SOURCE: Henager, Eric. “Girls and Other Problems: The Young Male Character in Two Short Stories by Cristina Peri Rossi.” RLA 8 (1996): 509–14.

In the following essay, Henager examines the portrayal of young male characters in Peri Rossi's “La índole del lenguaje” and “La navidad de los lagartos.”

Cristina Peri Rossi's short stories often incorporate the, perspective of children into adult problems. With only a few notable exceptions,¹ the children at the center of the stories are male, and often their encounters with females play significant roles in the tales' development. Several of the stories present young male characters who are only beginning to be aware of the impact girls and women can potentially have on them. In this article, I contrast two such stories, “La índole del lenguaje” (Cosmoagonías 83–92) and “La navidad de los lagartos” (El museo de los esfuerzos inútiles 48–55), in order to highlight key issues in...