An adolescent's shifting identity becomes a psychological and social metaphor through school withdrawal, artistic experimentation, neurosis, religion, and radical charity.
Story Structure — 4 Plot Phases
A Stifling Family Routine
Laura works at a shabby college while Laurita begins withdrawing from school. Laurita's wish to move to Madagascar signals an emerging identity crisis.
Key Events
Laura Teaches at College — Laura works as a professor at a shabby, stultifying college. Characters: LauraLocation: A shabby college
Laurita's School Withdrawal — Laurita begins withdrawing from school while Laura remains part of her family environment. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: School and family home
Laurita Leaves School — Laurita stops going to school, marking a clear break from ordinary routine. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Dreaming of Madagascar — Laurita expresses a wish to move to Madagascar. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Identity Search Begins — Laurita's school rejection and Madagascar fantasy reveal an adolescent search for identity. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Heavy Metal Transformation — Laurita adopts the appearance of a heavy-metal fan. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Borrowed Identities
Laurita rapidly changes her appearance, first resembling a heavy-metal fan and then a bohemian. Her attachment to poetry and art becomes intensely emotional.
Key Events
Heavy Metal Transformation — Laurita adopts the appearance of a heavy-metal fan. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
A New Persona Appears — Laurita rapidly moves through changing identities and appearances. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Bohemian Phase — Laurita next presents herself as a bohemian. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Poetry And Art — Laurita becomes emotionally absorbed in poetry and art. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Weeping Over Art — Laurita weeps in response to poetry and art. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Confusion Intensifies — Laurita's successive identities move beyond ordinary adolescent confusion. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
From Confusion To Obsession
Laurita crosses from adolescent confusion into intense neurosis and beyond. Her psychological crisis then takes a religious direction.
Key Events
Confusion Intensifies — Laurita's successive identities move beyond ordinary adolescent confusion. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Neurosis Emerges — The plot describes Laurita's development from confusion into intense neurosis. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Beyond Ordinary Crisis — Laurita's condition progresses beyond intense neurosis. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Religious Obsession — Laurita becomes increasingly obsessed with religion. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Turn Toward Good Works — Laurita's religious fixation develops into an intense commitment to good works. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Family home
Good Works And Overcrowding
Laurita becomes obsessed with religion and good works. She brings ten homeless children into the cramped house shared with Laura, transforming the household.
Key Events
Ten Children Arrive — Laurita brings ten homeless children into the house she shares with Laura. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Cramped family house
Household Overwhelmed — The arrival of ten children intensifies the pressure inside the cramped home. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Cramped family house
Identity Becomes Metaphor — Laurita's identity crisis functions as a metaphor for socialist Cuba. Characters: Laura, LauritaLocation: Cramped family house
Radical Compassion — Laurita's good works take the concrete form of sheltering homeless children. Characters: Laurita, LauraLocation: Cramped family house
A Transformed Household — The story ends with Laurita fully consumed by religious commitment and good works. Characters: Laura, LauritaLocation: Cramped family house
Story Breakdown
Stifling Family Setting — Laura's professional and domestic environment establishes the restrictive world surrounding Laurita.
Shabby College — Laura is a professor at a shabby, stultifying college.
Shared Cramped Home — Laura and Laurita are connected through a cramped family household.
School Withdrawal — Laurita rejects her ordinary educational routine and begins searching for another identity.
Leaving School — Laurita stops going to school.
Madagascar Dream — Laurita wishes to move to Madagascar.
Shifting Personas — Laurita experiments with contrasting cultural identities and appearances.
Heavy Metal Phase — Laurita appears like a heavy-metal fan.
Bohemian Phase — Laurita later presents herself as a bohemian.
Artistic Sensitivity — Poetry and art become emotional outlets during Laurita's unstable transformation.
Poetry Absorption — Laurita becomes absorbed in poetry.
Weeping At Art — Laurita weeps in response to poetry and art.
Psychological Escalation — The identity search develops into an increasingly severe psychological crisis.
Adolescent Confusion — Laurita initially moves through ordinary adolescent confusion.
Intense Neurosis — The plot describes Laurita crossing into intense neurosis and beyond.
Religious Transformation — Laurita redirects her crisis into religious obsession and good works.
Religious Obsession — Laurita becomes intensely obsessed with religion.
Commitment To Charity — Her religious fixation becomes a drive toward good works.
Overcrowded Household — Laurita's charitable behavior changes the physical and emotional conditions of the family home.
Ten Homeless Children — Laurita brings ten homeless children into the house.
Domestic Overload — The cramped shared house becomes the setting for the final escalation.
Cuban Metaphor — Laurita's adolescent identity crisis is framed as a metaphor for socialist Cuba.
Personal Crisis — Laurita's transformations embody a search for identity.
Social Resonance — The personal crisis is connected to a broader Cuban social metaphor.
The 50-minute "Madagascar" has the resonance and eloquence of the best poetry, as it deftly turns an adolescent's search for identity into a metaphor for socialist Cuba. Laura is a professor at a shabby, stultifying college. Her daughter, Laurita, stops going to school, wishes to move to Madagascar and quickly races through several phases. One day, she looks like a heavy-metal fan, another like a bohemian who weeps at poetry and art. Slowly, she crosses the line from ordinary adolescent confusion to intense neurosis and beyond, finally becoming so obsessed with religion and good works that she brings 10 homeless children into the cramped house she shares with her mother and grandmother.
