La perspectiva narrativa en Historia de Mayta

Mario Vargas Llosa is an ingenious writer. The extent to which he is able to manipulate the reader’s perceptions of the Peruvian atmosphere through the structure of his writing alone is truly impressive. Vargas Llosa spends the entirety of Historia de Mayta telling us about the corruption, the disintegration, the physical and moral decay of Peru, but his assertions about the hostility of the nation’s atmosphere are brilliantly and subtly compounded by the narrative structure he employs. The fragmented manner in which the story jumps back and forth between past and present with no warning, sometimes mid-sentence, contributes greatly to the atmosphere of confusion, disorientation, and the seemingly random nature of events in the story. The narrative structure in Historia de Mayta is slightly reminiscent of that of García Márquez in La Hojarasca both for the air of chaos and confusion it contributes to the story’s atmosphere as well as the fact that it’s random, disorganized sequence of events hints towards the non-linearity of time.

Vargas Llosa’s narrator is a very perplexing character. Not only does he devote a year of his life to the investigation of a seemingly insignificant man in the overall socialist struggle in Peru, but he actually ventures out on perilous journeys, speaks to rather obnoxious people, wades through the repulsive, filthy slums, has his possessions robbed and vandalized, while constantly being frisked and searched by policemen and guards. We never, however, seem to hear him complain. His level of dedication is astounding and often quite puzzling. The narrator’s obsession with retracing the steps of the revolutionary Alejandro Mayta becomes more and more interesting as the story progresses. In fact, in the sixth chapter, as we get closer and closer to the Jauja climax, the narrator begins to transition away from his third person narrative description of Mayta’s life and begins to speak as if he were taking on the persona of Mayta, in the first person. There follows some fluctuation back and forth between a first and third person Mayta, which appears to indicate some confusion on the part of the narrator. The narrator has apparently retraced the steps of Mayta so completely that he appears to be subconsciously taking on his identity and losing pieces of his own. These fluctuations are extremely subtle and strategically placed so that there is usually a much more interesting incident taking place to overshadow the structural minutiae. An attentive reader can, however, most certainly conceive of the narrator as a three dimensional character in the story, although he is nameless and his personal life and qualities are rarely discussed. I find myself contemplating and theorizing about this narrator. What has caused his obsession with Mayta? Why is he so hell bent on finding out the truth so he can know what he is doing when he lies? For me, the narrator is without a doubt the most interesting character in Mario Vargas Llosa’s Historia de Mayta.