UNINTERlingua 2023

54 recovering his human form. It is true that the character lost his human body, but he also maintained his wit and sense of hu- mor typical of the Spanish pícaro. It was during his life in the ocean that many of his adventures took place, and Lázaro beca- me one of the favorite subjects of the tuna king. In other words, his fortune reached a very high point, a point that he most likely would have never reached in the human world where he was always being margi- nalized within his society. In the sections that follow, I will attempt to accomplish three things: 1) to show that this work has the characteristics necessary to be classified as picaresque, 2) to refute the objections that others have presented to deny it its well-deserved place within the picaresque novel, and 3) to elaborate upon the fantastic elements of the work. The critic Claudio Guillén, in his article “Toward a Definition of the Picaresque,” makes it clear that the pícaro cannot be independently studied nor separated from the rest of the work in which he appears. From the beginning of a picaresque novel, the situation of the character is precarious, and often he is found in social and econo- mic circumstances that will eventually lead him to live a difficult life and to be margi- nalized from the rest of society. Guillén also explains that, generally, the pí- caro is an orphan and that throughout his cruel experiences in life, he progressively hardens internally as well as externally. Given the situations in which he lives, the pícaro distances himself from society, and not only does he create this distance, but society itself marginalizes and rejects him. It is clear that for a novel to be considered picaresque, it must contain certain cha- racteristics: for example, the narrator must be the pícaro himself, he must make use of his wit, criticism towards society must be present, the pícaro must have masters, there must be pessimism and humor, mar- ginalization from society must be present,