The Lost Steps, which is a journey of a man finding his true identity, is based upon the settings in the text. The settings have a pivotal role in helping the reader understand identifications of the narrator, and helps show the passage of time. Setting throughout the novel is central throughout the text. The passage of time, or so it seems to the narrator, occurs between the settings, and are due to the settings such as the airplane ride, the bus ride and the canoe trip into the jungle. Each of these transportations takes the narrator more into the past and helps the narrator discover the truth he is looking for. In this novel the settings, which are emphasized by lengthy detail by the author, are central and essential to the text.
The settings are given in vivid detail in the novel. Carpentier uses them and their descriptions to help describe the narrator in himself. The settings range from a metropolitan New York City to the South American cities. The novel also goes into the city and the jungle itself. We also are taken to the setting of Santa Monica de los Venados. Moreover, the settings of the individual rooms and buildings within the larger settings also play a pivotal role throughout the novel.
The setting of New York City and its streets is where the novel begins. In this setting it is present day, and everything is monotonous. And still the streets, buildings, and even the stores are put into great detail. This kind of detail is to have an effect on the novel. By using this portrayal of the setting the narrator is showing the dullness of the metropolis. In the details of his own dwelling and also that of the curator's apartment, the details are shown to draw out time as if this era of time had stopped and was only repetitive. While in Mouche's apartment it was different from the ordinariness of the city. This setting helps show the effect of the city on the narrator and helps show how the narrator feels about certain times through this use of setting.