One aspect that particularly struck me is how the characters are portrayed as raw and authentic, effectively depicting the struggles of urban life through the lens of a teenager. Reading the book in Spanish significantly contributed to my immersion in the story, particularly due to the characters’ dialogue and the various colloquial expressions used. Rebellious […]
One aspect that particularly struck me is how the characters are portrayed as raw and authentic, effectively depicting the struggles of urban life through the lens of a teenager. Reading the book in Spanish significantly contributed to my immersion in the story, particularly due to the characters’ dialogue and the various colloquial expressions used. Rebellious […]
Reading Arlt’s “Mad Toy” left me with a heavy heart. As I read through the chapters, I feel that Arlt’s narration of his life only gets more depressing. It seems to me that Arlt has never had a genuine connection with anyone before he met Rengo, yet he loses him in the end. From joining […]
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with betrayal, class, life, reality, trauma, violence
Reading Roberto Arlt’s Mad Toy has been an enlightening experience, especially coming from a position of not deeply literary novice, and a lack of familiarity with the author himself. This novel, has a rich narrative and explores complex themes. The novel offers a peak into the societal and personal struggles of early 20th-century Buenos Aires […]
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with Ambition, False dreams, growing up, silvio-berlusconi, Societal Critique, Urban, Youth and Rebellion
A. Initial Thoughts Though “Mad Toy” is much shorter than Marcel Proust’s “Combray”, I found it tougher to get through. As I read, I often wanted to stop because it seemed like the story was just going in circles, with Silvio repeatedly failing to break out of poverty. But after finishing the book and taking … Continue reading Mad Toy: What Do We Live Our Lives For?
Mad Toy is a coming-of-age novel that explores the four stages of growth in a young man named Silvio, presenting a fascinating character. I believe he is not a typical hero protagonist in the true sense but rather resembles a young individual filled with ambition and fantasies, constrained by his environment. Silvio’s adventures are not […]
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with adolescence, Arlt, blogs, Transformations
While it had its moments, I had a difficult time getting drawn into Mad Toy. However, while I didn’t enjoy the book last week because of the writing, I really enjoyed Arlt’s writing style this week. My main issue with the book was that I just couldn’t …
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with main characters
While it had its moments, I had a difficult time getting drawn into Mad Toy. However, while I didn’t enjoy the book last week because of the writing, I really enjoyed Arlt’s writing style this week. My main issue with the book was that I just couldn’t …
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with main characters
Roberto Arlt’s novel, “Mad Toy,” was a refreshing coming-of-age novel that invited readers to follow the harrowing journey of a struggling youth named Silvio Astier. In the first chapter, “The Band of Thieves,” Silvio befriended Enrique Irzubeta and Lucio. Together, the three adolescents became members of the “Club of the Midnight Horsemen,” entangled in a […]
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with Argentina, crime, identity, madtoy, poverty, youth
For this week, I chose to read Mad Toy, a reading that I enjoyed but did leave me with the question of why the book is called Mad Toy. First off, I read the third section, “Mad Toy” first which definitely coloured my perception of the story when I realized my mistake and went back […]
Posted in Arlt, Blogs | Tagged with Argentina, books, Week 3
