Analysis of Asturias The President Novel - Book Report/Review Example

 Asturia's “The President” is a novel that is set during an unknown time about an unknown country that is ruled over by a dictatorial leader. As the novel begins, there are beggars in the Cathedral porch, including “Zany” who was also known in the novel as “The Idiot.” Zany has an unexplained sensitivity about his mother, although there is some indication that his mother was a source of comfort, for, in one of his dreams, the description between himself and his mother was that “he found relief in her motherly bosom. The entrails of the woman who had given birth to him absorbed the pain of his wounds like blotting-paper. What a deep and imperturbable refuge. What abundance of love! My pretty lily! My fine big lily! How I love you! How I love you!” (Asturias, 1963, p. 23). At any rate, it is evident that Zany suffers from mental problems, probably schizophrenia, and his mother was a subject that tended to put him over the deep end - “the Zany went mad whenever anyone mentioned his mother” (Asturias, 1963, p. 9). Zany's sensitivity to mention of his mother is what leads to a chain of events that eventually ensnares all the main characters, eventually leading to the downfall of every one of them - the murder of Colonel Jose Parrales Sonriente. Sonriente was the new arrival described who “jeeringly” shouted at him “Mother!” After which Zany seized upon him, “thrust[ing] his fingers into his eyes, t[earing] at his nose with his teeth and jabb[ing] his private parts with his knees, until he fell to the ground motionless” (Asturias, 1963, p. 11). It is this murder that is the center of the novel, and it is through this murder that one witnesses the treachery of the President and the people around him. The reason why this murder is so important is because it shows the power that is wielded by the President. The President uses the murder of Sonriente to frame his political enemies, General Canales and Abel Carvajal, who is a lawyer. The first abuse of power is when the Judge Advocate General “questioned” the beggars who were witnesses to the murder. When the beggars screamed that the Zany was the one who committed the murder, the Judge Advocate General tortured them and told them to say that it was Canales and Carvajal who committed the murder. One by one, each beggar agreed that this was the case except the Mosquito, a legless, blind beggar who refused to lie. This refusal was the Mosquito's downfall, as he was flogged to death (Asturias, 1963, p. 16). This was the first view of the Judge Advocate General who was arguably more evil than the actual President. This is one aspect of the novel that stood out – the President himself is actually shown as kind of benign, even charitable at times, and a buffoon at other times. Some examples of this are when Angel Face happened upon the Zany, who was passed out in the woods. Angel Face helped the Zany for a little while, then left him. When Angel Face told the President what had happened, the President was very concerned with whether Angel Face had taken the Zany to the hospital, stating “[w]hat's this you are telling me? A man who prides himself on being the friend of the President of the Republic surely doesn't leave a poor wretch lying in the street, wounded by some unknown hand!” (Asturias, 1963, p. 37). He also instructed Angel Face to tip off Canales and arrange for Canales' flight. Later in the novel, the President turned away the Judge Advocate General who attempted to indict Angel Face in the murder, along with Nina Fedina, stating that “neither Senora de Rodas nor Miguel is guilty; you must set the woman free and countermand the arrest” (Asturias, 1963, p. 133). He also appeared to not believe what the Judge Advocate General was saying about Angel Face – that Angel Face was an enemy of the President - stating that this charge was “tarradiddle” (Asturias, 1963, p. 258). In other scenes, he appeared as more of a buffoon than evil incarnate. For instance, it is obvious that the President had a drinking problem, if he was not an actual alcoholic. In the kangaroo court that the lawyer Carvajal had to endure where he was charged with killing the General, the President was drunk, being described as “giving the most finished performance of them all as an alcoholic, seemed on the point of passing out” (Asturias, 1963, p. 206). Then, when Angel Face paid the President a visit later in the book, the President laughs hysterically about chasing after a fly “with his shirt-tails coming out of his belt, his fly-buttons undone, his shoes untied, dribbling and the mouth and with his eyes exuding a bright yellow rheum” (Asturias, 1963, p. 222). Also, there is a backstory about him being dirt poor as a boy, insignificant and insecure. He saw the people around him growing up as “ungrateful beasts” (Asturias, 1963, p. 223). Through these scenes, one questions whether the President was the brute that wielded power, or whether it was the Judge Advocate General that was going rogue. Because, while the President was seen as sadistic in one scene, that with the Swine, who was an unfortunate man who suffered 200 lashes simply because he accidentally spilled ink on a document the President was signing, which resulted in the poor man's death, the Judge Advocate General (JAG) was seen in a sadistic light over and over, and he also appeared to seize power when none was given. It was the JAG who became irate over Canales escaping, and it was the JAG who allowed Nina Fedina's baby to starve to death because Nina Fedina could not tell the JAG where the General went – despite the fact that the JAG actually believed Nina Fedina's story; later on, he sold Nina Fedina to a brothel, and ended up framing Rodas for this when the brothel wanted their money back because Nina Fedina went mad. The JAG had a “score to settle” with Angel Face, and attempted to indict Angel Face early on in the novel (Asturias, 1963, p. 132). He had Genaro Rodas flogged a total of 400 times when Rodas did not give the answers the JAG was looking for in the Zany's killing, giving this order