500 to 900 words

Your explication should establish how the writer has intelligently used the following literary
elements:
a) Plot (conflict & resolution)
b) Character (action & internal disposition; motivation)
c) Epiphany
d) Point of View
e) Irony
- Neon blue – 2nd conflict
- Green – 1st conflict
- Yellow – double-check
- Red – what the fuck
 Avedillo, Andrea Juana C.
March 18, 2020
Creative Title
Julio Cortazar’s, “End of the Game” is in some way in the same realm of Louise May
Alcott’s “Little Women” although it tells a story of 3 young girls, though not stated their
relation to each other, live in a house near the Argentine Central tracks, play a game of
Statues and Attitudes, and meet a boy named Ariel B who is a passenger on the. The story is
filled with many allusions, such as Rocambole, a character created by Ponson de Terrail in a
book series filled with events of the character’s life events and adventures. Another is the
statue whom Letitia planned to imitate in her attempt as the statue, the Venus de Milo, which
does not have arms, and Treasure of the Youth which is an encyclopedia.

The usage of the plot through the conflict and resolution brings light to the human and
relatability of it to the reader. The story dives into the relationships among a group forming
into a discovery of emotions, and growing into adolescence, seen in the relationships among
the 3 girls and in the arrival of a boy, that sparks negative emotions and insights. It depicts a
conflict between Letitia with those around her, caused by her health, proved in the statement
“stiffness of her back that made her look so thin” and affected further with the entrance of a
boy, Ariel B, into their lives. And with the introduction of Ariel, it causes a movement in the
story that creates the revelation through the disagreements and feelings of spite and jealousy
among the girls.

Throughout the story, Letitia’s ailment led to the negative feelings felt by Holanda
and the speaker, stated Letitia as the “luckiest and most privileged of the three”, due to the
fact that she was given special treatment, such as not doing housework and having her own
room. When Ariel had come into their lives, this ailment also inflicted their relationship
where in the end, it was set to ending when Letitia had given her last performance, as a
statue, for him, and the other 2 girls had come out the next day and see that he had sat in the
other side of the coach.

The movement and development of the story was a product of the characters’ actions,
internal disposition, and motivation. The three girls, Letitia, Holanda, and the speaker, had
different perspectives towards various things, and were beginning to understand emotions
resulting from the events in their lives. Letitia’s ailment had brought the subject of having
Statues in the game, considering the restriction in her movement, making her most viable in
that aspect, proved through statements such as “Letitia did Statues very well, poor thing. The
paralysis wasn’t noticeable when she was still”. Holanda and the speaker, though not stated in
the story their relation to each other and to Letitia, felt feelings of envy towards Letitia, which
brought them to discuss these feelings of jealousy they felt from the attention Letitia has been
receiving from Ariel and even from the past. Ariel B, who can be considered the character
who played a major role in the story is the boy who threw notes to the girls in positive
intentions of meeting the girls behind the Statues and Attitudes he sees during his journey on
the train, especially Letitia, wherein his actions and notes seem to be in endearment of her.

The story is told in the perspective of the unnamed 3rd girl, with the fact that the way
the story was written gave insight to the emotions and internal thoughts of the speaker and
none of those of Letitia’s and Holanda’s were highlighted. In the story it is also this speaker
who achieves an illumination. It is seen throughout the story their realization that they had
been accustomed to the privileges that Letitia had, given her ailment, which permitted her
advantages.

Before, she was fine with the treatment that Letitia had, given the circumstances of
her health, and continued to not protest and was actually glad to the advantages Letitia had,
that it even extended to their “kingdom” and their game of Statues and Attitudes. As stated in
the story, “Little by little she had taken more and more advantage of these privileges, and had
been presiding over the game since the summer before… Holanda and I accepted them
without protest, happy almost… Or simply that we loved her enough and it didn’t bother us
that she was boss”. Although the feelings that were felt moved like a swing, bouncing from
happiness to envy, and love to jealousy, and came to the point of masking their true emotions
towards Letitia, with one that is more pleasing. This begins when Letitia, having already the
advantages in the house, is added with the attention of Ariel and then enkindled feelings of
envy and jealousy in the speaker. These hidden feelings were outwardly expressed in her
discussion with Holanda and the speaker while washing the cat, Jose, but were masked in
front of Letitia when she was feeling pain “Though she didn’t much want to, Holanda gave
her a hand”. Showing the

In the flow of the story, there were reversals seen through the ironies stated, but most
impactful was the introduction into the game, Statues and Attitudes wherein the speaker said
“Spite and Jealousy required a more conscientious study”, ‘conscientious’, from the
dictionary, means ‘wishing to do what is right, especially to do one's work or duty well
and thoroughly’, because to be able to do it properly means that they must have experienced
it, thus the statement for a ‘more conscientious study’ although later on into the story does it
show that Holanda and the speaker knew these feelings as they felt these towards Letitia
regarding the privilege she had compared to them. Another irony is “Letitia did statues very
well, poor thing.”, in position to commend someone on

a. Irony
i. “the prettiest is the laziest” – lazy being not a very pleasing attitude
(verbal irony)
ii. –
iii. Handshake of ariel “he said it had been a great pleasure for him and he
was delighted to have come, but his hand was soft and unpleasant in a
way it’d have been better for the interview to end right away”
B. Conclusion

“The note from Ariel didn’t bother us so much, thrown from a train going its own way, that’s
how it is, but it seemed to us that Letitia from her privileged position was taking too much
advantage of us. “

“I only told her what Ariel was like and how many times he’d ask for her. This was not at all
an easy things to do because it was a nice thing and terrible thing at the same time”