the bottle of water with his good hand and he did not massage to reach it, his fingers closed again on a black emptiness"
- "with a last hope he shut his lids tightly, moaning to wake up"
• The tone of the story varies with the setting
• While in the modern world the tone is safe, comforting and pleasant
o This is achieved by using words with positive connotations
• In the Aztec world the tone conveys the character’s fear as he is running from danger
o It is the opposite of what is happening in the modern world
• The tone enhances the contrast between the modern world, representing civilization, and the Aztec world, representing violence and savagery
• The tone and the imagery it creates are more vivid in the Aztec world leading to the protagonist’s conclusion that the Aztec world is in fact reality
- minor characters who do not undergo substantial change or growth
- girl who is hit by the motorcycle
- patient next to him in the hospital
- paramedics
- officer
- guard
- X ray technician
- doctor
- priest
- acolytes
- nurse
- intern
- round character: fully developed and encounters conflict
- the protagonist is a complex character with many emotions and thoughts
- author focuses more on the protagonist's actions, thoughts and dreams than on specific personality traits
- he begins the story carefree and ends up struggling to survive and accept what has happened
- faces person vs. group conflict and person vs. self conflict
- namelessness creates suspense as it prohibits connecting him to one specific world
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SOURCES
- http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/jung3.htm
- http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-flower-war.html
- http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2955/the-art-of-fiction-no-83-julio-cortazar
- http://neurocritic.blogspot.ca/2011/09/phenomenology of-pain-during-rem-sleep.html.
- http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain food/201102/sleep-and-dreams.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824210/.
- Echoes 12 Textbook