Axolotl

The literature of the Latin American Boom is characterized by experimental or unconventional approaches to literary craft. Identify one way in which “Axolotl” fits this description and discuss how this approach develops the story’s themes.

Cortázar’s short story “Cefalea” (“Headache”) also centers an animal as a primary character/symbol. Compare and contrast the ways in which Cortázar employs animal imagery in these two stories. How does animal symbolism help Cortázar establish and develop these stories’ themes?

Early in the story, the narrator often describes the axolotls in terms of human-made inanimate objects. A few examples include “a statuette corroded by time” (5), “Chinese figures of milky glass” (5), “brooches.” What is the significance of these comparisons? Does the comparative language the narrator uses for the axolotls change later in the story? If so, why?