Lost City Radio the Debut

¶ … Lost City Radio

The debut of the book 'Lost City Radio' by Daniel Alarcon takes place is in a place rampantly around the region of Latin America (Hickling 4). The setting is in a nation that is in a period after a battle and the people in the place remain with scars and bruises in their souls. It can possibly be the Peru region. The Peru war led to displacement of people from the Andean highlands, just as the war in the lost city occurred in mountainous and jungle region (Gonza-lez 128).

Additionally, the war was between guerrillas and the government, resulting in the slums in Lima, zones of poverty, and the war shifted from the rural to the urban cities (Gonza-lez 211). In the Peru civil war, several people lost their lives; others went missing and the villages and city destroyed by the bombings and attacks. The similarities between the Peru civil war and the war in Lost City Radio are beckoning. This clearly proves that the war that is described in the novel could possibly be representing the Peru civil war. In the novel, the people in the city are living in an uneasy mode due to the aftermath of the decade long-civil war (Hunter 7). The use of the setting and symbolism and vivid description in this book propagates the theme of the effects of war in the clearest and fathomable manner.

The locale of the book and the plot of the story show with illustration the area in which the war occurred and how it exemplarily represents the theme of war and the aftermath associated with the act. The setting is such that, the area described in the novel has mountain regions, where the main fights used to occur, and people escaped for their lives (Hickling 13). The second setting is the jungle, in which the possible battles took place, and the hiding of the warring personnel could hide them. The other setting used in this book is that of the expanding ring of slims surrounding the main city. This is where there the settlements that host the people of this region, the place in which the war would emerge and spread through to the other regions. The radio, the lost city, is the only main point of contact between the people and their loved ones, and it is located within the city. The host of the radio program Lost City Radio is Miss Norma; a honey voiced person, and whose voice is the darling of every person in the city and the villages.

To illustrate the impacts of the long decade war, the first instance to cite is the use of the radio to announce the names of the missing persons from the war. Every week, Norma reads out the names of hundreds of people whom the families report missing, and in the process helps them to find each other (Hickling 9). These reunions, as Alarcon describes in the novel, show a heart-warming and carefully orchestrated meetings, hence making Norma a legend in the city for the way she delivers the news in a comforting manner. Therefore, in this novel, through this process of the use of the radio, and the vivid description of the lost persons and announcement of their relatives searching for them, we see the propagation and the development of the theme of effects of war. This effect is the loss of the loved ones. The writer states, "she depends on the station's rule, which is the policy from the regime: to read good news with concern and bad news sound hopeful…in her vocal caresses, joblessness figures read like bittersweet laments, declaration of war like love letters.." (Hickling 42). This illustrates that the news of the war and the effects caused suffering to the people. It is symbolically phrased; using imagery as a way of making, the readers have an easy time to decipher the content. Therefore, the writer uses these stylistic approaches to show the impact of the war on the people.

As the story unfolds, a young boy, about eleven years named Victor arrives to the station. He is from the village in the jungle, which does not have a name since the government names the villages by numbers. Along with him, he brings a list of names and descriptions of the missing persons. Among the descriptions of the people in the in this list is one that sparks interest in Norma, a description of a man that befits her long lost husband (Cross 34). The boy tells her that he does not have a place stay, and she takes him to stay with her. He tells Norma that Rey, her lost husband last appeared in that little village (Cross 34). He reveals a double life that Norma did not have a clue about as he was working as a macho man for clandestine political activities. Surprisingly, Norma never suspected a thing from the several trips that her husband made to the jungle. Rey's working shows a deeper involvement in events of violence and terrorism. The story of Norma and Rey shows the impact of war in the lives of the family and couple. From the involvement of Rey in the activities of violence, the couple suffers separation, and Norma faces more suffering personally than any other person does. Therefore, through the plot of the story, the effect of involvement in war by one party of the couple comes clear.

Additionally, there is the use of vivid description to illustrate the theme of war and violence and the impacts it has in the personal life of individuals. After allowing Victor to stay in her home, she becomes close to him as though he was her child (Hunter 15). In the process, Alarcon describes the way in which Victor had many nightmares. His habits and the way in which he woke in terror from having strange dreams reminded Norma of her husband. Victor has an unnamable resemblance to Rey and this troubles Norma. This observation of the boy made Norma to start revisiting the streets of the city and remembering the people who live there, as her husband. In this setting, Alarcon vividly describes the remains of the city and the nightmares and condition of the boy, which reminded Norma of her husband Alarcon writes, "what does a car bomb say about poverty, or the execution of a rural mayor explain about disenfranchisement?..the war was a nightmare…the country had slipped, fallen into a nightmare, now horrifying, now comic, and in the city, there was only a sense of dismay at the inexplicability it" (Daniel 59). The description of these nightmares shows the impacts of the war and violence acts on the psychological development of the people. People suffer regular attacks of fear and panic and experience sleepless nights and fear. These influence the psychological development of the people. Moreover, the description of the remains of the city shows the impact of the war on the infrastructure of the country at war.

The use of the settings of the jungle and mountainous regions shows the place where the planning of the war starts. Additionally, the villages in the region where this war is set indicate the impact of war in the local regions. For instance, the rebels that are warring against the government base their camps in these regions. As Victor describes his experience in the village and the cause of his nightmares, it shows how the rebels use the villages in the outskirts and the jungle to foster their acts of violence Alarcon writes, "Memory is a great deceiver, grief and longing cloud the past, and recollections even vivid ones fade" (Daniel 93). This shows the impact of the memories of the war on the people. The jungle provides the perfect setting for the rebels as they engage the government. The use of this setting helps to illustrate how the theme of violence affects the people that live in villages. The people face abuse and loss of lives from the activities of war as Alarcon writes, "what does the end of a war mean if not one side ran out of men willing to die" this shows that many men lost their lives (Daniel 132). They suffer from alienation from the government as they harbor the people opposing the government. For instance, the government does not give names to these villages to show how irrelevant they are to the government; this alienation means that the local people remain without anyone to run to for help.