The Glass of Milk

“Not a moment later, a real vagabond, dressed in unbelievable rags, with big broken shoes, a long blonde beard and blue eyes, passed in front of the sailor.”

This quote juxtaposes the vagabond’s condition to the young man’s—while the young man is reserved, the vagabond bears all of the hallmarks of poverty. While they are foils, both must appear poor to make the sailor offer them food, hinting that their circumstances are not so different.

“A port beggar may not know English, but he would never forgive himself for not knowing enough of it to ask for food to a person who speaks that language.”

This sentence speaks to the difficulties brought about by being a “vagabond.” The port is an international place where many languages are spoken, and a working-class local might not be able to communicate. However, this quote also shows cunning—these men can learn enough to get what they need. Their identities are formed by their circumstances.

“He too, was hungry. It had been exactly three days since he had eaten, three long days. Shyness and shame, rather than pride, prevented him from standing in front of the ships’ stairs at lunch time, awaiting, from a generous sailor, a parcel with some leftover stew and pieces of meat. He couldn’t do it, he could never do it.”

This repetition of “three days” in this quote demonstrates how severe the young man’s starvation is. Likewise, the repetition of “couldn’t do it” reveals the young man’s deep shame over accepting help. These moments of interiority deepen the young man’s characterization and establish the starting point of his character arc.

“And when, as it had just happened, one of them did offer his leftovers, he rejected them heroically, feeling that such refusal increased his appetite.”

This quote shows the character’s conflicting nature; he is hungry but feels too much shame to accept the food. The refusal seems to make him even hungrier, but he is resolved to secure the meal through work. This foreshadows how this desperate hunger will continue to motivate the protagonist until it overwhelms his reason entirely.

“For six days he had been wandering around the streets and docks of that port. He had been left there by a British steamboat traveling from Punta Arenas. There he had abandoned a steamer in which he had served as cabin boy. He had stayed in that ship for one month, helping an Austrian crab fisherman.”

This paragraph reveals the young man’s determination and strong work ethic. He is someone who wishes to work for his share. The quote also reveals his adaptability to learn and take on such demanding occupations, moving from one to another without reservation. The blend of nationalities and locales here—Britain, Chile, Austria—alludes to international solidarity in worker’s movements.

“In the first big port he was discharged. And there he was now, like a parcel with no address nor addressee, with no one he knew, no coins in his pockets, nor a trade to offer.”

In this paragraph, it is revealed that the experience the young man has gained at sea does not translate well to seeking work on land. The dichotomy between a life at sea and one in the city is striking, and the simile here emphasizes the capitalist city’s dehumanizing nature, reducing him to an object. The lack of address or addressee reveals that the protagonist is isolated and lost.

“The big city, which beyond those streets was full of cheap taverns and lodgings, did not attract him. It seemed to him a place of slavery, airless, dark, lacking the expanse of the sea, and where in between high walls and straight streets people lived and died dazed by an anguished toil.”

This passage further associates the prospect of traversing this big city with negative feelings of dread and suffocation. This emphasizes the isolation the protagonist is experiencing in this moment. It is a daunting prospect to switch from one environment—the sea—to another—the city. The language here highlights the bleak nature of capitalism, in contrast with more pleasant descriptions of life at sea.

“He was possessed by his obsession for the sea, which bends even the smoothest and most defined lives as a strong arm would a thin rod. Although he was very young, he had already travelled extensively around the coasts of South America on different ships, doing various jobs and chores—chores and jobs that on land were almost pointless.”

This section further distinguishes the contrasting environments presented in this narrative, presenting the prospect of integrating into the big city as anything but seamless or simple to the young man. The quote also shows that ship work allows each person to play their part and be part of the crew, emphasizing the communal nature of this microcosm. The young man sees a sense of purpose in working at sea but not in the city.

“There was an infinitude of professional vagabonds: unemployed sailors, like him, thrown off from a steamer or fugitives who had committed some crime; drifters given in to leisure, who earn their bread who knows how, begging or stealing, living day to day as the beads of a filthy rosary, awaiting who knows what peculiar events.”

The quote reveals the desperate circumstances the lower classes face that sometimes force them into crime. It also reveals how unrelenting the threat of starvation and the necessity to provide for oneself is in this environment, emphasized by the repetition of “who knows.” The dehumanization of poverty is clear in the simile comparing these men to rosary beads. This comparison also reflects Rojas’s preoccupations with Catholicism and its inability to materially help those in need.

“A hunger that subdued him like a whipping: he saw everything through a blue mist, and he walked like a drunkard. However, he could not moan nor yell, because his suffering was obscure and exhausting; it was not pain but a deaf anguish, a sense of ending; he felt as if he were being crushed by a big load.”

In this quote, similes convey the intensity of the young man’s starvation—whipping and “being crushed by a big load” evoke images of both animal labor and torture. As such, these similes emphasize the dehumanizing nature of poverty.

“In that moment, as if a window had opened in front of him, he saw his house, the landscape that could be seen from it, the face of his mother and those of his siblings, everything he cared about and loved appeared and disappeared in front of his eyes, which exhaustion kept shut.”

This is the only moment in which the narrator mentions the protagonist’s home and family. The description is vague and does not mention any of the young man’s family members by name or reveal anything about their appearance. The memory presents some stakes for the protagonist and raises important considerations regarding his motivation for seeking out this work and this difficult lifestyle.

“He started walking faster, as if running away from a new dizzy spell, and, as he walked, he decided to eat anywhere, without paying, willing to be shamed, to be hit, to be sent to jail, to do anything: the only thing that mattered was eating, eating, eating.”

This quote reveals the protagonist’s increasing desperation as his hunger mounts, represented in the repetition of “eating.” His circumstances have made him lose his resolve, as he is now willing to steal and be shamed in return for staying alive. This depiction reveals the difficulties the lower classes face and explains why they might do the things they do. The young man is forced into stealing and possibly being sent to jail because he will not survive otherwise.

“Yet right away the reality of his desperate situation appeared before him, and something tight and hot surged from his heart up through his throat. He realized he was going to start sobbing, and even though he knew the lady was looking at him, he could not reject nor untie that hot knot that was becoming tighter and tighter. He fought back, and as he did so, he ate fast, fearful, afraid that his tears would prevent him from eating.”

The first honest and open display of emotion from the protagonist emerges against his will. The narrator briefly mentions that it is the fear of being watched that deters the protagonist from expressing his true emotions. He is fearful of drawing suspicion, of being seen as though he does not belong. The youth’s hasty movements further reveal his panicked state and the loss of control he experiences in his exhaustion.