City of Kings, was the hub for silver mined in the Andes and shipped to Spain. However, with the decline of the Spanish Empire and the depletion of easily accessible silver, Lima's significance waned. In rural areas, Indigenous peoples were trapped in a cycle of poverty that began under Spanish rule. Even in the 1990s, Indigenous peoples constituted the peasant class in Peruvian society, a situation Vargas Llosa remarks upon in his 1962 book. These communities suffered from poverty, malnutrition, and outbreaks of cholera during the 1990s. Lima experienced a revival in the late nineteenth century due to the high demand for guano—bird droppings rich in nitrogen, essential for gunpowder. Peru had abundant guano reserves, which it exported to the West. However, during the War of the Pacific (1879-1884), Chile seized the guano, forcing Peru to seek alternative economic resources.

In the first half of the twentieth century, foreign investment helped Peru develop a mercantile economy, exporting copper, sugar, cotton, fishmeal, oil (until it was depleted), and wool. Nevertheless, as an export-driven economy, Peru struggled to attract investors or build an industrial base, leaving many of its natural resources underutilized. The legacy of colonial exploitation made recovery difficult. This situation began to shift with the onset of the Cold War, which sparked Western interest in Peru. However, significant foreign investment and deforestation (termed economic growth) did not accelerate until the last quarter of the twentieth century.

General Odriá
During World War II, Peru sided with the Allies but only declared war on Japan and Germany in 1945 to become a founding member of the United Nations. Peru's engagement in global affairs and the beginning of the Cold War attracted neo-imperialist interest from the United States. In 1945, José Luis Bustamante y Rivero was elected president of Peru, representing a coalition of leftist groups, including the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA). Their agenda included land reform for the indigenous population. However, this democratically elected government was not defended by the United Nations or the U.S. when General Manuel Odriá, backed by the oligarchy and military, overthrew them. For eight years, Odriá's corrupt and oppressive regime, which began in 1950 after his opponent was excluded from the ballot, marginalized socialist elements and prioritized defense spending over resolving Peru's persistent issues. During his rule, university campuses were infiltrated by military spies, and social mobility was linked to patriotic military service. Odriá's defense budget included extending Peru's territorial waters, which angered the U.S. as its fishing fleet frequently used those waters. However, Peru coordinated this extension with Chile and Ecuador, and the U.S. did little more than lodge protests. Under Odriá, Peru also initiated several cooperative agreements with Brazil. It is in this context that Vargas Llosa sets his novel The Time of the Hero.

In 1956, Odriá permitted elections and was defeated by Manuel Prado y Ugarteche, who had been president during World War II. Although democratic rule ostensibly continued, real power remained with the forty families of the oligarchy, supported by the Catholic Church. In the subsequent elections, Victor Andres Belaunde won by promising economic reforms. Meanwhile, the socialist left gained momentum from Fidel Castro's successful communist revolution in Cuba in 1959, fueling hopes of replicating his success throughout Latin America. In 1965, frustrated by the lack of land reform, 300,000 indigenous people revolted. The military, unwilling to continue supporting the oligarchy, took control of the government. By 1968, a military junta led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado had established a unique form of Peruvian socialism and implemented land reforms. By 1975, the landowning elite had been dismantled, and 40% of the land had been redistributed for cooperative or peasant use. Economic downturns discredited the junta, leading to Belaunde's return as president in 1980. His efforts to reverse the junta's programs resulted in widespread protests and the emergence of the Shining Path.

Peru's Population
Peru, once the heartland of the ancient Inca Empire, has a population of approximately 25 million people. The largest demographic group is Native American, making up 45 percent of the population. Mestizos, individuals of mixed European (mainly Spanish) and Native American heritage, comprise 37 percent. Those identifying as white account for 15 percent, with the remaining population primarily consisting of individuals of African and Japanese descent. Due to historical influences, 90 percent of the population is Catholic. Spanish was the sole official language until 1975, when Quechua was also designated an official language.

In Peru, heritage significantly influences economic status. Individuals with greater European ancestry tend to have higher academic credentials and hold the most lucrative jobs. These people represent the elite of Peruvian society and are typically bilingual in Spanish and another European language. Conversely, many Native Americans, who often do not speak Spanish or any other European language, are relegated to peasant status. They usually work in agriculture or in sweatshops under harsh conditions.

