Lack Of Knowledge In The Eclipse By Augusto Monterroso

“The Eclipse” by Augusto Monterroso is a short story about Brother Bartolome Arrazola and his quest to fool the Indians in the jungle of Guatemala that were willing to sacrifice and kill him. Arrazola and his knowledge of Aristotle, a European Greek philosopher, thought he could fool then Indians to think that if they killed him, he can make the sun darken. Though, the Indians already knew that the sun would disappear. “The Eclipse” by Augusto Monterroso illustrates the idea that knowledge is the same across all civilizations no matter the cultural differences. Yellow highlighted area is not a complete sentence.

Arrazola was faced with death and he wanted to challenge the Indians to not kill him. He wanted to try “something”. According to the text, “there he blossomed with an idea that he considered worthy of his talent, his broad education and his profound knowledge.” The words from the text “profound knowledge” have indicated that Arrazola felt that his knowledge surpassed the Indian’s knowledge. Arrazola has felt that his European knowledge is superior and is not the same as the Indians. This paragraph needs to be more developed; the first sentence, which should be written so that it clearly supports the thesis, but how does that sentence show that “knowledge is the same ….”?

In the text, “He (Arrazola) Not appropriate (use: The main character… instead of throwing in a quote starting with a pronoun) decided, in the deepest part of his being, to use knowledge to deceive his oppressors and save his life.” Arrazola told the Indians, “If you kill me...I can make the sun darken on high” to deceive the Indians based on his knowledge of Aristotle of the eclipse.

Also, he would be able to save his soul, and die with his knowledge and education. Because Arrazola believed his knowledge was superior to the Indians, he wanted to use it to deceive them. He had the idea that the Indians were not as smart or knowledgeable to avoid being fooled by

him.

Towards the end of the text, it was discovered that the Indians knew that an eclipse was going to happen because of the knowledge of the Mayans.“The Indians recited tonelessly, slowly, one by one, the infinite list of dates when the solar and lunar eclipse would take place.” This proves that knowledge is the same across all civilizations. Both cultures knew about solar eclipses in their own capacity.

Arrazola wanted to die on his own terms, his knowledge and education, when in reality, he did not know any more than the Indians. The Indians already knew that the solar eclipse was going to happen before brother Bartolome Arrazola told them, “If you kill me...I can make the sun darken on high”. Arrazola thought he could deceive the Indians by saying that his own doing can cause an eclipse. Although it was Arrazola’s fate to die, the Indians killed him anyway and they knew he was lying. He wanted to die on his own terms. This illustrates the idea that knowledge is the same across all civilizations no matter the cultural differences.