"So you fell out of the sky, too?" The Little Prince asked the pilot who tells the story, and I thought yes, I'd fallen out of the sky, too, but there was no possible testimony of my fall, there was no black box that anybody could consult, nor was there any black box of Ricardo Laverde's fall, human lives don't have these technological luxuries to fall back on. ”
Antonio utters these words after the death of his friend. He yearns for having a black box which could record his fall in life. He wishes for a machine recorder which could hold the testimony of his falling from a phase of life, where he was not suffering from trauma. He witnessed the murder of Ricardo and the sight of his death haunted him for years. This incident brought about his fall. Antonio did not know the reasons behind his murder so he desired of having Ricardo’s black box through which he could understand the motives of the murderers. After thinking about it, he realizes that only machines can possess these luxuries as humans are devoid of them.
“Adulthood brings with it the pernicious illusion of control, and perhaps even depends on it. I mean that mirage of dominion over our own life that allows us to feel like adults, for we associate maturity with autonomy, the sovereign right to determine what is going to happen to us next. Disillusion comes sooner or later, but it always comes, it doesn't miss an appointment, it never has.”
The author has shown how most of the people remain in delusion of considering maturity as autonomy. He asserts that adulthood does not give us unrestrained control on our lives. We are not the sole decision makers in our lives instead, our lives are shaped by the actions of others along with our fate. Most of the children start considering themselves as autonomous beings, when they reach their adulthood, but the reality is the opposite. Life does not allow us to steer our life in the direction of our own wishes.
"And I say to myself at the same time that we are terrible judges of the present moment, perhaps because the present does not really exist: everything is a memory, this phrase that I have just written is already a memory, it is a memory of this word that you, reader, have just reading. ”
The ephemeral nature of the present has been emphasized by the author. Most of the people remain obsessed by the trauma of past or the fears of future. They put no emphasis on the present moment despite of knowing that its inextricable. We do not judge the present and put our sole focus on remembering the things which are of no importance. Antonio also feels himself possessed by the memories and spends most of his time remembering his past. The author says that we judge the present moment terribly because perhaps there is no present moment and everything is just a memory even the words that are being written.
