The Little School (1986) is a memoir by Argentine poet Alicia Partnoy about her

detention and torture as one of the "disappeared" dissidents seized by dictator Jorge Rafael

Videla during the military junta governments of the late 1970s known as the "Dirty War." The

tactical organizations of the time were particularly cruel when it came to gathering together

and seizing an extraordinary number of people for their political convictions. Videla later let

media know that he had no regret for seizing these individuals since it was a pragmatic method

to wipe out resistance without upsetting Argentine society about execution crews. Partnoy's

portrayal of the secret jail where she and others were held - metaphorically alluded to as "a

minuscule school" where these individuals would be instructed "examples" – was later

submitted as evidence to Argentina's Truth Commission.

Although Alicia Partnoys tells the story in the third person, she has access to her own thoughts

and feelings. Alicia is able to write everything that is happening to her from another person's

point of view in the third persona. I think alicia's decision to write her narrative in the third

person is brilliant because one assumes it's someone else's experience, but she can genuinely

explain how that person felt because it was her. Guards to the detainees used a variety of

methods to dehumanize them. With relation to the book "The Little School" Because of their

inactivity, inadequate food, and lack of privacy, all of the inmates suffered from constipation.

Cliché, the shift supervisor, paid frequent visits to the inmates and inquired about their treatment.

Initially, the inmates were allowed to use the guards' interior bathroom and wash their hands. In

the restroom, Alicia was offered sandpaper instead of toilet paper. Pato, a guard, was keeping an

eye on her. Another guard, Bruja, was busy organizing everyone into a "choo-choo train" for the

latrine. Alicia shook Vasca's and then Hugo's hands on her way out. The handshakes were

intended to motivate one another to keep going. At the latrine, the convicts were frequently
humiliated. Guards tried to force Alicia to smack Hugo while she was blindfolded one day. She

was beaten because she refused.

The chapter nativity is the book's final section, which is issued after around three and a half

months of partnoy. The chapter explains how partony leads to such deplorable circumstances.

The report concludes with many appendices in which Partony tries to recall as many concrete

details as she can about the other prisoners and guards with whom she came into contact,

information that would later be used as evidence in Videla's final trial.

In my opinion, there is a glimmer of hope for the future in that, while the book is full of brutality,

they were not killed in the prison, indicating that there is a glimmer of hope rather than suffering

with the hope of being free one day rather than knowing one cannot leave the prison unless they

are dead.The book is very captivating however full of brutality . if it was no for the read I could

not be aware of the events surrounding the so called Argentinian dirty war