The Cloven Viscount

“‘They eat human flesh too, nowadays,’ replied the squire, ‘since the fields have been stripped by famine and the rivers dried by drought. Vultures and crows have now given way to storks and flamingos and cranes.’”

Kurt’s matter-of-fact description of storks becoming flesh eaters establishes the grotesque, war-ravaged landscape that will frame the narrative. This inversion of natural order—peaceful birds becoming scavengers—foreshadows the unnatural splitting of Medardo himself. The imagery creates an atmosphere of moral degradation where even formerly innocent creatures have been corrupted, setting up the dichotomy that will be the central premise of the narrative and establishing the theme of The Destructive Nature of Moral Extremism.

“‘When a horse feels its belly ripped open,’ explained the squire, ‘it tries to keep its guts in. Some put bellies on the ground, others turn on their backs to prevent them from dangling. But death soon gets ’em all the same.’”

Kurt’s graphic description of dying horses introduces the visceral horror of war before Medardo experiences it himself. The clinical detachment with which Kurt explains their suffering creates a tonal dissonance that will characterize the novel’s approach to violence. This description of disembowelment ironically foreshadows Medardo’s own mutilation, where his “whole thorax and abdomen” will be “swept away” by cannon fire (13).

“He felt no nostalgia or doubt, or apprehension. Things were still indisputably whole as he was himself. Could he have foreseen the dreadful fate awaiting him, he might have even found it quite natural, with all its pain.”

This passage emphasizes Medardo’s physical and psychological wholeness before his transformation through explicit foreshadowing. Calvino establishes dramatic irony as readers anticipate the splitting while Medardo remains oblivious. The