Analysis Essay 2

Ideas of a Dirty War

“War is more than a true chameleon that slightly adapts its characteristics to the given case.”

Carl Von Clausewitz

Symbolism is something that authors have used within many works of fiction to touch on very hard and sensitive subjects without having to throw it in their readers face. “A symbol is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that processes specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning” (Jung 20). Pron has made a masterpiece of symbolism within his short story Ideas. During the Dirty War in Argentina thousands of children, college student s and infants were taken from their families and mothers. Many were killed and some were blessed enough to return home. The story Ideas is about a young boy who leaves one day without any explanation. The people throughout town see him in spurts but he never offers an explanation as to why he left or what his intentions were. Slowly more and more children began to join him living a nomadic life away from their families. Ideas can be interpreted as a symbolic work of literature about the young children taken from their families during the Dirty War.

The story Ideas is about a young boy named Peter. Every day after school he comes home and has the same routine. One day his father his father hears him come home but when he goes upstairs to find his son he has left. What the poor father doesn’t know is that Peter will not be returning for a number of stressful days. He rallies the community and vows to never stop looking until his son is found. Within the story Pron introduces another short story. The reader is introduced to a woman who goes mad and claims that her son is dead. As the story progresses the reader discovers she never even had a son. Other children begin to disappear with Peter and they are randomly spotted throughout the village and the forest. Before long the children begin returning home. None are hurt, sick hungry or tired and none of them talk about their experiences while they were gone. It’s as if the children were never gone. Pron states very bluntly one of the reasons he wrote Ideas and some of the meaning behind it. “We [children] are all ideas thought up by our parents, and we vanish before or after them."

To understand how Ideas could be symbolic of the war in Argentina there must first be an understanding of “dirty war.” One of the biggest questions asked is how is dirty war any different than a civil war? Isn’t a dirty war just a subset of civil war? Christopher Cramer outlines critical features that constitute a civil war but he admits that civil war exclude, “state led massacres where there is no organized or effective state oppression,” (380). In the article War in the Gray Smith and Roberts outline the differences between dirty war and clean war. In a “clean war” war is openly constituted and it is known who the main protagonists are. In a “dirty war” there is no formal declaration of hostility. Acts of violence are initiated without any forewarning (Pron blog).

In a clean war, after the open declaration of war there is an understanding of accepted modes of war. They are governed by an acceptance that once the war has begun its conduct will be bound to certain rules, laws and conventions. Dirty wars do not recognize these laws and conventions. There is no distinction between combatants and non-combatants. The whole point of a dirty war could very well be that the civilian populace is explicitly targeted. In Argentina there was an explicit connection between the communication of fear and eliminating any threat to state but also dissuaded people from joining or creating any antigovernment forces. The population was ruled through fear of arrest or assassination (381-382).

The Dirty War that took place in Argentina lasted from the 1970’s till the mid 1980’s. During the Dirty War many children, mainly college students, were taken from their homes and never returned. Pregnant mothers were kidnapped only to have their new babies taken from them at birth and given to military families that supported the war. There were no clear rules or lines drawn to protect the innocent. It was as if it was genocide but no deaths were documented or recorded, young people simply disappeared and were never seen again. It is believed that most of these young people were taken to detention centers, where the majority of them were tortured and killed. General Jorge Rafel Videla defined a terrorist as “not only someone who plant bombs but a person whose ideas are contrary to Western, Christian civilization.” Sixty students from Manuel Belgrano High School disappeared simply for joining the student council (Goddard 82).

In April of 1977 a group of woman came together and called themselves the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. It was founded by a woman named Azucena Villaflor. She and many mothers with the same story as hers came together every Thursday in front of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires. They would march in silent protest around the plaza wearing white handkerchiefs embroidered with the names of their missing children. What makes these woman so unique in Argentina is their positions as mothers and housewives combined with the constraints of military rule produced a novel set of circumstances and practices (Goddard 85). When the Madres first embarked upon their journey they didn't have a plan set in place. It was never intended that 35 years later the mothers would still be marching and be protected by Human Rights Groups around the world (Pron blog).

