Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Lesson Plan

Why does the narrator say that "Ariel was an idiot"? Do you agree with her? How does Cortázar explore standard conceptions of beauty in "End of the Game"? What else informs the narrator's opinion of Letitia besides these conceptions?

Students will note that in seeing Letitia only in fixed postures, from a distance, Ariel was not aware of her spine problems when he wrote the note that "'The prettiest is the laziest.'" Observing a little more closely, they will also note that the narrator is heated with jealousy ("Holanda and I looked at each other, just a little furious") when she forms what she herself calls the "judicial opinion" of Ariel's idiocy. They may note that...