... employs Sartrean ideas of social concern. The military school, the cadets and their relationship with the officers are a pretext to describe the conflicts and the violent kinds of institutions the Peruvian society has. Vargas Llosa makes good use of the cadets in the academy and their mixture of social backgrounds. Both the racial issues between whites, Indians and blacks as well as the geographical divisions in Peru between the coastal, Andean and jungle regions arise in the novel. Llosa says that in effect, the academy was a microcosm of Peru - his beliefs that it is the writer's duty to be a voice in society and to fight for the victims of society are a significant characteristic of this novel. However, Vargas Llosa emphasizes that he does not use creative literature as a vehicle for political statements, that it should not be used to promote a political idea because ...

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