A Dark Age In Argentinean History
"The Slaughter House" is Esteban Echeverría's portrayal of the savagery and inhumanity brought about by the Rosas' dictatorship, a dark age in Argentinean history. The story uses the image of a bloody slaughter house to represent the violent conflict and constant injustice that the people who lived under Rosas' control had to endure. The horrible living conditions resulted in poor health and dirty dwellings, properly represented by the atmosphere of the slaughter house. At the same time, the reader learns about the politics and history of Argentina.
In the same manner as many other literary works, "The Slaughter House" gives the reader a clear understanding of the author's ideology. In this case, it is evident -- in the way he writes about the Federalists, the Unitarians, and Argentina in general -- that Echeverría opposed the Rosas' dictatorship, and that he sided with the Unitarians. He portrayed the Federalists as savages and compared them to wild animals, vultures perhaps. His description of the slaughter house, and the crowds that the reader encounters there, create a negative image:
From a distance the view of the Slaughter House was now grotesque, full of animation. Forty-nine steers were stretched out upon their skins and about two hundred people walked about the muddy, blood-drenched floor. Hovering around each steer stood a group of people of different skin colors. Most prominent among them was the butcher, a knife in his hand, his arms bare, his chest exposed, long hair disheveled, shirt and sash and face besmeared with blood. At his back, following his every movement, romped a gang of children, Negro and mulatto women, offal collectors whose ugliness matched that of the harpies, and huge mastiffs which sniffed, snarled, and snapped at one another as they darted after booty...
But as the activities progressed, the picture kept changing. While some groups dissolved as if a stray bullet had fallen nearby or an enraged dog had charged them, new groups constantly formed: here where a steer was being cut open, there where a butcher was already hanging the quarters on the hook in the carts, or yonder where a steer was being skinned or the fat taken off. From the mob eyeing and waiting for the offal there issued ever and anon a filthy hand ready to slice off meat or fat. Shouts and explosions of anger came from the butchers, from the incessantly milling crowds, and from the gamboling street urchins. (p. 71-72)
The Federalists behave almost like scavengers as they crowd around the slaughtered carcasses of their victims -- first cows, eventually a Unitarian. The scene described above can easily be compared to the daily routine of a pack of lions as they feed off their prey; the behavior of the Federalists, mimics that of blood thirsty savages. With this in mind it is important to point out that Echeverría believed that the Slaughter House did, indeed, represent the political ideology and religious faith of the Federalists. He purposefully ends this story saying that "from the foregoing episode it can be clearly seen that the headquarters of the Federation were located in the Slaughter House." (p. 76)
On the other hand, by the manner in which Echeverría represents the Unitarian, the reader can quickly conclude that Echeverría sides with him, and the Unitarians:
The Unitarian was a young man, about twenty-five years old, elegant, debonair of carriage, who, as the above-mentioned exclamations were spouting from these imprudent mouths, was trotting towards Barracas, quite fearless of any danger ahead of him. Noticing, however, the significant glances of that gang of Slaughter House curs, his right hand reached automatically for the pistolcase of his English saddle. (p.72)
The way in which Echeverría writes about the Unitarian -- even the words he uses -- creates an image of this character that makes the reader appreciate him more than the Federalists. By having the Federalists -- hated and despised by the reader -- torture and kill a Unitarian, Echeverría is using the emotions of the reader to strengthen his point. The killing of an innocent Unitarian assures Echeverría that the reader will side with the victim, and consequently with Echeverría himself.
The film, Camila, takes a more detailed look at the Rosas' dictatorship, and the problems that the Argentineans living under this rule have to live through. The movie portrays both sides of the conflict in a similar manner as "The Slaughter House," and there are many parallels that can be drawn between the two works. The insignias, for example is a symbol that is used in both works. While the movie has a brief scene in which the young priest is told that he must wear the insignia, the story relates the following as the Federalists torture the innocent man:
"Now, let's see: why don't you wear any insignia?"
"Because I don't care to."
"Don't you know that the Restorer orders it?"
"Insignia become you, slaves, but not free men!"
"Free men will have to wear them, by force."
"Indeed, by force and brutal violence. These are your arms, infamous wretches! Wolves, tigers, and panthers are also strong like you and like them you should walk on all fours."
"Are you not afraid of being torn to pieces by the tigers?"
"I prefer that to have you pluck out my entrails, as the ravens do, one by one."
"Why don't you wear a mourning sash on your hat in memory of the Heroine?"
"Because I wear it in my heart in memory of my country which you, infamous wretches have murdered."
The most powerful similarity, however, is that of the Unitarian from the story and the young priest in Camila. William Freedman would call these characters "motifs." They are the tragic heroes, the protagonist, the one the audience relates to. There is a scene in both the story and the movie that are virtually identical. When the Federalists come to take Camila and her husband (the young priest) away, he reacts in a violent frenzy. In the story there is a passage the retells the scene from the movie perfectly:
The young man was beside himself. His entire body shook with rage: his molted face, his voice, his tremendous lips, evinced the throbbing of his heart and the agitation of his nerves. His fiery eyes bulged in their sockets, his long black hair bristled. His bare neck and the front of his shirt showed his bulging arteries and his anxious breathing. (p. 74)
In both works -- "The Slaughter House" and Camila -- the audience is forced to take sides, and the creators of these works made a very conscious effort to have their audience side with a particular side. It is obvious that in both cases the Unitarian (the young priest was not necessarily a Unitarian, but he was persecuted by the Federalists) was the one who received the backing of the creator and consequently the audience.
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