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The Time of the Hero | Introduction

One of the greatest Latin American novelists of the twentieth century, Mario Vargas Llosa belongs to a group of writers who brought Latin American fiction out of the regionalist doldrums of the nineteenth century to the attention of the world. This group includes Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortazar, and Carlos Fuentes. Vargas Llosa, sometimes referred to as the national conscience of Peru, has made a career out of adapting personal and historical events, without bothering about accuracy, to the novel using highly sophisticated techniques of non-linearity and multiple viewpoint.

His first novel, winner of the Premio Biblioteca Breve (1962) and Premio de la Critica Espanola (1963), La ciudad y los perros (literally ‘‘the city and the dogs'' but published in English as The Time of the Hero) made use of his own experience at the Leoncio Prado Academy. The novel was so accurate in its portraiture of the academy that the academy's authorities burned 1000 copies and condemned the book as a plan by Ecuador to denigrate Peru. Such a reception guaranteed the book's sales but its content made it the greatest Latin American novel of adolescence: It is the story of young Peruvian males in their transition to manhood.

The Time of the Hero tells a tale of murder: a squealing cadet must be silenced by a gang called The Circle. The reasons given by The Circle, as well as the rationalization of the authorities to excuse the death as an accident, reveal the process of forming boys into men in a world dominated by the military. The academy does not teach fundamentals; it teaches boys how to exist in hierarchical command-structures and to never, ever squeal. The main characters suffer through a military academy but minor characters portray a non-military route. Although a microcosm of Peruvian society, the novel's themes are universal: masculinity, secrecy, and the military.

The Time of the Hero Summary

The Circle
The Time of the Hero opens at night during a meeting of The Circle—a gang of four cadets in their final year of the Leoncio Prado Academy led by the Jaguar. Their clubhouse is "the windowless latrine" and they are rolling the dice to see who will steal the answers to the chemistry exam. This criminal act sets off a violent chain reaction although The Circle intended only to pass an important exam a mere two months before graduation. Cava, a peasant, rolled the four, meaning he must make arrangements on behalf of The Circle with those cadets on duty to grant him anonymous passage to the academic building. This is easily granted and Cava goes off into the night while Boa and Curly, relieved by the roll of the die, go off to bed.

Later that night, while the Poet and the Slave (forced to take Jaguar's place), who are members of the same section as The Circle, are on patrol, Cava goes forth to steal the exam. While the Poet engages Lt. Huarina in a strange metaphysical discussion away from his proper post, the Slave observes Cava crossing to the academic building. While breaking into the building, Cava accidentally breaks a window-pane he had just painfully removed. As Boa later says, ''You have to be stupid to do that'' and scared. Cava, as a peasant, was susceptible to both. Grabbing the exam and scooping the shards of glass into his pocket, Cava runs back to the barracks.

The Slave
When the exam's theft is discovered, those who were on patrol that night are confined to barracks until the responsible party confesses or someone squeals. The Slave, whose life has been "sheer hell" due to the abuse rained on him by the section and particularly The Circle, had rarely been free of confinement. Most recently, he sent the Poet to Teresa's house to make apologies on his behalf for missing a date. Because of the exam theft, the Slave has been confined again. The Slave asks the Poet to write a letter to Teresa but the Poet refuses. The Slave, in desperation, decides to squeal. Among the cadets, squealing is the worst crime to commit against fellow cadets. However, as Jaguar reveals at the end of the novel, squealing can be justified if done out of revenge for a comrade but not for the sake of getting a pass. The Slave, fed up with being kept from seeing Teresa, reasons that he has everything to gain by squealing on his tormentors. With such motives, the Slave squeals on Cava to Lt. Huarina and receives a pass.

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