THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.1 Shoes and Mirrors: Images of Doubling The Avatar in Panamasu antigua personalidad” (92). 40 On the few occasions in the story whenSebastián has been challenged by questions and had his glance drawnaway from his black patent shoes, his comportment has radicallydeparted from his usual catatonic-like exterior. There are severalpossible interpretations of doubling if one assumes Sebastián’smanifest personality relies on his choice of footwear. Nevertheless, twopersonalities do exist here although what remains to be resolved iswhich is the original personality and which is the simulacrum. Basedmerely on consistency one may conclude Sebastián’s real self is thepersonality which quietly contemplates the toes of his black shoes andhis double -the one of the loquacious and extroverted disposition- wearsthe brown shoes. However, if the narrator is merely imagining the blackshoewearing alter-ego, then the Sebastián who dons the brown-shoesis the alleged paedophile and the genuine one. If the original Sebastiánwears the brown shoes and the black shoe wearing Sebastian is hisdouble then Sebastián’s effort in concentrating the repression andredirection of his real personality into his shoes would carry somevalidity.The narrator's explanation for his vision of the double is that hedesperately wants to view Sebastián differently unlike the disappointingneighbour with whom he has been presented. He may unwittingly willthe materialisation of the double as he looks for an alternativeSebastián. The old man desires this so intensely that he even visualisesSebastián’s intention: “A lo mejor lo que vi irse fue apenas la intenciónque Sebastián Santana tenía de hacerlo. Sólo la intención; aunque tanreal…” (90). It is possible that the narrator is indulging in the fulfilmentof a desire and is projecting onto an innocent neighbour a guilt-riddenlonging to find his abandoned son. It is also feasible that the storyteller’ssanity is questionable and there is no neighbour-son at all. 41 Not unlikeHerman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, Sebastián’s characterbecomes subdued and introspective to the extent that he eventuallyceases to exist:Ahí estaban en el piso sus cosas, tal como yolas había visto esa mañana. Y la cama sinarreglar, su silueta apenas sugerida por ciertospliegues de la sábana. Y en una esquina,40 The removal of Mario Benedetti’s protagonist Armando’s shoes in his short story “Elotro yo”, conjures up his double and the classical music provokes his maudlinreaction: “Una tarde Armando llegó cansado del trabajo, se quitó los zapatos, moviólentamente los dedos de los pies y encendió la radio. En la radio estaba Mozart, peroel muchacho durmió”, the reader is then told, “[c]uando despertó el Otro Yo llorabacon desconsuelo”, Benedetti 264.41 See footnote 62, 53. A possible reading of Dostoevsky’s The Double may also bethat the entire story is a product of Golyadkin’s paranoid delusion as a result of hispersonality disorder.155