Nov 23, 2008

The Campaign | Characters

Fuentes has created a number of interesting characters in his historical novel. He makes use of a variety of ideas, but his characters are not reduced to being spokesmen of their beliefs. They are not allegorical figures. Baltasar Bustos is the central figure. At the offset he is a bespectacled, plump clerk at the Superior Court of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de las Plata. His myopia is symbolic. The presiding judge is the Marquis de Cabra, husband of his beloved Ofelia. To test his ideas and to win the admiration of Ofelia Salamanca, he joins the wars of independence as a soldier, despite...