In Mario Vargas Llosa’s book, The Bad Girl, the force of man’s love for a extremely free-spirited woman never expires. Lily in their home country Peru captivated the main character Ricardo. Ricardo always remembers Lily for being an awesome dancer, and an intriguing person. He knew that it was not just her simple beauty but also something about chasing her, made him love her more and more.
Since the beginning of the book, the character of Lily was not innocent. Lily lied to him by saying she was from Chile, she was ashamed of being a poor girl in Peru. Well years later pass, and Ricardo was working as translator in Paris. To his surprise and happiness, he encounters Lily in Paris. But Lily had changed her name. They were able to have a short-lived relationship that was halted by her work. Ricardo advised her to put her work first and he will wait for her return to Paris. Some years later pass by, and this time she is back. Now the Peruvian girl is back as a married woman. She married a rich European guy that provides her money and therefore she stopped working.
Even though, there was a repetitive cycle, the book was not easy to put down. I had to keep reading to know what Ricardo will do every time the ‘Bad girl’ would come back to him. She for sure made clear that she was after money; love was not something she was looking for. Ricardo tried to prove her wrong, and all time she failed him by tossing him aside.
In class, we discussed the title and the meaning that it sends to people. True, Llosa did put this title to classify some women. What kind of women? For sure, the girl was not a submissive, simple, or a traditional kind of woman. She was doing whatever she wanted with her life. She was going to be independent when she wanted or she was going to get married to whomever she wanted. The flaw she had was that she did not want to love. Since she did not want to be emotional, she was “bad” and -well she had to suffer at some point in her life.
-RA