Before beginning his career in Europe, Vargas Llosa participated in an anthropological expedition, visiting a tribe deep in the jungles of Peru. He was astonished by what he saw. According to Rossman, Llosa stated, "I discovered that Peru was not only a country of the twentieth century ... but that Peru was also part of the Middle Ages and the Stone Age." He explored this disparity in his acclaimed second novel, The Green House.

Shining Path
In the 1980s, the plight of Indian peasants and their calls for reform found a new advocate in the militant Maoist organization, the Shining Path. They waged war against the government, resulting in the "disappearance" of around 15,000 people. During the 1990s, Peru's highlands became the leading source of cocaine production bound for the U.S. Alberto Fujimori, who defeated Vargas Llosa in the 1990 elections, leveraged his popularity to gain emergency powers. Utilizing aggressive military tactics against terrorist activities, Fujimori's military—with U.S. assistance through the War on Drugs program—defeated the Shining Path forces. By 1992, the leader of Shining Path, Abimael Guzman, was imprisoned, and Fujimori continued to implement free-market economic policies.

Narrative
Aside from a few geniuses—such as Joanot Martorell and Victor Hugo, whose Les Miserables Vargas Llosa read while attending the Leoncio Prado Academy—the novel before Flaubert and Faulkner, according to Vargas Llosa, is considered primitive. The novels of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries executed the project of realism and naturalism too well, turning the novel into a vehicle for documentation. In contrast, as Vargas Llosa has frequently discussed, the modern novelist uses what the primitive novel documents—emotions, events, facts, and more—to create art. As he explains in The Perpetual Orgy, "everything depends essentially on form, the deciding factor in determining whether a subject is beautiful or ugly, true or false ... the novelist must be above all else an artist, a tireless and incorruptible craftsman of style." The primitive novelist relied on plot and character to generate mystery and suspense. The modernist, however, employs narrative techniques such as multiple viewpoints, ambiguity, and non-linear structures to craft a literary world.

In The Time of the Hero, Vargas Llosa effectively illustrated his theory by interweaving four narrators into a single storyline. By incorporating the voices of Boa, Jaguar, Poet, and Slave, a more authentic depiction of life at the academy emerges. By complicating the narrative technique, Vargas Llosa allows the structure of the story to enhance the plot. For instance, by not identifying Jaguar as one of the four narrators, the assessment of Jaguar remains uncertain until he reveals himself to Lt. Gamboa. In essence, the narrative technique retains the power of the narration within the novel rather than transferring it to the reader.

The method of multiple perspectives employs the Faulknerian style of non-linear storytelling. From the outset, while the drama of the final two months at the academy unfolds, various flashbacks add depth to the main characters and explain the significance of The Circle and the theft of an exam. The Slave recalls a moving experience; the Poet has a similar memory. There is also a third flashback from an unidentified character, which misleads the reader into thinking it is either Slave or Poet. This confusion remains unresolved until the end. This ambiguity prevents an easy judgment of Jaguar. Instead, Jaguar, like Poet and Slave, mirrors the environment of his upbringing. This technique enhances the theme of secrecy and the intricate web of information each cadet masters based on their rank. Jaguar, as the undisputed master, even controls the narrative due to this secrecy and the disbelief surrounding the murder that accompanies his confession. Since the Poet has been portrayed as nearly heroic throughout the novel, the revelation that Jaguar is the hero is difficult to accept.

Plundering and Borrowing
In Temptation of the World, Efrain Kristal describes Vargas Llosa's literary style as “a kind of amalgam of his own experience, literary works, other genres including cinema, and the research he has done around the world.” Consequently, it is no surprise that The Time of the Hero is filled with references and borrowings from other works. For instance, a significant influence on post-World War II literature is existentialism, and Albert Camus' novel The Stranger had a profound effect. Camus' story revolves around a murder committed by a man overwhelmed by the intense sunlight in a tense situation. Similarly, anyone familiar with Camus will recognize the reference to this famous Algerian murder scene when Jaguar assaults a boy for courting Teresa: “the sun broke into my head.” Though there are clear differences, the allusion is deliberate.

