In 'The Obscene Bird of Night', what is the name of the protagonist?

In 'The Obscene Bird of Night', the protagonist is Humberto Peñaloza.

Humberto begins as a middle-class Chilean law student and writer struggling to rise within a rigidly class-divided society. He is also the novel’s principal narrator, although José Donoso makes his identity and voice deliberately unstable. The story repeatedly blurs the boundary between Humberto’s memories, fantasies, and the accounts of other characters.

Humberto later becomes known as El Mudito, or “the Mute,” while living at the Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnación. His gradual loss of speech and identity is part of the novel’s larger exploration of marginalization, power, and the fear of being erased by society.

A common mix-up is treating El Mudito or the monstrous Imbunche as separate protagonists. They are transformations or identities associated with Humberto’s fractured self. Donoso’s grotesque, dreamlike narrative makes that distinction intentionally difficult, but Humberto Peñaloza remains the canonical answer.