Laura M. Tarpill
Quiroga seems to appeal greatly to teenagers. I can only assume it is because of the death and gore. However, his stories are not the B horror movies of the literary world. Quiroga is a master of foreshadowing. From the beginning, even in the shortest of his stories, he artfully chooses the appropriate words to communicate to the reader the inevitable conclusion. I have found that the students are enthralled by his stories and pick up the grammar and culture gladly, even if it is just to facilitate their finding out what happens in the end.
La gallina degollada / The Decapitated Chicken
In using a story such as La gallina degollada, I hope the students will be sucked in to its plot immediately by the opening paragraph;
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"Todo el día, sentados en el patio, en un banco estaban los cuatro hijos idiotas
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del matrimonio Mazzini-Ferraz. Tenían la lengua entre los labios, los ojos estúpi
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dos,y volvían la cabeza con toda la boca abierta" (Martínez 1997, 170). / "All
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day long the four idiot sons of the couple Mazzini-Ferraz sat on a bench in the
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patio.Their tongues protruded from between their lips; their eyes were dull; their
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mouths hung open as they turned their heads" (Peden 1976, 57).
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In this story, Quiroga introduces the Mazzini-Ferraz family and the four children that come down with a sickness within a year and a half of birth. All four, after suffering a night of convulsions, no longer recognize their parents. They all turn into a sort of soul-less creature. The four children sit all day long staring a brick wall, or the sun.
From that point on, mother and father begin blaming each other for the fate of their first four children. Neither the arguments nor the transformation of all of their children into 'soul-less creatures,' stops the couple from trying for another child.
"Nació así una niña. Vivieron dos años con la angustia a flor de alma, esperan
do siempre otro desastre. Nada acaeció, sin embargo, y los padres pusieron
en su hija toda su complacencia, que la pequeña llevaba a los extremos límites
del mimo y la mala crianza" (Martínez 1997, 173). / "So a daughter was born.
Mazzini and Berta lived for two years with anguish as their constant companion,
always expecting another disaster. It did not occur, however, and the parents
focused all their contentment on their daughter, who took advantage of their
indulgence to become spoiled and very badly behaved" (Peden 1976, 61).
After the children's mother Berta is sure that her daughter Bertita will not succumb to the sickness, she pays no attention to her four animalistic children. Both parents dote on the girl and she is given everything. Mazzini and Berta do not like each other and still get in fights. On the night of Bertita's fourth birthday, the child comes down with the chills from eating too much junk food. The couple gets in a fight and blames each other's family history for what they assume is Bertita's impending doom.
The next day, the parents ask the servant to kill a hen for the next meal. The servant cuts off the animal's head and bleeds it in the kitchen. Quiroga writes that,
"creyó sentir algo como respiración tras ella. Volvióse, y vio a los cuatro idio
tas, con los hombros pegados uno a otro, mirando estupefactos la operación.
Rojo...; Rojo...;" (Martínez 1997, 175). / "she thought she sensed something like
breathing behind her. She turned and saw the four idiots, standing shoulder to
shoulder, watching the operation with stupefaction. Red… Red…"
(Peden 1976, 63).
The servant cries to Berta that her sons are in the kitchen. The children are immediately kicked out, as they are not allowed in that room. They are shoved outside and resume their normal spot on the bench, staring at the brick wall.
As the sun sets, their sister comes into their line of vision. They stare at her blankly as she tries to climb the brick wall. Suddenly, the mood of their faces is changed by what Quiroga describes as a "gula bestial / bestial gluttony" (Martínez 1997, 175 and Peden 1976, 65). As she perches herself on the top of the wall, she is grabbed by the leg. She looks down and her gaze is met by "los ocho ojos / the eight eyes" (Martínez 1997, 175 and Peden 1976, 65) of her brothers. Bertita, the only normal child left, cries out to her mother and father as she is dragged away toward the kitchen, where that morning the four boys had seen the chicken bled. Berta and Mazzini are too late and only arrive to see the aftermath - a blood-covered kitchen floor.
This story illustrates some of the major themes used by Quiroga, including the inevitable death, horror, and innocent cruelty (Martínez 1997, 22). These are themes that could be explored with a class. In fact, depending on the level of the class, it might be helpful to chart this information with examples from the story. I would break the students into groups of two and ask them to cite examples from the story. They could chart the information that they find as follows,
Another useful exercise for this story is a refresher on the uses of the imperfect versus the preterite. For use in my upper-level classes (Spanish IV Honors, AP Spanish) I would outline the rules of use for each tense and then juxtapose them. We could then take a look at quotes taken from the stories and have them explain in the target language why the author uses the imperfect or the preterite. The following is an example,
Citas del pretérito versus imperfecto
"Después de algunos días los miembros paralizados de la criatura recobraron el movimiento; pero la inteligencia, el alma, aun el instinto, se habían ido del todo" (Martínez 1997, 171).
