My Response to "The Night Face Up"
             Discrepancy between illusion, reality, and the roll that illusion plays in characters attitudes and behaviours is one of the themes in the story "The Night Face Up" by Julio Cortazar. This short story is full of illusion, as the main character who remains nameless, slips between to diverse and unrelated realities. I feel that the reality in this story is the motorcycle/hospital reality and that the Aztec/Motecas is a dream that he experiences when sleeping.
             The motorcycle/hospital reality appears to be a very customary scene that is easy to understand and can be easily related the readers own life and reality.
             "He lets the ministries zip past (the pink, the white), and a series of stores on the main street, their windows flashing, now he was beginning the most pleasant part of the run, the real ride: a long street bordered with trees, very little traffic, with spacious villas whose gardens rambled all the way down to the sidewalks, which were indicated by low hedges."
             This excerpt, found in the introduction of the story, clearly explains the surroundings of the characters environment in explicit detail. This description is very detailed, in that it would not be likely to of been dreamt because most dreams are remembered as faint memories and often have many bizarre features. Also since the other reality takes place in the age of the Aztecs, it is unlikely that they could dream a reality exactly like the present of today.
             When the character slips from the hospital reality, it always happens as he falls asleep or becomes unconscious.
             "...and with a sign of bliss he let himself drift off.... The violet light of the lamp up there was beginning to get dimmer and dimmer as he slipped into sleep."
             In this excerpt, he clearly falls asleep before his dream starts to take place. Now if we look at the moment when he wakes up from this dream, he wakes up ...