Use of Plot and Sensory Description in Julio Cortazar's Face Up

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How do you know that a dream is really a dream or if reality is real? The ‘Night Face Up’ is a short story written by Julio Cortazar depicting a nameless protagonist who flips between dream and reality. The main character is switching between a hospital setting between the 1950’s and 1980’s, and an ancient Aztec area. The man experiences a world where he was recently involved in a motorcycle accident and ends up in the hospital with a broken arm. In the Aztec area he is running for his life as he is being hunted down to be a human sacrifice. This story leaves a lasting impression on the reader and achieves unity of effect through the authors use of plot and sensory description.

The use of tactile description within the story lets the reader feel what the protagonist feels and creates a stronger connection between the protagonist and the reader. When the protagonist “[feels] thirsty as if he’d been running for miles” (268) the reader begins to imagine that feeling. The tactile description in the story is that which most people feel at one point in their lives like “the coolness of mineral water in [ones] fevered throat” (270), therefore we associate and connect with it it. Through this effect the situations that the protagonist encounters feels more real, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.

Throughout the story the protagonist remains nameless. This gives the protagonist an anonymity and allows the character to be more versatile. The reader can imagine a variety of people in this position allowing each individual reader to customize the character to their own likings. Allowing each reader to have their own interpretations on the character himself allowing for a grater personal connection to the story.

Through the aut...

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...ccidents as a child. Also the olfactory description of the “composite fragrance, like the night”(267) makes me remember, camping, or the farm at night when I am about to bring the horses in. The description brings back memories and draws me into the story.

Through Cortazar’s use of sensory description and plot unity of effect is created and the reader is left with a lasting impression of the story. With the plot left hanging the reader is left with the constant though of what really happened what was real? With Cortazer’s use of sensory description the reader is drawn into the realm of the protagonist and is made to feel what the characters feels. Therefore enabling them to build a world out of the description. This world that the story builds is very reminiscent and resembles that of a dream. Description is also used to bring a sense of reality to the situation.

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