“The Night Face Up”
by Julio Cortázar
Jenna Spoont, Claire Grant, Zachary
Phelps, and Steven Li
Characters and Conflict
Characters
 The nameless man is the protagonist
 The Aztecs are the antagonists
Conflict
 Man vs. His dreams
 Man vs. Reality
 Man vs. Society
Modern Plot Structure
 Setting: Modern city presumably in Mexico
 Exposition
Narrator late for something (work, appointment)
Drives down calming street
 Precipitating event: Narrator gets in accident with women

Rising Action

Brought to hospital

Almost happy except for a pain in his stomach
Climax: brought into surgery, drifts into dream
Modern Plot Structure Cont.
Falling action
Recovers in hospital
Realizes a gap between crash and his reawakening:
“He tried to fix the moment of the accident exactly and it got
him very angry to notice that there was a void there, an
emptiness he could not manage to fill. Between the impact
and the moment that they picked him up off the pavement,
the passing out or what went on, there was nothing he could
see. And at the same time he had the feeling that this void,
this nothingness, had lasted an eternity. No, not even time,
more as if, in this void, he had passed across something, or
had run back immense distances” (Julio Cortázar 696).
Resolution: trapped in Aztec world
Aztec Plot Structure
Setting: Aztec forests near Teocalli temple
Exposition: Motec indian being chased by
Aztecs during the “war of the blossom.”
Rising Action
Drifts off the motec path, foot gets stuck in mud
Aztecs find him and capture him
Wakes up in the dark, hands tied
Climax: carried to top of Aztec temple to be
sacrificed.
Aztec Plot Structure Cont.
 Falling Action: attempts to escape from dream to modern
times as the…
 “waning moon fell on a face whose eyes wanted not to see it, were
closing and opening desperately, trying to pass to the other side,
to find again the bare, protecting ceiling of the ward. And every
time they opened it was night and the moon…” (Julio Cortázar
697).
 Resolution
 Aztec world becomes reality
 Modern world becomes dream
 Trapped in the Aztec reality
 “He managed to close his eyelids again, although he knew now he was
not going to wake up, that he was awake, that the marvelous dream had
been in the other, absurd as all dreams are” (Julio Cortázar 689).
For the visual learners
Brought
to
hospital
Modern city in
Mexico, Narrator
late for work.
Gets in
accident
with
women
Narrator is a
motec,
escaping
from Aztecs
Recovers in
hospital
Realization of
Brought into
gap between
surgery drifts
accident and
into dream
awakening
Trapped in
dreams
Almost
happy,
except for
pain in
stomach
Wakes up in
dark, hands
tied
Aztecs find
him and
capture him
Drifts off the
motec path
and feet get
stuck in mud
Carried to
top of Aztec
temple to be
sacrificed Attempts to
escape to
modern
times
Dream becomes
reality, modern story
becomes the dream,
and narrator is
trapped in Aztec
times.
Elements of Magical Realism
 Realistic Elements:
Motorcycle and crash
Hospital and drugs/X-rays/pain
Nurses/Doctors
Everything in the hospital is white
Forests, daggers, warriors chasing him
Emotions
Smells
 "He opened his eyes and it was afternoon, the sun already low
in the oversized windows of the long ward. While trying to
smile at his neighbor, he detached himself almost physically
from the final scene of the nightmare“ (Cortázar 694).
Elements of Magical Realism
 Magical Elements:
The protagonist switches from Modern era to Aztec era
 His dream being in the hospital, to his reality being in Mexico
“His dreams are frequently interrupted…by brief moments
of awareness of his hospital surroundings” (Peden 112).
“As he was sleeping on his back, the position in which he
came to did not surprise him…he was surrounded by an
absolute darkness. Tried to get up and felt ropes pinning his
wrists and ankles. He was staked to the ground on a floor of
dank, icy stone slabs” (Cortázar 696).
Purpose of the Magical Elements
“The short stories of this modern Argentine
author becomes one of delusions,
hallucinations, and nightmares—powerful
fantasies that at times have the strength to
kill and that frequently destroys the minds of
the afflicted characters” (Gyurko 112).
Characters’ Reactions to Magical
Elements
“Cortázar’s characters are pawns of fate,
suborned by demons that they struggle
against but whom they are compelled to
obey” (Gyurko 112-113).
“In most instances, Cortázar’s characters
destroy their own selves. Fate becomes an
inner force, the relentless action of the
obsessed and tormented consciousness”
(Gyurko 113).
Dreamlike Qualities of Story
“It was unusual as a dream because it was full
of smells, and he never dreamt smells”
(Cortázar 694).
“Maybe an animal that, like himself, was
escaping from the smell of war” (Cortázar
694).
Treatment of Magical Elements
 The Reality:
War of the blossom
Aztec era
 Dream:
Motorcycle accident
Hospital
Modern era
 “Fantasy worlds are experienced with a conviction and an
intensity that make them real for the characters. External
reality, on the other hand, recedes to the level of the unreal”
(Gyurko 113).
Relationship Between the Real World and the
Unreal Elements
The Irony:
What is used as a dream is actually what is reality
What is used as reality is actually what is a dream
