“The Night Face Up”, by Julio Cortazar, is a short story about a nameless man’s dream. Toward the beginning of the story, the man is in a motorcycle accident, and he is brought to the hospital. He drifts into a dream in the Aztec war and a lot happens. He is captured by the Aztecs, and he gets carried to their temple to be sacrificed by the priest; he couldn’t escape. Lastly, his dream becomes reality. In “The Night Face Up”, Cortazar uses imagery and details to create a dark tone. Cortazar uses dark imagery to allow the reader to visualize the character’s pain and agony. As night starts to fall, he starts to dream again, “As he was sleeping on his back, the position
in which he came to did not surprise him…he was surrounded by an absolute darkness. Tried to get up and felt ropes pinning his wrists and ankles. He was staked to the ground on a floor of dank, icy stone slabs”. The author started by letting the reader know it was completely dark. Normally, happiness is not what comes to mind when you come across darkness; fear and chaos is most likely implied.. Then he says he felt his wrists and ankles pinned down on a cold ground. The reader can visualize him trying to escape and not being able to move. That lets the reader understand he feels uncomfortable and as if he has no freedom.
The author also uses details that show fear in the character. Throughout the story, the man is afraid to go to sleep. Waking up in the middle of his dream, the first time, he says, “The fever was winning slowly and he would have been able to sleep again, but was enjoying the
The Night Face Up