2 ?b90

251
also be played out in the lives of individuals such as Cemi, Fronesis and
Foci6n, from their particular symbolic viewpoints. Lezama's description
of the student demonstrations provides an illustration of the interplay of
order and chaos on a grand scale as a prologue to the three chapters which
follow.
Rialta's speech echoes what I consider to be the main theme enveloping
Fronesis; that is, the evolution of the generations of Man which supercede
one another. She has the insight necessary to recognize that the age-old
patterns of life must be allowed to crystalize naturally and she outlines
the consequences of forcing Nature's hand:
Un adolescente astuto produce un hombre intranquilo.
El egoismo de los padres hace que muchas veces quisieran
que sus hijos adolescentes fueran sus contempordneos, mgs
que la sucesi(5n, la continuidad de ellos a traveS de las
generaciones, o lo que es adn peor, se dejan arrastrar por
sus hijos, y ya estän perdidos, pues ninguno de los dos
estä en su lugar, ninguno representa la fluidez de lo
temporal (1,320).
The old order has to give way before the new, not to disrupt the continuity
of Time, but to maintain it by the ritual of separation from parental autho-
rity and the establishing of the new law. Whether or not the innovation
brings with it real change is not so important as the act of separation it-
self. In the presence of such a theme, we might well expect to find some
image of the voracious Unconscious lurking in the background; we are not to
be disappointed: "los hijos, que al no tener qu4 escoger, se perdian al es-
tar en obscuridad en el est&ago de un animal mayor" (1,320). The sons,
identified too closely with the parents, risk returning to the egoless stage
which renders them helpless and dependent like the foetus in the womb. They
will become perpetual Jonahs, incapable of accepting responsibility for them-
selves and others. The struggle between the generations is, according to
Rialta, essential for the preservation of Self.
It is natural that Cemi"s mother, Rialta, his Muse, should be the one