Report on Peronists in On Heroes and Tombs

Abstract

On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sábato has been the object of numerous critical studies. However, this overwhelming corpus has ignored a fundamental element in the novel: Perón's and Peronism's compelling influence in the third chapter, "Report on the Blind". Without the Peronist experience according to Sábato, the novel would lack Fernando and his informative descent to the sewage system in Buenos Aires. The unknown and marginal situation of the Argentine workers' world before Perón parallels the unexplored condition of the blinds' world in the "Report of the Blind." Fernando's hellish descent to this ignored underworld allows him to get to know it and, by means of his "Report," to let it be known to the ignorant, sighted citizens. In similar fashion, the first
Peronist experience, a hellish one according to Sábato, forced the ignorant upper classes the imperative need to know the massive workers' world. On Heroes and Tombs includes the traditional dichotomy of civilization and barbarism. However, thanks to the "Report on the Blind," this conservative topic is transformed into the inclusive model of civilization plus barbarism. The analysis of Peronism in the "Report of the Blind" lessens the legitimacy of negative critical conclusions that undervalue the innovation and literary qualities of On Heroes and Tombs due to the apparent traditional or reactionary ideology
of its author. Moreover, this critical framework sheds light on the crucial debt the "Report" has to the Peronist phenomenon.