There are so many ways Ideas could be compared with the brutal history of Argentina, Pron’s birth place. When Peter and the other children from the village disappear it would not be far-fetched that he symbolizes the missing children from the war. Peters father embarks upon his mission to find his son he rallies the village around him. The village quietly look for the missing children and every once in a while get a glimpse of them either in the village or along the forest. This could represent the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. The white clothes that the mothers wore embroidered with their missing children’s names are reminiscent of the small glimpses of the missing children throughout the village. The silence of the families in Ideas represents the oppression of the Argentinean civilians silenced by fear of their government. Carl Jung States, “The psyche has evolved and some contents of modern mans unconscious resemble products of the mind of ancient man” (66). This could very well explain how the dictators of Argentina believed they were a part of the greater good for the country. They were primitive thinkers that felt they could control the way everybody in their country thought. They were close minded and tried to mold their people into what they wanted them to be rather than molding themselves to the way their country needed them to be.

 Patricio Pron was born in Rosario Argentina in 1975. He was brought into this world while Argentina was in the midst of The Dirty War. Pron grew up mainly in Argentina but has lived all over Europe. Pron was raised in Tablada and studied Social Communication at the National University of Rosario. When he wrote Ideas he was living in Germany in the same town Ideas takes place in. Pron has had his written works published in not only English but also Norwegian, French, Italian, Dutch and German. Pron is not only a talented writer he is also a translator and a critic as well. Having all these gifts gives him the opportunity to make sure that all of his talent is translated as accurately as possible and that everything is written to the best of his ability. One of the greatest gifts Pron has given his readers is the gift of personalizing his work. Molina states it best when he says, “his writing based much of its strength in presenting situations and characters in a very intense depth, almost painful, and explicit text actually very little about them.” 

When Patricio was asked about being not only a writer but a critic as well, he answered, “Both experiences complement one another well, contrary to what people usually say, since a great number of writers are also readers and we have opinions about what we read. Not all writers read, however but those who do, do not see any obstacle to talking about what we read, in particular if we are talking about books that contribute beauty and sense to a world that tends to be lacking in both.” This answer alone gives the reader a very intimate look into how Patricio feels about his work. He is very passionate about his work and the world of literature (Aguirre).

Pron brings to light some very real and scary troubles throughout the world. Civil wars rage on in many places other than South America. When families are torn apart by choice of the government they never know if they will ever see each other again. In the case of so many missing children from Argentina some were reunited with their families while other chose to not meet their biological parents. Unfortunately most of the children remain lost and will most likely never be reunited with the people who love and miss them. War is a necessary evil in our world but when it is in the hands of ruthless, corrupt leaders it becomes nothing but evil. We are blessed to have such a talented author who can bring this terrible event to light with the beauty of his words.

“While combat between federal forces and Chechen rebels has for the most part ceased ‘disappearance’, torture and the summary execution of detainees continues, marking the transition from casual internal arms conflict into classical ‘dirty war’, where human rights violations and not the conquest or defense of territory are the hallmarks.” (Smith 378)

Works Cited

Aguirre, Osaldo. ”Literature as a Domain of Lies.” The Capitol. Signs, Oct 19, 2008. Online. Nov 1,2012.

Goddard V. Demonstrating Resistance: Politics and Participation in the Marches of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Focaal [serial online] Dec. 2007; 2007(50):81-101.

Goldman, Francisco. “Children of the Dirty War.” New Yorker88.5 (2012):54. MasterFILE, Premire. Web. 28 Oct. 2012

Jung, Carl G. Man and His Symbols. Garden City: Doubleday and Company Inc., 1964. Print.

Smith, M.L.R.,and Sophie Roberts. “War in the Grey: Exploring the Concept of Dirty War.” Studies In Conflict & Terrorism 31.5 (2008): 377-398 28 Oct. 2012

Tommy (tommyk11). “Reading Reflections for Feb 2, 2011.” Tommy’s Blog Tues, Feb 8, 2011. Online. Nov 11, 2012

*there was no last name for this blogger and no sponsor

Zongrone, Courtney. “blog entry.” Ideas Tues Feb 1, 2011. Online. Nov 11, 2012

*there was no sponsor for this blog