Ishaan Dasgupta

‘In the city, men and women are hardly more than automata, or crawling bugs that spawn
and die.’
How applicable is this description to the representation of the city in the works you have
studied for this topic?

The Latin American metropolis, unlike its European counterparts, did not benefit from
centuries of slow growth and development. Its rapid increase in population and industry
instead led to hastily constructed cities, and a clear juxtaposition of rural life and
metropolitan activity was created. The city was a site of tradition and technology, of
superstition and science, and the way they combined and clashed was a topic of intense
exploration by Latin American creatives. The growth of the modern capitalist system saw an
influx of capital- both human and monetary- into these cities, leading to a huge growth in
population, such as the boom of Italian immigrants in Argentina, or those seeking to escape
countryside poverty in Mexico. Capitalism, by nature, both creates and destroys, and at the
expense of economic development enriching a select few, social stratification emerged, with
a clear distinction between the bourgeois middle class and those in poverty developing. In
this underbelly of the city, poverty, crime, and suffering were rife, and social mobility was
denied. People were born and lived through poverty, and eventually died in poverty,
martyred in the name of capital with no control over their fates. This theme is explored in
both Roberto Arlt’s El juguete rabioso and Luis Buñuel’s Los olvidados, in which we see
candid depictions of poverty, and the futility of trying to escape it. It is clear to see that in
these works we see both a depiction of death and suffering being commonplace, and a
sense of isolation and a lack of agency. However, despite this clear sense of the
insignificance of any effort to leave poverty, I contend that these works, rather than show
their characters as mere ‘automata’, present the humanity in a section of society that the
bourgeois neglect, or refuse, to consider, further highlighting the tragedy in the fact that no
resolution or salvation is ever, or will ever, be seen.

The metaphor of the ‘crawling bug’, who exists in a constant state of survival, only to die a
quiet and insignificant death, is markedly present in both works. This desire to simply
survive, results in crime and suffering being commonplace. Crime is an integral element in
both El juguete rabioso and Los olvidados, and its presence is inextricably interwoven into
the fabric of existence under poverty. Theft and violence is omnipresent, and indeed is
displayed as necessary for survival. That is not to say, however, that the act of crime is an
inherent trait of the person in poverty, but a necessity that one must adapt to. Poverty
necessarily means crime as bourgeois ideals of a ‘civil’ society are not present in a space
the Bourgeoisie have been actively neglecting- in the absence of guaranteed capital and
social stability, acts that go against the ‘law’ flourish. This results in a morally ambiguous
assessment of the notion of ‘crime’, and makes the reader question whether certain
portrayals of crime can be confined to moral judgements. This exploration of ambiguity is
seen in El juguete rabioso, wherein Arlt uses the motif of crime as a way to subvert typical
interpretations of money and its value. Artl challenges the notion of the objective worth of
money; it is instead its representation that incites the excitement that theft brings for Los
Caballeros de la Media Noche. They talk of how their stolen money seemed “más
significativos con sus imágenes coloreadas”, and how it had a “valor especial” that spoke to
them “con expresivo lenguaje”. This idea of the value of money being increased if it has
come through theft is further elaborated on later on in the paragraph, where Silvio says: “No
era el dinero vil y odioso que se abomina porque hay que ganarlo con trabajos penosos”.
Here, Arlt shows most clearly his subversion; in the eyes of the Caballeros, money, if
acquired through honest means, is ugly and hateful, whereas money gained clandestinely is
“agilísimo” and creates “divinas francachelas”. This oxymoronic inversion of the value of
honest work reflects the upheavals brought by the modern city; in the forgotten metropolitan
underbelly, traditional and bourgeois value systems are reversed and inverted, and crime is
seen as a more attractive (and realistic) way of life. In Los olvidados, we see a more sordid
and cruel depiction of crime, with a focus on both theft and murder. Despite the audience
seeing cruel acts on screen, much like in El juguete rabioso, there is a strong sense of
ambiguity; not surrounding the nature of the crimes, but their perpetrators. In Los olvidados,
we see mutual destruction. The victims of these crimes are always other marginalised
people, such as the muggings of the blind Don Carmelo and the legless man, as well as
crimes committed towards others in poverty. This creates a sense of mutual destruction, as
whilst governmental neglect is destroying the poor, poverty creates an environment in which
its inhabitants must destroy each other in order to keep afloat. Much like in El juguete
rabioso, money is only gained through these illicit means- those who attempt to earn through
honest means, such as Julián, are killed for their transgression. Thus, violence is
everywhere and is accepted. For example, when we see Pedro’s mother brutally killing the
rooster, the camera zooms into Pedro’s face, and there is a flashback to the words he used
when trying in vain to stop Jaibo from killing Julián, and in the very next scene, a blacksmith
repeatedly strikes his hammer against metal, with obvious implications of violence and
aggression. Later on in the film, Pedro kills two chickens in a fit of anger, resembling the
killing of the rooster that his mother carried out. Buñuel thus explores the congruence of
violence; those surrounded by crime and suffering will eventually commit crime and suffer,
and a vicious cycle of generational trauma and poverty is maintained, with the city providing
no respite. This certainly shows how the metaphor of the crawling bug is apt; in the cruel
underground of the city, men and women are born to fend for themselves.

