The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Casares Book Review

Adolfo Carases the author if the novella “The Invention of Morel” uses literary techniques and characters archetypes to develop the story and add more depth to the work. The author uses the literary techniques of foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, symbolism, and irony to expand on the story. In addition, the author uses the character archetypes of the Lover, the Innocent, and the Creator to establish the nature of the narrator, Faustine, and Morel. The story takes place on an isolated island and the main character is the narrator who is detailing the lives of several individuals who are residing on the island, but he places special emphasis on a woman named Faustine, who he finds himself in love with. He discovers a machine used to transport people’s souls into a repeating timeline. Throughout the novel the author uses the literary technique foreshadowing to hint at the larger theme of the novella. 

With the use of foreshadowing, the author is able to allude to the use of the machine. The technique foreshadowing refers to an indication of what is to come. Authors use this to suggest certain themes or events in a story. Carases uses foreshadowing to hint at the machine that resides on the island and the usage of the machine. The narrator writes, “It all started a week ago. That was when I first observed the miraculous appearance of these people…” (Carases 38). After completing the story, the reader is aware that Morel recorded a week’s worth of sensations for his quest for immortality, but while reading the work this is a clue which foreshadowing the eventual reveal of the machine and that the people on the island are constantly reliving a week. The narrator notices and writes in his journal another moment of foreshadowing, stating “I remember thinking what a stubborn person he was. He was repeating the same demands I had heard hum make the week before… Conversations are subject to repetition, although one cannot explain this phenomenon” (Carases 54). This hints to the reader that not only are these two people have the same conversation, but it is strangely accurate to the first time they talked. In addition to foreshadowing the machine, the author also foreshadows the mental state of the narrator and hints at the literary technique unreliable narrator. 

The author uses the technique of unreliable narrator in his novella.  When an author uses this literary technique, they are doing so to build tension in the story. Our narrator is unreliable as he is a fugitive who is paranoid of being found and he falls into a maddening love with Faustine. The narrator writes in his journal that, “They are my unconscious enemies who, as they corner me against the sea in the disease-infester marshes, deprive me of everything I need, everything I must have if I am going to go on living” (Carases 24). This creates tension in the story as we wonder if he will be found by the other people or if Faustine will ever see him. This also helps to show how paranoid the narrator is. An unreliable narrator can also hint that the events in the story are going to be told from one perspective that has a limited viewpoint. In addition, Faustine is described with many contradicting statements such as she was French but spoke like she was South American.  Those moments help to solidify that the narrator is unreliable, and his version of events might not be the correct version of events. As we are reading, we learn information when the narrator does. With the use of unreliable narrator, the reader also is exposed to the literary technique repetitive designation. 

Carases uses symbolism to help support the theme of immortality in his novella. Symbols in written works are objects that carry another meaning or idea. In this story, the author uses many symbols such as Faustine. Faustine represents immortality. The narrator continues to chase after Faustine and her love, while she cannot even recognize the narrator. “It was not as if she had not heard me, as if she had not seen me; rather it seemed that her ears were not used for hearing, that her eyes could not see” (Carases 41). Faustine symbolizes that you cannot achieve true immortality without consequences. As the characters are transitioning into being copied by the machine, they give up the own lives to live in the repeating week. In addition, Morel is a symbolism for the pursuit of immortality. As Morel is creating and using his machine to suspend people in time, he also takes the lives of many people. That is the opposite of his goal. He is killing people in order to make them immortal which is a contradiction. The use of symbolism in the story also allows the author to expand on another literary technique called irony. 

Irony is used all throughout the narrative and helps to contradict with a main theme of the story. Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality. The author uses irony multiple times throughout the work.  “Even if we left tomorrow, we would be here eternally, repeating consecutively the moments of this week, powerless to escape from the consciousness we had in each one of them-the thoughts and feelings the machine captured.” (Carases 94). As mentioned in the paragraph about symbolism, there is also irony in Morel’s invention. It is ironic that to create and establish immortality the people must die to get there, and they are not living freely but a repeating week. Another moment of irony is with the narrator who is a fugitive. The narrator flees to the island to escape death, but in the ending of the story the narrator give up his own life to live with Faustine in the repeating week. Additionally, the author uses the literary techniques examined to develop the character archetypes used in this story.

The narrator of the novella displays characteristics that are given to the character archetype of the Lover. The narrator of this story has many characters the fit with the Lover archetype. This archetype values and desires being in a relationship. The narrator decided to give into his love for Faustine and let himself be copied by the machine and asks, “To the person who nails this diary and then invents a machine that can assemble disjoined presences, I make this request: Find Faustine and met, let me enter the heaven of her consciousness. It will be an act of piety” (Carases 123). While at first the narrator was originally on the island to escape his crime, he soon found himself desiring Faustine. The narrator spends much of his time watching Faustine and listening to her conversations, not realizing she was just a projection. In the conclusion of the book, he injects himself into a version of the repeating week to spend more time with Faustine, showing how dedicated he was to a relationship that could never develop. While the narrator is the Lover archetype, the women, Faustine, is another archetype.   

The author uses the characteristics and traits of the Innocent archetype to create the character Faustine. The Innocent archetype is described as wanting to obtain happiness. The narrator wrote, “Faustine tried to avoid him; then he planned the week, the death of his friends, so that he could achieve immortality with Faustine” (Carases 119). In this story, Faustine was attempting to have a relaxing week vacation with some friends, but instead is added to Morel’s plot to achieve immortality. She was punished, along with the others who were added to Morel’s plans, for something she had no control over. In addition to Faustine, the author also used a common archetype to establish the character Morel. 

The character Morel has the attributes of the character archetype the Creator. This archetype desires to understand a vision. Morel has written on his yellow pages, “I had found my first plan was impossible- to be alone with her and to photograph a scene of my pleasure or of our mutual joy. So I conceived another one, which I am sure, better” (Carases 93). Morel was not able to achieve one of his goals to be with Faustine, so he created the machine. After his attempt to get her alone to record her, he led her and some other people to the island under the idea it was going to be a relaxing break. Morel had put a large amount of work into carefully selecting the island and creating the buildings which reside on the island to protect the machine. The author uses literary devices and character architypes to progress his novella.

“The Invention of Morel” written by Adolfo Carases is able to develop the story and the characters using literary techniques and character archetypes. The author uses the literary techniques of foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, symbolism, and irony to help move along the story and the character archetypes of the Lover, the Innocent, and the Creator to develop the characters of the narrator, Faustine, and Morel. 

Works Cited

“The 12 Common Archetypes.” The Soul Medic, 9 Jan. 2017, www.thesoulmedic.com/the-12-common-archetypes/. 

Yumpu.com. “The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares.” Yumpu.com, www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/34897296/the-invention-of-morel-adolfo-bioy-casares.