Luisa Valenzuela's 'The Censors'

Throughout history, censorship has been a common way for certain political groups to avoid communication that may or may not coincide with the ideas and beliefs of the governing power. Words, both in written form and in speech can have an intense impact on people. To avoid allowing communication that does not fit their agenda, certain government organizations will censor letters to ensure that only communication that does not contradict the message they wish to convey to the public. The following essay will examine “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela and the way that the author has used literary elements in creating this short story about a man named Juan, and his quest to become a censor factory worker in order to gain access to a letter that he had sent.
The first evident literary element of this story was the setting. The story takes place in Argentina in the 1970’s before the country was a democracy. During a time when a military regime had begun censoring all of the mail coming into or going out of Argentina. It is also quite evident that the tone of this story is quite serious. The author describes the level that the censors go through to ensure that no unacceptable messages are delivered by the post office. “He knows that they examine, sniff, feel and read between the lines …show more content…
Venezuela writes “Well, you have to beat them to the punch, do what everyone tries to do: sabotage the machinery, throw sand in its gears, get to the bottom of the problem so as to stop it.” (Venezuela, 1992). Each of these phrases is a colorful way of telling the reader that Juan plans to get a job in the censorship division just to find the letter that he had written in order to ensure that Mariana was safe. This figurative language was also effective in painting a picture for the reader as well as conveying the purpose of the story; a written protest to the invasion on the civil rights of the Argentinian