Blow-Up by Julio Cortázar
"Blow-Up" by Julio Cortázar is a compelling short story that explores themes of observation, intrusion, and the complexities of human interaction. The narrative follows Michel, who begins his day with a leisurely stroll along the Seine. His routine takes a turn when he witnesses a seemingly provocative encounter between a blonde woman and a teenage boy, prompting him to delve into the backstories and motivations of both individuals through his observations. As Michel captures the moment with his camera, he becomes embroiled in a web of assumptions and moral reflections about the nature of his actions.
The story reveals a shift from passive observation to an active engagement with the unfolding narrative, leading Michel to reevaluate his role in the situation. After developing the photo days later, he finds that the captured moment seems to take on a life of its own, revealing deeper truths about the dynamics at play. The narrative crescendos with Michel’s realization of his powerlessness to alter events, ultimately highlighting the interplay between perception and reality. Through its blend of magical realism and introspective storytelling, "Blow-Up" invites readers to reflect on the nature of voyeurism and the ethical dimensions of witnessing others' lives.
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Blow-Up by Julio Cortázar
First published: "Las babas del diablo," 1958 (English translation, 1963)
Type of plot: Magical Realism
Time of work: The 1950's
Locale: Paris
Principal Characters:
Roberto Michel , a Chilean-French translator and amateur photographer living in ParisA teenage boy A blond woman , who attempts to seduce the teenagerA man , sitting in a parked car
The Story
Roberto Michel opens his story not by telling what happened but by mulling over how it should be told and why it must be told. Once he decides that "the best thing is to put aside all decorum and tell it, "he recounts the events of his Sunday morning stroll along the Seine. His excursion is quite uneventful until, while lighting a cigarette, his eye catches an interesting scene in which a blond woman seems to be attempting to seduce a teenage boy.
With nothing better to do, Michel watches the scene carefully. As he notices the boy's nervous reactions to the woman's advances, Michel begins to imagine the particulars of the situation, details that he attempts to divine from his somewhat distant observations. Michel imagines in considerable detail the boy's background, his relationship with his friends, even his home life. He then begins to imagine the events of the morning that led the boy to this precarious situation. Now certain in his own mind of what is happening, Michel begins to derive a perverse pleasure from foreseeing the possible endings of the "cruel game," imagining both escape for the boy and conquest for the woman.
Michel notices a man in a parked car near the scene, but he is unable to establish his role in the seduction. Before the scene can disintegrate before his eyes, Michel readies his camera, still ruminating about the possible denouements of the story unfolding only a few feet away. When he finally snaps the photo, his action is noticed by both the woman and the boy. Irritated, the woman approaches Michel and demands the film. In the meantime, the boy seizes the opportunity to escape, "disappearing like a gossamer filament of angel-spit in the morning air." The mysterious man approaches from the parked car and joins the woman in demanding the film. Michel refuses to relinquish it and returns home.
Several days later, Michel develops the film and makes an enlargement of the photo of the woman and the boy. Fascinated by the shot, he tacks a poster-size blowup of it on the wall of his apartment. While working on a translation, he is mysteriously drawn to the photo. Examining it from several perspectives, he compares what is frozen in the picture with what happened immediately after it was taken. His contemplation of both the photo and the events surrounding it produces in him a self-satisfaction, for he feels that his intrusion allowed the boy the escape that the teenager so badly wanted. As Michel concludes, "In the last analysis, taking the photo had been a good act."
Magically, however, the figures in the photo begin to move and the scene develops beyond the point of Michel's intrusion, as if he and his camera had never been there. Michel sees that without his presence this time, "that which had not happened, but which was now going to happen, now was going to be fulfilled." He realizes that the woman had not been seducing the boy for her own pleasure but for that of the man in the parked car. As Michel points out, "The real boss was waiting there, smiling petulantly, already certain of the business; he was not the first to send a woman in the vanguard, to bring him the prisoners manacled in flowers." Michel painfully realizes that he cannot stop the order of events this time. He cannot interrupt the scene with another photograph, or even with a shout of warning to the boy. The figures are functioning in a time frame separate from his own, forcing him into the role of a powerless bystander.
Feeling helpless, Michel screams out and runs toward the photo. Surprisingly, the man, now out of the parked car, reacts to Michel's approach and turns to confront him. Once again, the boy seizes the opportunity afforded him by Michel's presence and escapes running. For the second time, Michel has helped the teenager, allowing him to get away, thus "returning him to his precarious paradise." Emotionally and physically exhausted, Michel breaks down in tears and makes his way to the window of his apartment. It is from this location that he narrates his story while watching the birds and the clouds pass by.