Compare the roles of the city and jungle in novel Lost City Radio. Make sure to quote the text and closely analyze the metaphors and symbols, and the tone and/or feeling of each scene, demonstrating their connection to your claims and arguments.

In Lost City Radio, the city represents hope, and it plays the role of providing hope for people. When the inhabitants of Victor's town send him to the city, they write a letter to accompany him that states, "We, the residents of 1797, have pooled our monies together and sent him to the city. We want a better life for Victor. There is no future for him here" (page 5). The residents send Victor to Norma because, as the voice of Lost City Radio, she is the voice of hope. Each Saturday night, Norma broadcasts her show, looking for people lost during the war. Her show is described in the following way: "And Norma listened, and then repeated the names in her mellifluous voice, and the board would light up with calls, lonely red lights, people longing to be found" (page 9). Norma is the voice of the city, the voice of hope. The red lights symbolize the lost people who want to find their displaced love ones in the city and forge a better future. The tone in these passages is one of hope and longing for a better tomorrow.
The jungle, on the other hand, represents the forgotten past. The government has changed the names of the villages so that people will forget the misery of the past. The role the jungle plays is one of forgetfulness. As Alarcon writes, "When the war ended, the government confiscated the old maps. They were taken off the shelves at the National Library, turned in by private citizens, cut out of school textbooks, and burned" (page 5). The destruction of the maps symbolizes the destruction of the past. The maps are a symbol of history, and their destruction means that the government is trying to erase the past. Alarcon writes, "Once, Victor's village had a name, but it was lost now. [Norma's] husband, Rey, had vanished near there" (page 5). The jungle is the sight of everything that is past and that has been erased. Even Victor does not know the name of his village before it became 1797, and Norma's husband, Rey, long ago vanished into the jungle, never to appear. The tone of the passages describing the jungle is one of despair.