in a voice that was “as if a bank manager had given instructions for two hundred pesos to be paid to one of his clients” (Asturias, 1963, p. 135). Lucio Vasquez, who was also questioned about the Zany's murder ended up dying in prison, which was probably also because of the JAG. Also, it was unclear if Angel Face's arrest was at the behest of the President or the JAG – the JAG had a score to settle with Angel Face, while the President considered Angel Face a friend, and appeared not to believe the charges the JAG made against Angel Face. In other words, the President really did not have motive to have Angel Face arrested, aside from the fact that Angel Face married Canales' daughter, while the JAG did. Because the JAG appeared much more sadistic and evil than the actual President did, one can argue that this was a case of the underling being more evil, sadistic and powerful than the dictator. The President did wield power through the novel – he railroaded Carvajal on charges that Carvajal killed Sonriente, even though he knew that Carvajal did not have a thing to do with the murder, and he did have the poor Swine flogged to death – but it is very unclear whether the President wielded his powers mainly malevolently or benignly. It is possible that the JAG was responsible for a lot of the suffering the characters went through. At any rate, the main characters suffered through the government's actions, whether it was at the hands of the President or the JAG. Angel Face, a loyalist to the President, ended up dying in an underground prison, suffering unspeakable conditions for many years, kept alive only by the thought of Camila, then dying when another prisoner was paid to tell Angel Face that he slept with Camila. Camila suffered because she lost her father, due to General Canales being railroaded for Sonriente's murder, and she also lost Angel Face. Canales himself, a good man, as evidenced by his retribution for an evil doctor who wanted to exhume the mother of some peasants he encountered, because the peasants could not pay their doctor bill, suffered because he was unjustly exiled and later executed. These were the major characters, but the minor characters all suffered under the dictatorship as well. The Zany was killed, ostensibly because he had rabies, but the real reason is apparently because he killed Sonriente; as mentioned before, Genaro Rodas and his wife suffered by Rodas being tortured, his wife being sold into prostitution and their baby being allowed to die of starvation; Vasquez died in prison; the beggars were treated terribly, being tortured, imprisoned, and made to lie about Sonriente's murder; and people were imprisoned in horrible conditions for such minor matters as accidentally removing a paper that announced the anniversary of the President's mother from a church door (Asturias, 1963, p. 200). At the same time, the two main characters actually experienced something wonderful out of the whole Sonriente murder mess – what started out as a kidnapping of Camila by Angel Face turned into a kind of protective custody, and then love. The gentle way that Angel Face treated Camila right from the start – his outrage at Camila's uncles turning her away; his act of kindness in telling Major Farfan about a plot on Farfan's life, with the belief that this would save Camila, as, in “saving a man who was in grave danger of death...God would grant him Camila's life in exchange” (Asturias, 1963, p. 171) ; the fact that Angel Face married Camila because it was believed that marriage would save her life, which it did, miraculously; and, towards the beginning of the novel, when Angel Face helped the Zany when the Zany lay passed out in the woods – showed Angel Face to be a hero. There were really no actions in the novel that framed Angel Face in any light but that of a hero. The only hint that he might not be as heroic as imagined is the fact that, early on, he was described, repeatedly, as being “as beautiful and wicked as Satan” (Asturias, 1963, p. 37). The “beautiful” part of this description was explained, for Angel Face was always described as very handsome. The “wicked” part, however, went pretty much unexplained. But, because he was always described as “wicked”, there is some indication that Angel Face might have been villainous before meeting Camila. Perhaps it was love that made him a hero, whereas before, he was not. And, he was also described as “the favourite” of the President. If the President is dictatorial and sadistic, then it must be imagined that Angel Face probably did some underhanded deeds for the President to gain this favored status. Therefore, even though Angel Face remained heroic throughout the novel, he is probably a little bit villain and hero. Throughout the novel, there are some dream sequences that explained the plight of the people who were dreaming. These were not fantasies, but nightmares – one woman dreamed that she was suspended by a hook like a piece of meat; others dreamed of “famished pigs, thin women, maimed dogs and carriage wheels passing before their eyes, or a funeral procession of phantom monks going into the cathedral preced by a sliver of moon carried on a cross made of frozen shin-bones” (Asturias, 1963, p. 8). The Zany dreamed of, among other things, entrails, but also dreamed of his beloved mother and a circus. Angel Face, while Camila lay dying, dreamed of “skulls laughing in the confusion of the mortuary...fences made of human intestines divide up the earth” (Asturias, 1963, p. 180). He also dreams, at this time, that Camila is dead, and that there are men who throw their heads off and play with them, but drop their heads and their skulls smash on the ground. Asturias seems to use these sequences as a way into the characters' heads. With the beggars and their nightmares, the message seems to be that their suffering never abated, even when asleep. With the Zany, the dreams explain his relationship with his mother, and partially explains why the Zany was so sensitive about her that he would kill a man who taunted him about her, while expressing his desire to go back to his childhood, for