“The Eclipse” by Guatemalan author, Augusto Monterroso uses time gaps in order to prove that the Europeans are inferior to the Mayans, despite their arrogance and superiority complexes. Monterroso describes in, “The Eclipse,” that Bartolome Arrazola, the protagonist, is a Spanish priest who has lived among the Mayans for three years. However, Monterroso also implies that within that time frame Arrazola had not accomplished anything in order to survive in the Guatemalan terrain or amongst the Mayan people. Monterroso’s time gaps emphasize Arrazola’s incapacity to learn the language or even learn the geography of the forest he has spent three years in. Ultimately, Monterroso’s toying with the concept of the time starkly demonstrates how the knowledge from centuries ago that the Europeans so heavily rely on, does not even allow them to survive more than 2 hours against the primitive Mayan knowledge.
The three year time gap that Bartolome Arrazola spent in Guatemalan jungle demonstrated the insufficient use of this time when compare to the two hour it took for his demise. For Bartolome Arrazola, three years in a foreign place only resulted in a “fair knowledge of the native tongue”. Which was obviously not enough for survival since it failed to save him from his sacrifice. His failure to learn his surrounding area led to his near death in the beginning. When he got lost in the jungle, Bartolome, himself, described it as “topographical ignorance”. He was given three years to learn about Mayan culture but when it was time for him to demonstrate his knowledge, it was unsuccessful. It had only taken the Mayans two hours to decide to continue on with the sacrifice and commit the act. When comparing the Mayans’ two hour and Bartolome’s three years, the Mayan had accomplish more.
Bartolome is a very arrogant man who came from a civilized society that was presumably far ahead of the Mayans. The author displays this arrogance during his attempt to escape from captivity by saying “worthy of his talent, universal culture and steep knowing of Arstiole.” This shows how highly he thought of his previous societ and how superior it was compared to the mayans. Despite the long history of his previous society and how superior it was compared to the Mayans, it only took a short time of two hours to kill him.
Hence, Augusto Monterroso uses time gaps as a technique to show Bartolome’s arrogance is inferior to the Mayan’s knowledge. Monterrososo starts with the three years Bartolome spent on the land to state Bartolome has plenty of time to learn about the Mayan culture. However, Bartolome chosen to stay arrogant. Quickly Bartolome’s arrogance is destroyed within two hours by the Mayans. This demonstrates the Mayan’s equal to the Westerns.