The novel also loosely draws from Vargas Llosa's personal experiences. He attended the same military school, but the similarities end there. Instead, Vargas Llosa delves into the broader genre of boarding-school literature. Robert Musil’s Young Törless features a gang that torments the weak and concludes ambiguously, paralleling aspects of Vargas Llosa's work. Another significant borrowing in the novel is the almost Oedipal family dynamic. Each character's success hinges on overcoming the emasculation inflicted by their father. Jaguar's triumph partially depends on the death of his parents. The Poet possesses enough personal vitality to navigate life beyond his mother's influence. The Slave, however, never transitions from his mother's world to his father's, which defines his submissive nature.

Vargas Llosa's extensive use of other artistic works borders on post-modernism. As he explains in Perpetual Orgy, “Imitation in literature is not a moral problem but an artistic one: all writers use, to varying degrees, forms that have been used before, but only those incapable of transforming these plagiarisms into something deserve to be called imitators.” The modern novel's success lies in its ability to stand independently while drawing from literature that transcends time and place. Camus' The Stranger was never limited, as a primitive novel might be, to Algeria, making allusions to it universally recognizable. In contrast, references to novels only known in Peru would be obscure.

1960s: In reaction to the Cuban Revolution, a group of Cuban exiles trained by the U.S. CIA attempted an invasion of Cuba in 1961, known as "the Bay of Pigs," but failed. To support its communist ally, the U.S.S.R. attempted to station missiles in Cuba. The United States, however, refused to permit the deployment of missiles so near. The standoff, which peaked in the fall of 1962, concluded when the U.S. pledged not to invade Cuba.

Today: Despite shifts in policies by many other governments, the United States continues to enforce a trade embargo on Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuba has outlasted its former communist ally, the Soviet Union, and has sought trade and reconciliation with various entities, including the Pope.

1960s: Following World War I and up until the 1960s, much of Latin America embraced the economic theory of import substitution industrialization (ISI). This protectionist policy promoted the domestic production of goods that were typically imported. However, the policy's downfall was hastened by political instability and the neglect of land reform issues.

Today: Fujimori, after defeating the Shining Path and advancing Belaunde's privatization initiatives, has made Peru more attractive to foreign (particularly Japanese and U.S.) investors. The economy has grown, but the gap between the wealthy and the poor has widened.

1960s: To prevent the exodus to the West, East German soldiers tore up the streets on the night of April 13, 1961, leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Today: Although the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the reunification of Germany has been both expensive and challenging.

1960s: Across Latin America, renegade priests began advocating "liberation theology." No longer supporting the oligarchy, these priests preached against the oppression of the poor and spoke favorably of Marxist reforms. Concurrently, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council to initiate reforms within the Catholic Church.

Today: While Catholicism remains strong in Latin America, economic improvements have led to increased secularization among its followers. Pope John Paul II has made significant progress in reforming the church and fostering relationships between Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, other Christian denominations, Jews, and Muslims.

Sources
Castro-Klaren, Sara, Understanding Mario Vargas Llosa, University of South Carolina Press, 1990.

Gallagher, D. P., ''Mario Vargas Llosa,’’ Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 122-43.

Gerdes, Dick, ‘‘The Time of the Hero: Lost Innocence,’’ in Mario Vargas Llosa, Twayne Publishers, 1985, pp. 33-52.

Harss, Luis, and Barbara Dohmann, ‘‘Mario Vargas Llosa, or The Revolving Door,'' in their Into the Mainstream: Conversations with Latin-American Writers, Harper, 1967, pp. 342-75.

Kristal, Efrain, Temptation of the Word: The Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.

Marcelo, J. J. Armas, ‘‘Secrecy: A Structural Concept of The Time of the Hero,’’ in World Literature Today, translated by Mary E. Davis, Vol. 52, No. 1, Winter 1978, pp. 68-70.

Oviedo, Jose Miguel, ‘‘The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero: On Vargas Llosa's Intellectuals and the Military,’’ translated by Richard A. Valdes, in World Literature Today, Vol. 52, No. 1, Winter 1978, pp. 16-24.

Rossman, Charles, ‘‘Mario Vargas Llosa's The Green House: Modernist Novel from Peru,’’ in The Modernists, Studies in a Literary Phenomenon: Essays in Honor of Harry T. Moore, edited by Lawrence B. Gamache and Ian S. MacNiven, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987, pp. 261-74.

