Paraguay (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Donald Barthelme
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Plot: Antistory
- Time of Work: About 1970
- Setting: The United States
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Jean Mueller, Herko Mueller
- Genres: Short fiction, Antistory
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Art or artists, Science or scientists, Government, Progress, Satire, Technology
- Locales: United States
The Story
“Paraguay” does not lend itself easily to a plot analysis because Donald Barthelme has not created a clear sequence of events. Nevertheless, the fifteen sections of the story, all but one with its own heading and most with only a tenuous relationship to the others, do add up to a recognizable journey to a bizarre country.
The opening section, narrated by an unidentified “we,” describes an expedition, apparently in the Himalayas, making its perilous way up and down peaks and through passes. The tone is similar to that of dozens of other reports of its...
[The entire page is 1419 words long]
