Ethnic Clashes in Peru: The Dilemma Underlying the Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa

In these works Vargas Liosa struggles with the dilemma posed by his attempts to sympathize with the problems of the native groups in Peru while he tries to overcome Western, Eurocentric values, which he accomplishes by demonstrating the inadequacy of the world view inherited from Europe and adapted in Peru. Caught between conflicting environments, the majority of his protagonists fail in their quests for survival and identity and only Mascaritas in El hablador is successful, as he immerses himself in a totally different cultural system, that of a jungle tribe. While this is not a practical solution, Vargas Llosa intimates in his novels that the Peruvian society must come to terms with its ethnic diversity and search for new answers.