This article deals with the short story ‘La vida gris’ (The Grey Life) by the Peruvian writer Julio Ramon Ribeyro. This story is important in Ribeyro’s short story writing because it is the first published short story and brings together several themes that are essential for the understanding of his writing. Therefore, the aim of this paper is the analysis of this story and the approach to two essential themes, namely, existence and Man. First, we will focus in detail on the content of the text and its importance; second, we will present Ribeyro’s personal vision of life and his conception of literature. Finally, we will try to find the relationships between the author’s philosophy, his writing, and the short story in question. It is worth mentioning that this study will be carried out from the perspective of the duality of thought-writing and, especially, from the author’s p...