Uses Cortázar’s:
“sense of supernatural, uncanny or
weird…Fantastic literature” (Jones, Ed. 692).
Descriptive Passages/Imagery
“ Now he was beginning the most pleasant part
of the run, the real ride: a long street bordered
with trees, very little traffic, with spacious villas
whose gardens rambled all the way down to
the sidewalks, which were barely indicated by
low hedges” (693).
"First, a marshy smell...But the reek lifted, and
instead there came a dark, fresh composite
fragrance, like the night under which he moved,
in flight from the Aztecs" (694).
Hyperbole
Exaggerations
When he passes out during the accident, feels
like a much longer time
War with Aztecs
Similes and Personification
 "The fever was winning slowly and he would have to
be able to sleep again..."(695).
 "As if the sky were aflame on the horizon, he saw
torches moving among the branches, very near him"
(695).
 "The creaking of the wooden latches jolted him like a
whip" (696-697).
 "A violet lamp kept watch high on the far wall like a
guardian eye" (696).
Similes and Personification
 "Now sleep began to take over again, to pull
him slowly down" (696).
 Vivid descriptions
 "Cortazar's narrative art is one of paradox,
ambiguity, and ironic reversal" (Grossvogel
113).
Metaphors
Anyway, he felt an immense relief in coming
out of the black pit while the people were
lifting him off the ground"(696).
“His jaws were twisted back as if with a rope
or stick" (696).
“He detached himself almost physically from
the final scene of the nightmare" (694).
Descriptive Passages/Imagery
"His feet sank into a bed of leaves and mud,
and then he couldn't take a step that the
branches of shrubs didn't whiplash against his
ribs and legs" (695). ~also personification
Makes the audience see, smell, feel the scene
Typical of Magical realism
Symbolism
Parallels between reality and dream
“Thus the stretcher on which he is placed prior to his
operation can be linked to his sensation of being
carried face-up through a passageway of the
pyramid; the lights and medicinal odors of the
hospital reappear as Aztec torches and the cloying
smells of war; the pulley holding his broken arm
immobile is repeated in the ropes binding him to a
stone slab; and his surgery emerges as a prelude to
his sacrifice by a knife-wielding Indian priest” (113).
Treatment of Time
 A few days
 Starts at ten to nine
 Literary critic talks about theses parallels saying, “Still,
numerous parallels between his conscious and unconscious
states creates a unifying, reflecting-mirror structure that
foreshadows the surrealistic denouement”(Peden113).
 Parallels between real world and dream
 -Wakes up in dream
 -Falls asleep in reality
 Passes out between dream and reality for a few minutes,
seems like a long time
Treatment of Time
 “And at the same time he had the feeling that this void,
this nothingness, had lasted an eternity. No, not even
time, more as if, in this void he had passed across
something, or had run back immense distances”(696).
 Uses time to show how quickly the accident happens, his
recovery, surgery, etc.
 Uses time of day and lighting to know what time of day it is
Political/Cultural Messages
 The intensity and horrors of war
 Challenges the reader’s faith in reality
 To shock people
 Tells about the Aztec world
 “In ‘La noche boca arriba’ he goes a step further,
transforming objective reality into an insane dream and
the terrible nightmare of Aztec savagery into reality, but
he nevertheless accomplishes something akin to the
surrealists’ goal”(Peden 113).
Themes
 Tale about the impossibility of telling and about the
frustration of seeing—twin expressions of the
ontological dilemma that defines man.
 Present situation that seem to be absurd or
fantastic. Two worlds, one supernatural, one equally
as convincing as the other.
 “Characters are prone to absorption into fantasy
worlds because they are narcissistic, emotionally
unstable” (Gyurko 113).
 Many characters lack a name.
Author Biographical Information
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
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August 26, 1914—February 12, 1984
Born in Brussels, Belgium and his parents were of Argentinean decent
6 ft. 6in, long hair, and a beard.
Produced novels, short stories, as well as writing poetry.
Translated works from famous writers such as Edgar Allen Poe into
Spanish.
Began career as an elementary and high school teacher. Also taught
French literature at a university.
He then moved to Buenos Aires where he became a translator.
He then continued translating in Paris for the United Nations after
receiving an offer from France.
Was criticized by many for losing his Argentinean identity, but he claimed
he was like a snail that "carries his nest with him and travels all over the
world" (The Contemporary World 1236).
Stories, Novels, Pieces of Work
 Bestiary 1951 (Included “House Taken Over” which we went
over yesterday)
 Cronopias and Famas 1969
 Hopscotch 1963 was considered his most remarkable novel
 62: A model Kit 1968
 Last Round (1969)
 Fantomas Takes On the Multinational Vampires 1975
 A manual for Manuel 1973
-Around the day in eighty worlds 1967 (this is not a typo that’s
the name of the book)