The story starts off by talking about where The Eye has gone and how him and the narrator have become friends. The eye ends up getting made fun of by others who call him a homosexual which in reality he turns out to be. He ends up leaving for Paris to be a photographer because, "Everyone likes to be photographed"(page 107). The Eye left an impression on the narrator, "and even when his face had disappeared or receded into the shadows, that essence lingered in my memory"(page 109) From this quote it is clear that the Eye had a lasting impression on who he came in contact with. Once The Eye left, the narrator wanted to see him again. He ends up traveling to Berlin and runs into The Eye on a park bench. He almost does not recognize him since he has changed so much. Although he had changed in appearance he was still the same man he has always been.
After he runs into the Eye we learn of the story about where the Eye has been and what he has seen. The story took place in India and was horrible. The Eye ended up taking pictures of prostitutes until the pimps realized he was a homosexual. After this they took him to the worst scene. He witnessed young boys being castrated. The Eye then says, "I took a photo of him. I knew I was damning myself for all eternity, but I did it."(page 115) This startled me. I couldn't believe The Eye would do something this drastic when these are young boys that he actually cares about. The story goes on to talk about The Eye taking the boys with him and away from the horrible things happening to them there. My favorite part of this story was, "Instead of calling him father, he had the boys call him The Eye,"(page 118). He used this name to keep out of trouble, but it also comes across as the name relating to him. The Eye is the one who now watches over the boys, he is their Eye. He is also living for the boys, without them he cannot seem to get through. Overall, the story was very interesting and there were a lot of great quotes and ideas that came from the whole story.
The next story "The Savage Detectives" relates a lot to "The Eye". Within the first few lines it is clear that this is yet another hard story to tell and deals with Latin Americans just like the last. These two guys are like the two in the last story. They become friends by chance and learn about each others lives. Jacobo Urenda says,"and then they vanish in a cloud of smoke, the way Belano vanished that night, without warning."(page 497). This reminded me of what happened to The Eye in the first story. They both disappear for an amount of time and they end up finding each other later on. The story goes on to talk about Belano and his obsession with taking pills. He is in very good health and takes pills on a regular basis. Urenda beings to travel and hopes to run into Belano again.
Later in the story Urenda meets a man, Linke, who had heard of Belano and even met him. He recalls his lack of wanting to drink, which is what stood out most to him. Urenda seems to be living through other people who have come across his long lost friend. Jacobo Urenda later photographs him and his friends along with driver. I found the quote, "The pain was worse than the certainty that the Italian was dead."(page 507). This was interesting to me. Urenda fell asleep and ends up having a horrible dream, which he wakes from covered in sweat. The story goes on with the guys traveling in the car. Belano then reappears. Urenda realizes he is still the same guy as before and he hasn't changed at all. He questions that maybe in fact he himself is the one that has changed.
Urenda begins to talk with Belano and introduces him to all of his friends. Overall, the stories are very similar. I enjoyed the first story more so than the second just because I was able to get into it more. Both stories were very interesting and brought up unique happenings.
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