The Glass of Milk

Juxtaposition is a comparison of two different things to characterize them through this contrast. One example of juxtaposition in the narrative is the contrast between the young man’s views of the sea and the city; the sea is a place where people work together and everyone on a ship is provided for, while the city is “a place of slavery” (Paragraph 21). In this political allegory, Rojas uses the city to represent capitalist exploitation and the sea to represent a more collaborative and nurturing social structure.

Rojas also juxtaposes the protagonist, who is desperate and starving, and the old man at the dairy, who is relaxed and leisurely. The narrator describes the old man as “reading without moving, as if glued to the chair. Over the little table there was a half-drunk glass of milk” (Paragraph 40). The old man’s stillness evokes a calmness that the protagonist views antagonistically, as he is starving and would never treat food so casually. His anger is fueled by “the flame in his stomach,” and “he [throws] the old man glances that [seem] like stones” (Paragraph 41).