"Esta vez los padres cayeron en Honda desesperación. ¡Luego su sangre, su amor estaban malditos!" (Martínez 1997, 171)
"No sabían deglutir, cambiar de sitio, ni aun sentarse. Aprendieron al fin a caminar, pero chocaban contra todo, por no dares cuenta de los obstáculos" (Martínez 1997, 172).
After reviewing the tenses, analyzing the quotes, reading the story, and filling out the 'Elementos' chart, and completing various speaking, listening and writing comprehension activities, the students will be responsible for completing a written take-home test.
El almohadón de plumas / The Feather Pillow
This is another of Quiroga's stories that deals with the inevitable death. He communicates this fact implicitly through the use of foreshadowing. When using this story with my class, the students' grammar focus will be on the past subjunctive, while they will simultaneously look at the inevitable death and foreshadowing.
El almohadón de plumas begins with the simple sentence, "Su luna de miel fue un largo escalofrío" (Martínez 1997, 178). Literally, 'her honeymoon was one long shiver.' Quiroga goes on to describe the bride, Alicia, as blond and angelic. Her husband, Jordan, is a rough, cold man. She loves him as he loves her, but their life together is characterized by words such as 'escalofríos, estremecimientos, mármol, blancura, severidad' (chills, shudders, marble, whiteness, severity). Clearly, this story will not end well.
Alicia grows thin and has a case of the flu. She walks only with the help of Jordan and looks around listlessly (Peden 1976, 6). Soon, the doctor orders her to stay in bed because she feels faint and is unable to walk on her own. She grows worse with each passing day. Neither Jordan nor the doctor is able to explain Alicia's condition. Alicia then begins to hallucinate.
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"Entre sus alucinaciones más porfiadas, hubo un antropoide apoyado en la
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alfombra sobre los dedos, que tenía fijos en ella sus ojos. Los medicos volvieron
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inútilmente. Había allí delante de ellos una vida que se acababa, desangrán
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dose día a día, hora a hora, sin saber absolutamente cómo" (Martínez 1997,
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180). / "Among her most persistent hallucinations was that of an anthropoid
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poised on his fingertips on the carpet, staring at her. The doctors returned, but
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to no avail. They saw before them a diminishing life, a life bleeding away day
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by day, hour by hour,absolutely without their knowing why" (Peden 1976, 7).
As Alicia shrivels, her husband can only stand by and watch. The narrator mentions that Alicia is suffering from anemia and that she is always worse in the morning. Alicia finally dies. Only when the servant is charged with stripping the bed does anyone notice the blood stains on the pillow. She calls Jordan in and they both look at the pillow. The servant mentions that the stains look like punctures. The servant attempts to hold the pillow up to the light but it is too heavy to lift for any amount of time. "Sin saber por qué, Jordán sintió que los cabellos se le erizaban (Martínez 1997, 181). / Without knowing why, Jordan felt the hair rise on the back of his neck" (Peden 1976, 8).
The servant says, trembling, that the pillow is heavy. Jordan picks it up and brings it to the dining room table. He rips open the case and the ticking.
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"Las plumas superiores volaron, y la sirvienta dio un grito de horror con toda la
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boca abierta, llevándose las manos crispadas a los bandós. Sobre el fondo,
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entre las plumas, moviendo lentamente las patas velludas, había un animal mon
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struoso, una bola viviente y viscosa. Estaba tan hinchado que apenas se le
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pronunciaba la boca" (Martínez 1997, 181). / "The top feathers floated away,
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and the servant, her mouth opened wide, gave a scream of horror and covered
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her face with her clenched fists: in the bottom of the pillowcase, among the feath
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ers, slowly moving its hairy legs, was a monstrous animal, a living, viscous ball.
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It was so swollen one could scarcely make out its mouth" (Peden 1976, 9).
It turns out that what the reader believes to be Alicia's hallucinations, were actually not hallucinations at all. A large tick was sucking the life out of her every night.
As with La gallina degollada, I would like the students to have a preview of the grammar Quiroga uses in the story. Depending on the level, I will either do a review of the past subjunctive or I will do an entire overview lesson. After the initial grammar lesson is done, the students will have a chance to see the construction used in context. I will give them a sheet of past subjunctive that is used throughout the story. In this way, they will not only have a preview of some of the harder grammatical constructions but they will also have a preview of the plot. For each quote, I would like them to translate and explain why the past subjunctive must be used in that particular instance.
Citas del subjuntivo
"Sin duda hubiera ella deseado menos severidad en ese rígido cielo de amor, más expansiva e incauta ternura; pero el impasible semblante de su marido la contenía siempre" (Martínez 1997, 179).
"Al cruzar de una pieza a otra, los pasos hallaban eco en toda la casa, como si un largo abandono hubiera sensibilizado su resonancia" (Martínez 1997, 179).
