Literary pessimism and political optimism: their coexistence in contemporary Puerto Rico.--The sound and the fury of Mr. Kazin's critics.--The docile Puerto Rican: literature and psychological reality.--The Puerto Rican short story of the forties generation.--The problem of language in Puerto Rico.--A character in folklore and a theme of farce in Puerto Rico.--Message of a Puerto Rican to the writers and artists of Peru.--The function of the Puerto Rican writer today.