The novel “The Green House,” was written by a well-known literature Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, published back in the year 1966. The writer of the novel, Mario Vargas Llosa was born on March 28, 1936, in Peru, and currently, he has established himself as one of distinguished literature writer, not only in Peru but across the globe. In his literature work, plays and essays, Mario have been committed to championing for social change. Llosa has been described by many as the Voice of the Latin American Literature in which for an extended period, he has been known for his political activism through his writing which is based upon fiction, criticism, and drama (Franco, 1997).
The Green House novel is his second literature work in which the setting of the novel is based in the Peruvian jungle. The writer has used fundamental aspects and themes to bring about the reality of its characters, and this has been possible through the combination of mythical, heroic and popular elements.
Structure of the Novel
The plot of this novel is divided into two aspects in which it discusses the occurrence of events both in the desert and in the Jungle. The story comprises of 12 characters who play a fundamental role in bringing out the theme and the concepts of the writer to the society. The story is further broken or subdivided into five significant parts, in which the author embraces the use of impressionistic narrative at the start of each part without having paragraph breaks (Williams et al. 1987).
Each part is further subdivided into chapters in which each chapter is also divided further into separate narratives. These Five narratives included:
i) Bonifacia in the region of the Jungle
ii) Aquilino and Fushia on the Maranon
iii) Lituma and Bonifacia in Piura
iv) Anselmo in Piura, and lastly,
v) The various character in the jungle who are involved in the power struggle.
The novel structure lacks a precise chronology of events in which some of the parallel narratives may be decades apart, which in turn influences causality. Mario Vargas Llosa creates double narration in this novel within the chapters without precise or clear demarcation. On the other hand, one of the fundamental effects or purpose of this book is to intertwine or mingle the past and the present as well as suggesting an omnipresent and continuing brutality and corruption (Williams et al. 1986).
The Green House book lacks specified attributes or elements of fantasy, but on the other hand, it is structured in a way that it provides the lyrical language as well as expertise in shifting time frames which are synonymous with the magical realism. The writer has been able to achieve that by creating lush jungle habitats, lazy villages as well as boisterous brothels.
In The Green House, which spreads from forty years, Vargas Llosa demonstrates the use of two critical social condition settings. One of them is depicted in the jungle environment at Santa Maria de Nieva which comprises of the military outpost as well as the mission along the upper Maranon River in the Amazon jungle, and Piura, a provincial town in northwestern Peru. By juxtaposing several storylines, he has centered the story around on few social concerns.
The grievous consequences of endeavors to Christianize the Indian are exemplified by the predicament of youthful Aguaruna Indian young ladies who are kidnapped by a group of Spanish nuns (with the assistance of fighters positioned at Santa Maria de Nieva) to train them at their wilderness mission (Vargas, 1997). Removed from their way of life and push into an outsider world that never acknowledges them in light of their racial causes, the young ladies wind up in prostitution or subjugation.
Literary Techniques
Vargas Llosa utilizes an assortment of methods to render as graphically and dispassionately as conceivable the surroundings that influence each character's activities.
To achieve a surface portrayal of reality, he often resorts to cinematic devices such as an omniscient "camera eye" that registers details and objects in a given setting. The multilayered structure is achieved mainly through montage (another simulated film device), which serves not only to juxtapose time frames but also to contrast the past and present of a character's existence in different settings. The writer decides to use cinema devices, for instance, the camera eye that registers details and objects in a particular context.
The writer has also used one of the fundamental artistic choices in his narration, through the use of Stream-of-consciousness narratives especially in the narrations which deal with the native population. As voices blend and cover and incoherent considerations assault the reader, he or she is left with only a little feeling of the disarray the Indian clans more likely than not felt notwithstanding these unusual intruders or intruders.
Themes
The nonattendance of sequence and causality supplies narrative material with a general quality. Subsequently, surely understood Spanish American anecdotal points are changed over into topics of more extensive degree: the misuse of the Indian underlines the brutality of man to man while the machismo component overrunning the novel introduces the general theme of viciousness as an equivalent word for masculinity.
The novel's determinism — the presumption that condition, conditions, and circumstances are the definitive factors in a character's life and destiny — blocks any probability of individual improvement or, as needs are, of social advance. Hence the novel shows an existentialist difficulty: Man's frustrated attempts to take charge of his life lead only to despair. All the characters are caught in a web of thwarted intentions. The fragmentation of the narrative structure conveys the frustration, alienation, and helplessness of each character
Conclusion
Based on how the writer narrated the story in the novel “The Green House,” we can conclude that The Green House setup is used to symbolize a place of corruption and sin. But the view on the symbolism used to describe the Green House is depended on individual’s religious inclinations, their perspective on the power of women and women establishment as well as their willingness to partake in the liquor or music. This is because others have viewed the Green House as an oasis in the desert, where there is a high need for entertainment and hope. For the character used by Llosa in this novel, the Green House can be described as the center of life and perhaps death (Llosa, 1968).
Lastly, from the novel, we can conclude that Green House book by Mario Vargas Llosa is primarily as a story of Love or in other words, a story of passion. From the story, we find out that passion is demonstrated which turns to be a real love regardless of the places it occurs. There is a demonstration of religious passion by different character used by the author in the book, especially the point where we find one seeking to convert the heathen masses. On the other hand, other characters demonstrate the love or passion for money and power which is fed by the lawless nature within the jungle region. Other characters also demonstrate hatred with passion towards the Green House and all associated with the Green House (Llosa, 1968).
References
Franco, Jean. "The nation as imagined community." Cultural Politics 11 (1997): 130-140.
Llosa, Mario Vargas. The green house. Avon Books, 1968.
Vargas Llosa, Mario. "The green house." Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper and Row (1968).
Williams, Raymond L. Mario Vargas Llosa. Ungar Publishing Company, 1986.
Williams, Raymond Leslie, and Mario Vargas Llosa. "The Boom Twenty Years Later: An Interview with Mario Vargas Llosa." Latin American Literary Review (1987): 201-206.
