in "facundo", sarmiento is both the narrator and a main character. the book contains autobiographical elements from sarmiento's life, and he comments on the entire argentine circumstance. he also expresses and analyzes his own opinion and chronicles some historic events. within the book's dichotomy between civilization and barbarism, sarmiento's character represents civilization, steeped as he is in european and north american ideas; he stands for education and development, as opposed to rosas and facundo, who symbolize barbarism.