Alongside this lack of security in the city, there is a lack of agency. The rapid rise of
capitalism and its industry, automation, and commodification meant that there was a de-
emphasis on individuality. Humans were reduced to their status as producers of capital, and
became part of a machine, insignificant and replaceable, much like an insect. Thus, a sense
of alienation is created, wherein the forgotten inhabitants of the city are isolated from the
ideals of progress and innovation that are associated with capitalistic development.
Alienation is a key theme of El juguete rabioso, wherein Silvio is portrayed as directionless
and hopeless, yearning for a different life. One such example of this is in chapter two, when
Silivio describes his relationship with reading poetry at night time. He talks of the “belleza
con que los poetas estremecieron al mundo”, and the pains it causes him knowing that this
poetic utopia is completely detached with his present situation. This “poem que no
encuentro” accurately describes his sense of alienation- there is no poetry about him, about
his situation, and the authors and characters of the poetry books have abandoned him much
like society has, much like an insect in some forgotten-about corner in the house. Poverty
thus contrasts with the fictions that Silvio reads- he uses fiction to give meaning to his life,
but none of what he reads coincides with reality, exacerbating his alienation and giving
reality an ‘unreal’ feeling. Men and women in the city, especially those in poverty, are seen
as ‘unreal’, and are assigned a mystical quality. Due to the size of the metropolis, and the
construction of ghettos, a clear divide in classes is created, both economically and
geographically, meaning that the elite need not even think about those in poverty. As a
result, the poor become the “other”, furthering their alienation from society- in Los olvidados,
for example, the only interaction we see between the Bourgeoisie and the poor is when
Pedro is sent to a correctional facility for young people, reaffirming the castigatory and tense
relationship between the two sectors of society. This rapid construction and isolation results
in a strong and constant instability for the marginalised, and it is ironically this instability and
disorder that poverty is maintained and social mobility is denied. This instability can be seen
in Los olivdados, where we see Jaibo and Pedro constantly fleeing and sleeping in a
different place every night, which can be seen as a representation of the chaos of the city,
and accurately reflects the idea of a crawling, scurrying insect. Alongside this alienation, Arlt
explores the depersonalisation that the modern city creates with its demands for automated
labour. In chapter three, Silvio is fired from his job, as the factory does not need “personas
inteligentes, sino brutos para el trabajo”. This again shows a denial of individuality, where
individual identities are prohibited from flourishing, creating an effect of dehumanisation.
Despite this loss of identity and selfhood, and lives of eternal hardship, the works of Arlt and
Buñuel do not portray their characters as faceless cogs in a machine, and unimportant
insects. These “bugs”, rather than crawl, try to fly, yet are crushed. They are not necessarily
automata, but are necessarily powerless against society. Thus, we can firmly see how the
city is given villainous qualities, ready to foil the plans of anyone who tries to escape. There
are many examples of Silvio’s and Pedro’s efforts to find employment and live through
honesty, which are then stopped and destroyed. In both works, we see the hopelessness of
the protagonists, and both Arlt and Buñuel use the dreamscape to use the surreal to
represent this denial of hope. For Silvio, the dreamscape represents his loss of identity, and
portrays the city as a murky space, too big to grasp in its entirety. This shows problems with
how we can represent the city, as it is simply too large to consider as a whole, meaning that
amongst the hectic happenings of the quotidien, the self is lost. In the dream, the city is
“[disperso] sin orden”, and the cubes that dot the dreamscape are at once “pequenos como
dados” and “voluminosos como rascacielos”, reflecting the constant conflicts of identity,
capital, and class that the city includes. In this foggy city, Silvio is pursued and harassed by
the “brazo flaco”, representing the denial of his attempts to realise his potential, further
shown by his thwarted attempts to find work throughout the novel. Pedro’s dream also
represents this idea of an antagonist that prevents him from gaining any sort of resolution.
The image of his mother carrying raw flesh shows how his desires for physical and
emotional sustenance are bastardised and corrupted by the city, and the fact that Jaibo
takes the meat in the end shows how his desires are denied. As Jaibo represents this
underground life of crime and hardship in the metropolis, it is only fitting that he presents
Pedro from eating. Jaibo is the perfect allegory for the destructive influence of the city- he
prevents Pedro from succeeding at every instant, despite Pedro’s wishes to live an honest
life (“¡Quiero portarme bien, pero no sé cómo!”). He is a direct counterpart to Pedro, a
manifestation of the efforts of society to drag down anyone who wants to escape. Indeed,
Pedro’s denial of virtue eventually pushes him to the same violence of those he wishes to
escape, and leads to his death, fittingly after his attempts to prove his honesty to the
correctional warden. All of this shows how, rather than useless insects or mere automata, in
these works we see the denial of opportunity and potential, showing how the vicious cycle of
poverty in the city is condemned to continue. The only attempt at a solution, therefore, is
exclaimed by Don Carmelo, who proclaims bitterly that “¡Ojalá los mataran a todos antes de
nacer!”.

In conclusion, in the city, we see how men and women are born with condemnations of
death already prescribed to them. Existence is displayed as both a static arena of death,
crime and suffering, but also as inherently unstable, forcing people to be on the move and
remain paranoid in order to survive. Those in poverty in the city are not afforded agency, and
are forgotten about, with the demands of capital assuring that they are only seen as bodies
to be expended and not individuals to be considered. Despite all of this, however, Arlt and
Buñuel succeed in humanising their characters, and explore their complex motivations and
desires to carve a better life for themselves. The real tragedy, therefore, lies in the fact that
these desires are fundamentally futile, as the city tries successfully at every opportunity to
ensure that their dreams are not realised, and that they are condemned to a forgotten
existence with no hope for fulfilment.