Vast Hell: A Guillermo Martinez Analysis

While the culture of small towns is appealing to some, Guillermo Martinez’s “Vast Hell” highlights the negative aspects of this way of life. The narrator uses foreshadowing by opening with a proverb, “A small town is a vast hell.” He/she also uses several parts of the plot, as well as characters, to explore the idea that Puente Viejo is a hellish town. By the use of gossip and rumors, the character of the French Woman, and the shocking plot twist, it becomes increasingly clear how truly wicked the town is. Through various symbols, Martinez paints a picture of this small town that shows both its simple mask, as well as its dark secrets.

One of the most common themes in the story is judgement of others through gossip. Soon after his arrival, the nameless boy and the French Woman become Puente Viejo’s biggest scandal. Every townsperson is invested in their supposed affair, and when the couple disappears, it leads to a witch hunt. The village becomes obsessed and spends time and resources digging for the body of the French Woman. It becomes increasingly clear that this infatuation and the “dearth of scandals” the townspeople creat is a facade, a mere distraction to the real world (Martinez). It is much easier to face someone else’s business, rather than one’s own. Instead of facing personal struggles and the hardships of the entire town, the townspeople obsess over the French Woman. By making the couple’s skeletons in the closet open to the public, they can keep their own hidden. These people use rumors and gossip as a distraction from the reality of their town’s history. This becomes increasingly clear as their circumstances become more dire and they still return to their old habits.

Another aspect that adds to the hellish theme is the character of the French Woman. To the men of the town, her appearance is the pinnacle of female sexuality and attractiveness. The narrator often describes the clothes she wears, stressing that “she didn’t wear a bra,” to further display her blatant sexuality (Martinez). Her character serves as a symbol of sin, as she is portrayed as a sexual being in a setting where this is a negative characteristic. The men lust for her, while still fearing her power, making them sinners, just like the envious and hateful women in town. They create stories about her cheating on her husband and even “had made common cause against her fearful necklines” (Martinez). This makes her into the perfect image of an adulteress in the eyes of the townspeople, the epitome of unholiness. It isn’t until she is out of sight and no longer a threat that the women no longer seem to despise the French Woman. The sins the townspeople project onto and create for the French Woman tie in with the idea that this town is a hell of its own kind.

The end of the story is where the idea that this village is a purgatory is quite clear. The hunt for the French Woman’s body comes to a sobering end when, to the citizens’ horror, they look around and discover that “there were dead bodies and more dead bodies” scattered around the beach (Martinez). At this point, there is no more dancing around the gruesome truth. Everybody present comes to the realization that this is a mass grave, presumably filled with

carnage from a war. But they are quickly forced to re-bury the bodies, to forget the “smell of death” that plagued the beach (Martinez). This act is the climax of the story because at this point,

the townspeople realize that they are facing a horror they cannot fight or even change. These bodies represent all of the gruesome secrets that the town has no means to cope with. Out of options, the people shovel sand back onto the corpses and go home. The people come face-to-face with the evil that lives in their town, and they go back to living as though everything is the same, carrying on with their gossip and rumors as if nothing is wrong. Puente Viejo is almost a purgatory at this point- the citizens are in a pointless cycle of hiding this darkness and focusing on the sins of others instead. It is clear that Martinez is painting a negative picture of the environment the people of Puente Viejo have to live in, and how it affects their view of themselves and others. The longer the people live in this hellish place, the more extreme the measures they take to distract themselves becomes.

Guillermo Martinez’s short story highlights the dark secrets that lie in so many small towns. By prefacing the piece with the proverb “A small town is a vast hell,” Martinez set the overall gothic tone, as well as foreshadowing events to come. Using many plot points, as well as characters, helps to explore this realistic perspective of the village. This can be observed through the theme of gossip, the character of the French Woman, and the horrifying final paragraphs. Through these various symbols, Martinez unmasks the false front of Puente Viejo and reveals the ugly truth.

Works Cited

Martinez, Guillermo. “Vast Hell.” The New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2009, ddddhttp://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/04/27/vast-hell.

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