Usman Farooqi, Rebecca Simon, Orr Shalom, Sanjog Bhatti, Daniel Cheng

In the short story “The Eclipse,” Augusto Monterroso uses personification in order to accentuate the savageness of the native Guatemalan people. An educated priest, Bartolome Arrazola, is “trapped” by the Guatemalan jungle and feels as if there is no escape. He is kidnapped by the natives and believes that the sacrificial altar is his “destiny.” In an ironic plan to save his life, he uses his knowledge of Aristotle and eclipses in order to deceive the natives into sparing his life, which backfires. His arrogance about the natives’ knowledge about the sun leads him to believe they are just savages, which results in his unfortunate death.

Throughout the story, we can see how Monterroso effectively displays a personified view of the Guatemalan Jungle. Monterroso utilizes personification in order to vividly describe the events occurring in his recollection as briefly as possible. Such was the case when Monterroso speaks of Guatemalan jungle as powerful, taking away his strength to survive. In addition, Monterroso successfully utilizes personification by describing how the jungle has trapped Bartolome.

Monterroso presents the altar as an element that works with the jungle to represent the two kinds of people the story contains. Like the jungle, which is seen as uncivilized and untouched by western technology, the altar also represents the barbarity of the natives. The altar, which is an ancient sacrifice device, gives Bartolome a sense of relief in which it “finally rest from his fears, his destiny, from himself.” It also emphasizes the savageness of this “unrefined” race and shows a contrast between the modern priests.

Monterroso’s reference to the sun perceives that the natives didn’t have any knowledge of the eclipse and that they were just savages. Bartolome had given up all hope to survive until he recalled his knowledge of Aristotle “that a total eclipse of the sun was expected.” Bartolome thought to use this to deceive the natives thinking that the natives had no knowledge of the eclipse. His accusations were false because the natives knew the dates of the solar and lunar eclipses from the astronomers of the Mayan community. An occurrence where the surface of the sun is completely obscured meant more to Bartolome; it gave him hope to survive again.

All in all, Monterroso chooses to specifically emphasize the jungle, altar, and sun in order to satirically represent the “savageness” of the indigenous people of Guatemala. This allows for the Europeans, who in fact perceived them as being this way, to be seen by the reader in a negative light. By doing this, Monterroso makes a statement about the efforts by European missionaries to convert natives to Christianity and the perception of natives altogether by the outside world.