Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Lesson Plan

How does the vocabulary Bruno uses to describe Johnny change toward the end of the story? What causes this change?

Students should read closely and cite specific examples from the text both to characterize Bruno's vocabulary towards Johnny at the beginning of the story and its evolution throughout the story, noting Bruno's distasteful admission that his main reason for caring whether or not Johnny "zonked" was how it would affect sales of his book, and his increasing use of racial slurs to distance himself from Johnny as his discomfort grows. They might examine both the internal causes (Bruno's change of heart based on his own reasoning and emotion coming from within)...