Juegos de manos [The Young Assassins] … reveals a … consistent and coherent treatment of the theme [of the scapegoat figure].

The narrative of Juegos de manos is structured into five main parts, formalized as chapters; these in turn are subdivided into cinematographically presented episodes. Through each of these five parts the scapegoat motif gradually takes shape as the characters assume appropriate archetypal roles…. [The] scapegoat motif effectively clarifies the universality of the novel's specific vision of man….

The novel as a totality forcefully portrays the alienation and lack of purpose in a group of bourgeois Madrid youths….

Each member of the group dramatically particularizes the collective anguish and lack of commitment. (p. 1021)

The archetypal function of chapter one is to establish an analogy between the anguish and disorientation of these youths and their counterparts' two thousand years ago. As man at that time lived in moral and physical despair without positive commitments, so, too, do the young people in Goytisolo's novel blindly and anxiously look for a meaning to existence. Man now, as then, uncertainly awaits redemption.

The many fragments of conflict—youth against society, against one another, against their own fears and insecurities—which fleetingly appear in chapter one coalesce and solidify in the second part….

The scapegoat motif in this part unfolds in two ways. First the decision to have one person assassinate the politician on behalf of the group sets up the role of scapegoat. Second, Luis' actions and words about David suggest another main role, the betrayer. The chapter in its entirety, then, brings the action onto a more immediately personal level by defining roles and suggesting players: David, the scapegoat; Luis, the betrayer. (p. 1022)

[There is a] possibility of a third major role in the archetypal story, to be played by Agustín Mendoza…. Agustín appears in scenes from part three as a figure of real and potential evil in relation to David. His evil is real because his pernicious hold over David causes the once obedient, industrious youth to abandon his studies, reject his family, and foolishly accept Agustín's negative values. The potential of evil emerges from ominous contrasts between David and Agustín: Agustín is strong, David, weak; Agustín, the leader, David, the follower; Agustín is dark (archetypal symbol of evil), David is blonde (symbol of good). (p. 1023)

Although the fourth chapter is the briefest of the five, its exclusive concentration on David's conflict vis-à-vis his scapegoat role makes it crucial in the development of the motif. Its very brevity combined with the intensity of David's emotional crisis creates a sense of urgency which is esthetically apposite to this climatic moment in the narrative. In these pages David consciously (interior monologue) and subconsciously (stream of consciousness) recalls his childhood, adolescence, and futile student years in Madrid. As he reflects upon himself in relation to his friends and society in general, through three separate but inter-connected divisions of the chapter, his archetypal function is brilliantly clarified.

The chapter opens with a scene of David seated contemplatively in his room. He picks up the pistol to be used in the assassination and invoking a mental litany, tries to visualize himself a killer…. But seeing the Bible open on the table, he recognizes his cowardice…. These initial paragraphs underscore his hesitancy and fears.

The camera next focuses on David reading in a notebook some childhood reminiscences in which he depicts himself as a sick, lonely child…. (pp. 1023-24)

The use of stream of consciousness to present his psychological conflict in the third episode of the chapter is technically consummate. Through his subconscious runs a conversation in which he looks at the Bible and [questions] his grandmother…. The reference [in this passage] to the iniquity of the Egyptians and their children might be interpreted on a Judaic-Christian level as an allusion to man's original sin, in which case it would be reasonable to associate that concept with the idea of salvation through a redeemer. The conversation could then be seen as a means of anticipating the role which David will play later….

These three episodes in chapter four represent the victim's spiritual preparation before entering public life. For just as Jesus spent forty days in the desert preparing himself, so must David endure these moments confronting his own weaknesses and fortifying himself for his commitment. (p. 1024)

David's role as scapegoat is fairly consistent, although there are some questionable areas in the analogy between him and Christ. Clearly David resembles Christ insofar as he willingly and knowingly allows himself to be chosen the scapegoat for the group. The following details strengthen the fundamental similarity between David and Christ: preparation for public life which for Christ is his three year ministry and for David the assassination attempt; the failure of each to succeed in terms of his colleagues' standards (for Christ's followers, success would have been the establishment of a kingdom on earth, not just in heaven; for David's friends it would be the assassination completed); the spiritual fortification before each is killed; the actual "crucifixion."

David's motives for accepting the scapegoat role, however, do not parallel Christ's in that he is prompted less by altruistic concern for his fellow man than selfish desire to prove himself a hero…. A resuming difference between the two figures … is that in the one story love is demonstrated positively through the unerring example of the scapegoat, whereas in the other that value is to be inferred from the actions of a less than perfect propitiatory victim. (pp. 1026-27)

Christ, David, and Agustín are scapegoats who assume a collective responsibility and guilt and in so doing clarify a universal truth—that love is the value by which man can best authenticate his humanity. Christ and Agustín demonstrate this truth through the extreme examples of their own actions, Christ's example being consistently and thoroughly positive, that of Agustín, consistently and thoroughly negative. David occupies an intermediary position in which the negative example of his initial acceptance of hate combines with the positive example of first rejecting that value and then sacrificing himself. (p. 1028)

Neither evading nor capitulating to the harshness and cruelty of reality, [Goytisolo] universalizes and humanizes the specific world of these Spanish youths so that we feel intensely the need to re-examine our own values in relation to our fellow man while at the same time hoping that out of this revaluation will come a renewed commitment to self-respect, compassion, and the dignity of man. Analyzing the novel as a predominantly negative example of the archetypal motif of the scapegoat is one means of bringing this universality dramatically into focus. (p. 1029)