In The Challenge, Mario Vargas Llosa develops his plot through his narratorÆs account of a fight to the death that is to occur between the Gimp, a large, ugly man, and the son of Leonidas, Justo. The plot involves a group of men in a river bar discussing a fight between the two for later that evening. The fight is to occur at ôthe raftö, a large carob tree that has fallen in a riverbed and ôeach yearàmoved a little farther from the cityö (Llosa 405). This is significant because slowly but surely the two groups of men who meet for the fight, each of them loyal to either the Gimp or Justo, move further apart as the story unfolds.
The friends of Justo, including Briceno and Moses, are worried about his odds against the Gimp. JustoÆs father, Leonidas, is also concerned and provides his son with tips for staying alive in the knife battle. Julian narrates the story and it is from his perspective that the plot unfolds. When Leonidas leaves the River Bar, Briceno suddenly exclaims, ôThe GimpÆs going to kill himö in reference to Justo (Llosa 403). Though his friends are worried for his life, nobody makes these sentiments known to Justo. Instead, the men slowly make their way to the scene of the knife fight. They eventually reach the raft and come across the other group of men, Gimp and those who are loyal to the Gimp.
The plot develops as we are told of the ritualistic manner in which the fight is conducted. Both of the fighters have their knives checked for acceptability. Julian has brought a knife with him for Justo to use, but after viewing the knife Justo replies, ôTheyÆre the same. IÆll stick with mineö (Llosa 404). The use of the knife early on in the story foreshadows the later plot development of the Gimp and Justo fighting to the death with knives. However, another use of foreshadowing is seen when we are told about how the fight between the Gimp and Justo started. During a heated exchange si
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