The Hour of the Star

The first-person narrator, Rodrigo S. M., meditates on how life started. He doesn’t know why the universe came to be but tries to describe it as simply as possible. As a writer, he uses writing to search for answers to things he doesn’t understand. He guesses that by writing the story he wants to write he’s creating something too. He’s going to tell a story, but he has a bad toothache that will affect his writing. He has been conceptualizing a story for more than two years. He doesn’t have much money and doesn’t know who will read his work. He guesses that only someone with money would read it because a person of limited means couldn’t afford to spend the time doing so.

Rodrigo’s story idea was inspired by his encounter with a northeastern girl “on a street in Rio de Janeiro” (4). He doesn’t know the girl, but he too grew up in the northeast. He doesn’t think his story will be complicated and has no interest in using fancy language to write it. However, he has decided that he doesn’t pity his character and wants her story to be cold. His main goal is to show her life on the page.