ABSTRACT Of all the writers associated with the McOndo movement, a literary movement that focuses on the reality of urban life for millions of young Latin Americans, Jorge Franco is perhaps the most distinguished. As the author of Paraíso Travel and Rosario Tijeras, Franco has expertly shown his international audience the brutal conditions under which so many residents of his birth city of Medellín, Colombia, live. In both novels the reader is introduced to a world in which various factors have set up a society characterized by victims and predators. This study will attempt to show how economics, violence, machismo, racism and class discrimination all play a role in establishing a social hierarchy that facilitates anti-social behavior, and how these social institutions perpetuate themselves to the detriment of those caught in the cycle.