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Symbolism of the Shadows in Son of Man by Roa Bastos






Author(s)

Patricia G. Montenegro

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2015.04.002

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Cheyney, USA

In his novel Son of Man, Augusto Roa Bastos uses images and symbols of shadows to represent the ramifications of the Paraguayan Dr. José Rodríguez de Francia’s dictatorship. Rodriguez de Francia’s legacy, which begins during the postcolonial years and extends well into the 20th century, resonates in the novel in socio-political structures and characters’ ideologies and behaviors. It allows for plantation owners to enslave workers and their families; it confines and oppresses people through unfounded legends and myths; and among other things, it creates a false idea of purpose and patriotism in the Chaco War (1932-1935), which in the end lets down the soldiers. To counteract these deleterious social conditions, Roa Bastos creates surreal characters, such as a fantastic helper who aids plantation workers to escape dehumanizing situations. Roa Bastos also narrates how the people in Itapé, a small town, make an idol of a Christ statue carved by one of their own. However, when the two Goiburú brothers replace the statue by crucifying their sister’s rapist, the people’s myth is destroyed. Likewise, Roa Bastos avails himself of Christian and Catholic concepts and symbols to transpose them into a humanistic ideology so as to convey hope to his people through a new perspective. In this way, a new Annunciation takes place when the son of a raped woman is born. In the end, Roa Bastos lets the course of these warped transpositions take their logical denouement: In the absence of a purpose beyond an earthly existence, death becomes the narrator’s option.

An idol is as ephemeral

as his creator

Paraguay, Dr. Rodríguez de Francia, dictatorship, surrealism, myth, Chaco War, Annunciation, born again, halo