Sheppard, R. Z., ‘‘Caged Condor,’’ in Time, February 17, 1975, pp. E3, 84.

Vargas Llosa, Mario, ‘‘A Passion for Peru,’’ in New York Times Magazine, November 20, 1983, pp. 106, 108.

Vargas Llosa, Mario, The Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary, translated by Helen Lane, Farrar, Straus, 1986.

Williams, Raymond Leslie, ‘‘The Beginnings,’’ in Mario Vargas Llosa, Ungar, 1986, pp. 19-38.

Further Reading
Allende, Isabel, Of Love and Shadows, Bantam Books, 1988.
Allende presents a feminist critique of the masculine-dominated world of Latin America and the Boom. Of Love and Shadows is set in a Latin American country under military dictatorship. A wealthy woman named Irene Beltran and Francisco Leal, the son of a Spanish exile, fall in love and uncover a crime that threatens their lives.

Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre, Scholastic Paperbacks, 1996.
One of the earliest novels to explore the struggles of youth against difficult circumstances is Bronte's Jane Eyre (originally published in 1847). Jane endures hardships at a boarding school, hinting at some of the physical abuses found in twentieth-century boarding-school narratives.

Ehrenreich, Barbara, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War, Henry Holt, 1998.
Ehrenreich, who wrote the foreword for the University of Minnesota Press edition of Theweleit's Male Fantasies, has significantly contributed to American histories of sexuality. In Blood Rites, Ehrenreich argues that humans developed warfare to cope with the anxieties of being self-aware members of the food chain. This argument serves as a basis to explain why achieving modern peace remains so challenging.

Fuentes, Carlos, Where the Air Is Clear, Noonday Press, 1971.
The first novel of El Boom, Fuentes' 1958 story critiques Mexican society by examining its post-revolutionary state. An epic of Mexico City's urban history, Fuentes weaves together the lives of eccentric characters—including an Aztec god—to reveal the Mexican psyche.

García Márquez, Gabriel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Harper Perennial Library, 1998.
Arguably the most renowned novel of the Latin American Boom, García Márquez's 1967 masterpiece epitomizes the magical realism genre. The book chronicles the post-colonial history of Latin America through the extraordinary experiences of the Buendia family.

Gibson, James William, Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America, Hill and Wang, 1994.
Gibson infiltrates gun camps and militia group affiliates, uncovering the military and fascist fantasies that thrive within these far-right enclaves even in America.

Oviedo, Jose Miguel, ‘‘The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero: On Vargas Llosa's Intellectuals and the Military,’’ translated by Richard A. Valdes, in World Literature Today, Vol. 52, No. 1, Winter, 1978, pp. 16-24.
Oviedo examines the recurring theme of the intellectual versus the military man in Vargas Llosa's works. This persistent theme leads Oviedo to assert that this dichotomy is significant to both Peruvian culture and Vargas Llosa personally. It suggests a need for a peaceful resolution between these two essential elements of Peru's identity.

Puig, Manuel, Kiss of the Spider Woman, edited by Erroll McDonald, translated by Thomas Colchie, Vintage Books, 1991.
First published in 1976 as El beso de la mujer araña, Kiss of the Spider Woman is Puig's most celebrated novel. A member of the Boom generation, Puig faced condemnation in Argentina for his overt homosexuality. The story revolves around a conversation in prison between Molina, an apolitical homosexual, and Valentin, a young socialist revolutionary who initially despises Molina's sexuality. By the novel's end, they have fallen in love and exchanged roles and viewpoints.

Swanson, Philip, The New Novel in Latin America, Manchester University Press, 1995.
Swanson provides an analysis of the Boom in Latin American literature, detailing its origins and key figures. This account demystifies the Boom by illustrating the influences on writers such as Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, and García Márquez.

Theweleit, Klaus, Male Fantasies, Polity Press, 1987.
Theweleit delves into the documents and libraries of prominent Freikorps members to reveal the sexual tensions intertwined with their warrior ideology. He contextualizes their sexual politics within the broader history of Fascism and European sexuality.

Vargas Llosa, Mario, Pez en el agua (A Fish in the Water: A Memoir), Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994.
Vargas Llosa narrates his experience as a presidential candidate and reflects on his life journey. He exposes the treacherous nature of political campaigning and shares the story of his development from childhood to adulthood.