"Pasábanse horas sin que se oyera el menor ruido" (Martínez 1997, 179).
Since this will be the second of the two stories that we read, we will use this story as the basis for the final assessment. The students will be broken up into pairs. Each pair will be given a segment of the story to illustrate on a large sheet of paper. The groups will then be responsible for narrating their segment in their own words. In this way, when the segments are put into order, the story will be renarrated by the students in their own words. They will be graded by the rubric for New Haven Public School's World Languages Oral Presentation.
El hombre muerto / The Dead Man
This five-page short story tells of the impalement of a man on his machete. Quiroga starts the reader out in the banana grove where the man is clearing rows. He feels satisfied with his work and observes that he only has a bit left to do. He decides to climb over a nearby barbed wire fence so that he can "tenderse un rato en la gramilla" (literatura.us) / "stretch out for a while in the grama grass" (Peden 1976, 121). By the second paragraph of the story, the main character slips on a piece of bark handing from a fence post while holding down the wire so he can cross the fence. As he slips, he drops his machete.
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"Ya estaba tendido en la gramilla, acostado sobre el lado derecho, tal como él
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quería. La boca, que acababa de abrírsele en toda su extension, acababa tam
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bién de cerrarse. Estaba como hubiera deseado estar, las rodillas dobladas y
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la mano izquierda sobre el pecho. Sólo que tras el antebrazo, e inmediatamente
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por debajo del cinto, surgían de su camisa el puño y la mitad de la hoja del
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machete, pero el resto no se veía" (literatura.us) / "Now he was stretched out
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on the grass, resting on his right side just the way he liked. His mouth, which
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had flown open, had closed again. He was as he had wanted to be, his knees
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doubled and his left hand over his breast. Except that behind his forearm, imme
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diately below his belt, the handle and half the blade of his machete protruded
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from his shirt; the remainder was not visible" (Peden 1976, 121).
At this point, the man knows that he is going to die. From this point on in the story, the narrator alternates between observing the surroundings and theorizing about death and life. The story is basically a snapshot in time, what people might call the 'out-of-body experience;' that slow-motion forever of the dying moments. The narrator explains that even though he has been going on about the cycle of life, 'No han pasado dos segundos: el sol está exactamente a la misma altura' (literatura.us) / 'Still not two seconds passed: the sun is at exactly the same altitude' (Peden 1976, 122).
The thought of death crosses the main character's mind again and he pushes it out, thinking that the whole experience is just a nightmare (Peden 1976, 122). He and the narrator alternate again between observing the surroundings (his house with the red roof, the scrub trees, the fence posts that will have to be replaced) and thinking about inevitable death.
But then, half way through the story, the main character considers life and the question of whether it is a normal day. His mare is standing close by and he hears whistling from the boy who goes to the new port every morning at 11:30. Life is continuing on, so how could he be dying?
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"¿Qué pasa, entonces? ¿Es ése o no un natural mediodía de los tantos
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en Misiones,En su monte, en su potrero, en el bananal ralo? ¡Sin duda! Gramilla corta, conos de hormigas, silencio, sol a plomo...; Nada, nada ha cam
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biado. Sólo él es distinto" (literatura.us). / "So what is happening, then? Is this
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or isn't it an ordinary midday like so many others in Misiones, in his bushland,
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on his pasture, in his cleared-out banana grove? No doubt! Short grass, and
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hills, silence, leaden sun...; Nothing,nothing has changed. Only he is different"
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(Peden 1976, 123).
Even as he lay dying, the main character keeps observing things that need to be fixed, like the handle of his machete. Life is continuing even as he lay dying. Only the man doesn't seem to realize he is mortally wounded; only the narrator does. He just thinks he is tired from the midday sun (Peden 1976, 124). He hears his son coming and once again claims to himself that his situation is a nightmare. The last we hear or see of the main character is him saying that he can abandon his body and observe his surroundings. He can see all the things he built or cleared with his own hands. He can see himself on the ground, "descansando, porque está muy cansado" (literatura.us) / "resting, because he is very tired" (Peden 1976, 125). Quiroga leaves the reader with the horse and the sounds of nearby voices.
The students will first read the story and finish a sheet on verb identification. (They have reviewed the preterite, the imperfect, and the past subjunctive in the previous two Quiroga stories). We will also have a brief class discussion on the plot, characters, and themes in El hombre muerto. The students' final step will be to write an ending for the story. It must flow and make sense when read with the existing story, which means they should stick to the plot, characters, and verbs tenses (unless they write it in the 'future'). This story will be grade using the New Haven School District writing rubric.
I believe that this story will lend itself beautifully to a final assessment. There are many discussion points, including death and self awareness. Depending on the comfort level of the students, we might even discuss how they might deal with their own mortality.