The narrators says that Juan finds his job "both self-denying and uplifting" (line 89). Provide an example from the story to show that his job is self-denying and an example that shows it is uplifting.

This line, line 89, has been taken from the story "The Censors" written by Luisa Valenzuela in 1992. It tells the story of Juan, a man who lives in a country under the control of an authoritarian government. At the beginning of the story, Juan writes letter to a woman he loves named Mariana. However, this authoritarian government controls and censors all the letters they think can affect or go against such government. So, for this reason, Juan decides to get a job in the Censor's Secret Command in order to intercept his own letter. However, Juan becomes so devoted to his job, that he doesn't realize that, when his letter reaches his hands, he censors it without any regret and, therefore, he is executed the following day.

In line 89, the narrator says that Juan's job is "self-denying and uplifting" and we can identify some examples in order to understand what the narrator meant by it:

Juan's job is "uplifting" since he feels he is doing an excellent job. He finds it interesting and becomes fully devoted to it: "His basket for censored letters became the best fed as well as the most cunning basket in the whole Censorship Division."

However, Juan's job can also be defined as "self-denying" since he censors his own letter. He forgets the reasons why he entered the Censor's Secret Command in the first place. He prefers being a good worker and loyal to the authoritarian government rather than being loyal to his own values and Mariana, his lover. We observe all this in the last paragraph of the story: "He was about to congratulate himself for having finally discovered his true mission, when his letter to Mariana reached his hands. Naturally, he censored it without regret. And just as naturally, he couldn't stop them from executing him the following morning, another victim of his devotion to work."