The Time of the Hero (Spanish:
La Ciudad y los Perros, translated literally as
The City and the Dogs) is a 1963 novel. It was the first novel published by
Mario Vargas Llosa. It deals with a group of students in a military school in Lima, Perú; their relationships, their backgrounds, their lives in a school ruled by strict military rules.
The novel is noteworthy for experimenting with multiple perspectives and is required literature in Latin American countries.
This book provides examples of:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Circle.
- Anachronic Order
- Author Tract: Military rule promotes things like manliness, sexuality and courage but cripples other things like personal development.
- Biggus Dickus: The Boa.
- Black Comedy: Throughout the book.
- Butt Monkey: The Slave.
- Depraved Homosexual: Paulino.
- Determinator: The Jaguar.
- Five-Bad Band:
- Humiliation Conga: It happens to a lot of characters, usually not Played for Laughs.
- In Medias Res
- In the Back: The Slave.
- Initiation Ceremony: Happens when the boys enter the academy; the humiliating variety.
- Karma Houdini: The Jaguar goes unpunished even after he reveals the truth to Lt. Gamboa, because the case was already close.
- Military School
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Poet, the Jaguar, the Slave, the Boa and others.
- Pick On Someone Your Own Size
- Prison Rape: In a military academy.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Lt. Gamboa is reassigned to Juliaca (for those who don’t know, it’s only a few miles from the Titicaca Lake, shared with Bolivia).
- The Reveal
- Sadist Teacher: Blended with Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- The Spartan Way
- The Stool Pigeon: The Slave, who only snitches because he wants to get out of the academy to see the girl he likes. After his death, Alberto decides to rat out the Circle.
- Teens Are Monsters
- Those Two Guys: Tico and Pluto.
- Write What You Know: Vargas Llosa spent a couple of years in the academy in his youth.
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