Rebeldía existencialista en “Las mariposas” de María Luisa Puga

Resumen

“Las mariposas”, cuento magistral de María Luisa Puga, nos presenta a un revolucionario inconforme con la historia de su vida. Preso en un hospital militar y creyéndose a punto de morir torturado para sacarle información de su organización clandestina, el protagonista escribe para explicarse sus decisiones, entender el vacío que siente y rescatar lo salvable de su pasado para darle sentido a su muerte. En este ensayo, siguiendo las pautas de El hombre rebelde de Albert Camus, nos preguntamos si el buen revolucionario, que comienza luchando contra la injusticia social, puede terminar siendo un asesino con sed de venganza.

Palabras clave:

• “Las mariposas”,
• María Luisa Puga,
• Albert Camus,
• El hombre rebelde,
• existencialismo

Abstract

In “Las mariposas”, considered by many María Luisa Puga’s best short story, we meet a rebel who is not satisfied with the turns his life story took. Jailed in a military hospital and believing he is about to be tortured to death to get information out of him, he feels pressed to resolve his questions and starts writing to make sense of his decisions, his nonconformity and to come up with something that would give his death some kind of meaning. In this essay, we ask, as Albert Camus did in The Rebel, if a just rebel can transform into a bloodthirsty assassin.

Keywords:

• “Butterflies,
• ” María Luisa Puga,
• Albert Camus,
• The Rebel,
• existentialism