62: A Model Kit: Analysis of Major Characters
"62: A Model Kit: Analysis of Major Characters" explores a diverse cast of characters centered around Juan, an Argentine interpreter with a whimsical worldview and a fascination with metaphysics. He finds himself entangled in complex relationships, particularly with Hélène, a French anesthetist grappling with her own emotional turmoil. The story unfolds in a vibrant café setting, where Juan and his friends gather, intertwining their lives with themes of love, betrayal, and self-discovery.
Other notable characters include Marrast, a sculptor dealing with heartache after his lover, Nicole, confesses her affection for Juan, and Tell, Juan’s independent partner who is aware of his feelings for Hélène. Nicole struggles with her desires and the impact of her choices on those around her. The narrative is enriched by the presence of Celia, a young woman who faces her own challenges and seeks love amidst the group's dynamics, and Austin, a charming musician who becomes a catalyst for change in the group.
The interplay of these characters, along with the surreal experiences they encounter, highlights themes of friendship, identity, and the search for connection in a complex world. The portrayal of their relationships offers a nuanced reflection on the intricacies of human emotions and the often unpredictable nature of love.
62: A Model Kit: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Julio Cortázar
First published: 62: Modelo para armar, 1968 (English translation, 1972)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Paris, London, Vienna, Arcueil, and an imaginary city
Plot: Psychological
Time: The 1950's or the 1960's
Juan, an Argentine interpreter who works for an international agency. He has a humorous and unprejudiced character and an almost surrealist vision of the world, which he shares with most of the characters, all of whom are among a group of friends who meet habitually in the café Cluny. Juan is interested in metaphysical matters, especially in the ways in which reality is perceived. He has much imagination and looks for secret keys or symbols to understand the universe or what happens to him. He shares the keys, the dreams, and the imaginary realms (“the city,” “the zone”) with his friends. He usually travels with his partner, Tell, but he is desperately in love with Hélène. During his stay in Vienna, as he works at an international conference and shares his life with Tell, he is obsessed with the story of a bloody countess, the Basilisk House, and an old and disgusting woman, Frau Marta, who vampirizes an English girl who is touring Vienna. Always mixing fantasies with real life, he tries to save the English girl from an imaginary danger. Everything becomes a metaphor of his relationship with Hélène. Back in Paris, he has an intense encounter with Hélène but is unable to keep her after she tells her story of a dead patient who resembled Juan and her affair with Celia. He desperately intends to reach her and to follow her, but he loses her in a scene in which dreams and symbols are mixed and become real.
Hélène, a young French anesthetist, aloof and distant but a sensible and tender person. Unlike Juan, she is unable to share everything with her friends in the Cluny. She is touched when a young man, almost a boy, with a close resemblance to Juan dies without awakening from anesthesia. She leaves the hospital very disturbed, goes to the Cluny, and meets Celia, who has just run away from her parents' home. She invites Celia to her small apartment and, that night, having no control of her feelings and senses, forces Celia to make love with her. After this disturbing experience, she has a sexual encounter with Juan, but she cannot forgive herself for the disgraceful incident of the night spent with Celia.
Marrast, a French sculptor with an extraordinary sense of humor who travels to London to get a stone to carve a statue of Vercingetorix, commissioned by the mayor of Arcueil. To forget that his lover, Nicole, has revealed to him her love for Juan, he invents absurd situations in a museum, situations in which almost all the members of the group, now in London, are engaged. He teaches French to Austin but then, when Nicole betrays him with Austin, goes back to Paris and works on the sculpture. All the members of the group are together in the inauguration of the Vercingetorix statue. He continues to love Nicole and tries to get her back.
Nicole, a French illustrator of children's books. She has a good relationship with Marrast, but their happiness is destroyed when she confesses that she is in love with Juan. They live together for a while, but she decides to go to bed with Austin to destroy Marrast's love. She is not able to gain another's love, forget Marrast, or destroy his affection for her.
Tell, Juan's lover. She is a young, beautiful, and independent Danish woman. She shares Juan's friends and travels with him, trying to enjoy their relationship even when she knows that Juan is in love with Hélène. She participates joyfully in the surrealistic games in which Juan is engaged, such as following Frau Marta and the English girl in their wanderings across Vienna and trying to protect the girl from impending danger.
Calac and Polanco, two Argentines, the first a writer and critic, the second a worker in unusual jobs. Both have a ludicrous sense of life and are always engaged in absurd dialogues, in which they have nothing to say. Sometimes, they use a language of their own, which irritates conformist people. They are, in some respects, as Juan is in others, the alter ego of the author.
Celia, the youngest member of the group. She is rich and spoiled and decides to leave her parents' home. She runs into Hélène in the Cluny. They are alone because Juan and Tell are in Vienna and the others are in London. She has no place to spend the night and accepts Hélène's invitation to her place with curiosity, because Hélène is a mystery to most members of the group. She suffers a tremendous shock when she accepts Hélène's sexual assault, and she decides to go to London to join the others. She meets Austin and falls in love with him.
Austin, a young English lute player who receives French lessons from Marrast and joins the group. He is handsome and self-confident. He has a casual affair with Nicole and initiates Celia into the delights of heterosexual love. He meets the group in London and travels to Paris, attending with them the inauguration of Marrast's statue in Arcueil.
The paredros, abstract entities that sometimes function as alter egos of the main characters.
Feuille Morte (fweh mohrt), an indefinite entity, a feminine voice that says only “bisbis bisbis.”