El Túnel

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El Túnel ("The Tunnel") is a fictional dark story by Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato about a deranged porteño painter, Juan Pablo Castel, and his obsession with a woman. The title of the story represents the tunnel of loneliness and isolation that Castel sees himself at the end to be in.

The obsession begins on 21 September 1946 when Castel sees a woman at an exhibition of his work focusing on one small detail of one painting of his named Maternidad, a detail which he himself considers the most important part of the painting and which nobody besides him and the woman pay attention to.

He spends the next few months obsessing over her, thinking of ways to find her in the immensity of Buenos Aires, and fantasizing about what to say to her.

Ultimately, he winds up bumping into her on an elevator, and succeeds in making contact. Her name is María Iribarne Hunter, and she's married to a blind man named Allende and lives on Posadas street in the northern part of the city. Castel keeps seeing her for months, and much is made of his obsessive interrogations of her to satisfy his crazed mind, his twisted logic leading him to all sorts of bizarre patterns of thought and conclusions, and his interior monologue (in fact, the style of the story is first-person).

Allende has a cousin named Hunter who lives on a country estancia near Mar del Plata, and much of the action takes place around or in reference to that estate.

Ultimately, Castel's paranoia and mistrust lead him to the conclusion that María is in fact a full-time whore who cheats on her husband not only with him, but also with Hunter and almost any other man. In a fit of rage, he drives out to the estancia and stabs her to death.

[edit] Themes

Love and Loneliness in the Modern World

The modern world contributes to Juan Pablo Castel’s unhappiness by replacing characteristics of his humanity with mechanization and by isolating him from people. Even though he is dehumanized, he shares the human characteristic of being lonely, and he seeks unconditional love. His understanding of love, however, is emotionless and he exhibits it through unconventional mechanical processes. These processes involve loving Maria because of a perceived similarity, stalking her, creating underlying assumptions, and considering all hypothetical situations that may arise based on them.

Juan Pablo Castel approaches love as the solution to his loneliness, but he lacks a mature understanding of it. He does not know how to cope with its accompanying emotions, and he is selfish and neglects its mutual nature. Juan Pablo reduces it to a satiating process, but is ultimately unfulfilled.

Buenos Aires as a Metropolis

By the year 1900 Buenos Aires was on its way to becoming a potent metropolis. This was the case because of many changes that occurred in the country’s infrastructure. Railroad construction increased and brought about wealth because raw materials were more easily transportable. Exports increased drastically, as a consequence. With work acting as a magnet, the town became a metropolitan and multicultural city Argentina as the result of massive immigration was then able to compete against major European nations. An example structure that embodied this new prosperity is the Teatro Colón, which is one of the world’s top opera venues. The city’s main boulevards were built around these years and the construction of tall buildings and one of the first subway networks in the world took place in those years.

Historical Context of Argentina:The Peronism movement in 1945 with Juan Domingo Perón as President

Poverty and labor unrest were two issues Argentina faced in 1945. In an attempt to eliminate this problem, Juan Doming Perón came to power in 1946 and implemented a political movement known as Peronism, also known as “Justicialism,” which refers to the beliefs of Perón and what stance Argentina should take to improve economically and socially. This political system has three ideas to it. The first is strong authoritarian centralized government that creates strict control of opposition parties. Second, is the idea of nationalism, breaking away from foreign influence. Third, is the implementation of state capitalism where the economy is capitalist under state control. The main idea behind Peronism was that government would intervene in economic affairs, and consider the best interests of the country. Perón lost sight of his goal to better the economy, and instead he put more emphasis in nationalizing corporate markets. He failed to recognize the problems of labor issues at all levels, and isolating the country from outside influence did not help economically. Resentment against Perón’s ideas of isolationism and anti-clericalism encroachment against religion and political beliefs of the middle and working classes, lead to his overthrow in 1955. Despite Perón’s downfall, ideas from his political movement of Peronism still exist in Argentina today.

Dehumanization of Modern Society

The novel explores the dehumanization of modern society. In the metropolitan Argentinean society where Castel lives, there is very little in the way of material needs. Technology has advanced to the point where basic needs are met and artistic, sopisticated self-awareness takes the forefront of human consciousness. Castel finds himself in this existentialist dilemma. He is a painter concerned with artistic endeavors and not mundane life. He can live as an individual disconnected from society. In fact, society and humanity now disgust him. He finds there is no human connection worthy of his attention. Yet, paradoxically he also longs for some sort of human understanding. This is the reason why he becomes obsessed with Maria. When she notices a window in one of his paintings, he thinks he has found this connection. It is absurd but in the corporate, artificial world he lives in, seemingly logical. Everywhere he turns there is nothing natural about the world. Yet, the apex of the book is that not only is human interaction artificial but dehumanizing in its deceitfulness. Maria represents this to Castel with the sense of betrayal he feels when he finds out that she already has a husband and many lovers as well.

The Role of Logic

In the novel logic plays a crucial role for Castel. Throughout the entire story, the main character, Juan Pablo Castel, constantly struggles to make any sort of decision in his daily confrontations. His existentialist behavior commands him to use “probability” as tool to examine all the possible outcomes for each of the choices that are presented to him. For every decision he has to make, he thinks of many different scenarios that he might confront. Once three or four scenarios are investigated, Castel chooses the one that represents less pain to him. Even so, he sometimes chooses not to choose, for example; he decides not to approach Maria at the company, rather, to wait for a future time. By no deciding, a new set of scenarios are presented to him. This behavior may not seem ordinary, but in reality, it is only showing the existentialist logic adopted by Juan Castel.