he was suffering and “sick to [his] soul” (Asturias, 1963, p. 24). That the Zany wanted to go back to an earlier time when he was apparently loved and cared for is evident in the fact that his dreams featured not just his mother, but a circus, which is, of course, a childhood fantasy. For Angel Face, the nightmares expressed his fears about Camila dying. Later on, when Angel Face is in prison, he fantasizes about her, and these fantasies literally keep him alive. At any rate, most of the fantasy sequences involved hideous images, not good ones, and this seems to be an extension of what all the characters were feeling in this novel – that they are living in a nightmare, and that there was no way to escape their living nightmare, for the nightmare followed them into the their sleep. This novel was no doubt inspired by the author's life in Guatemala. Asturias was born in Guatemala, and spent his childhood and adolescence there (nobelprize.org). Asturias wrote this novel when he was in Paris, and this novel was so incendiary to the Guatemalan government that he was unable to bring the book with him when he returned to Guatemala, and the original version was not published for some 13 years (nobelprize.org). During the period of time that Asturias lived in Guatemala, Guatemala was ruled by four different dictators, including Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who ruled from 1897-1920, during the period of time that Asturias lived in Guatemala (Buckman, 2007, p. 182). As Cabrera was described by Buckman (2007) as a “ruthless man, [who] ruled as a despot with no effort to conceal his absolute power,” (Buckman, 2007, p. 182) one can probably imagine that Cabrera was who Asturias had in mind when writing this novel. As the President in this novel did display acts of raw power – such as with the flogging of the Swine, the framing and railroading of the lawyer and Canales, and the fact that Angel Face's imprisonment and death were probably due to the President's wishes, although this is not absolutely clear – there are clear parallels between the President and Cabrera. Therefore, this novel was probably meant as an indictment to Cabrera, a thinly veiled roman à clef, which is why the novel was so explosive that he could not enter Guatemala with it in hand. Guatemala, which was no doubt the inspiration for this novel, is but one Latin American country that has been under dictatorship rule, but there have been many others. According to Buckman (2007), the reason for this is because of the roots of these countries were spoiled. Spain, Portugal and France, the countries who colonized Latin America, did not experience the Enlightenment in the same way that England did. According to Buckman (2007), England experienced this Enlightenment, therefore was able to pass down liberal principles to her subjects - Canada, the United States and English-speaking Caribbean states. These principles, enshrined in the Magna Carta, were that of individual liberties, the right to due process, and co-equal branches of government. These ideas took root in England's colonial countries, therefore, even when the countries gained independence, these values were already enshrined and grew from there. On the other hand, the countries that colonized Latin America – Spain, Portugal and France – did not experience the Enlightenment and did not have the equivalent to the Magna Carta. Because of this, Latin America did not have the same liberal principles in place when they broke free from colonial rule (Buckman, 2007, p. 2). Moreover, while England exported the industrial revolution to her colonial countries, which led to a democratization as workers were able to make a living wage, there was not a corresponding industrialization of the Latin colonies, which led wealth being concentrated in the hands of very few, while the vast majority were desperately poor. These factors, combined with the fact that the father countries did not care about developing the Latin colonies, but, rather, was only interested in exploiting them, with Spain only being interested in harvesting precious metals as opposed to building roads, schools, financial institutions or agricultural concerns, therefore the countries were poorly developed from the start, led to the breeding ground for dictatorship (Buckman, 2007, p. 6). The fact that the countries were, by and large, poor, due to their father countries not developing them or industrializing them, are conditions that lead to dictatorship, as the desperate people will elect any leader who “promises to bring order out of chaos” as exemplified for the reason for Mussolini's longtime popularity - “he made the trains run on time” (Buckman, 2007, p. 5). And, since Latin American countries did not have foundational documents that limit the power of the executive branch and stress due process and individual liberties, dictatorship was made even more possible. These factors created a “perfect storm” that fostered dictatorial rule throughout Latin America, a condition that exists to this day. Perhaps a leader who had close parallels with the President of Asturia's novel is Fidel Castro. Like Asturia's President, Castro early on suffered a near-death experience at the hands of the current ruling party, the Batistas. This occurred when Castro, as a young revolutionary, attempted an assault on the Batistas in the Moncada army post that ended in Castro's capture and threatened execution (Green, 2000, p. 82). Asturia's President also experienced near death at the hands of his enemies, as evidenced by fact that his enemies “laid a bomb at [his] feet...” (Asturias, 1963, p. 97). Also, like Asturia's President, Castro kept his enemies in line by executing his enemy's supporters, which prevented them from opposing his rule (Green, 2000, p. 86). Asturia's President apparently considered Canales his enemy, and Carvajal a supporter of his enemy, therefore he railroaded them and disposed of them. Thus, the two leaders – one fictional, one not – had a similar way of wielding power and staying in power, by eliminating their enemies to shore up support for their regime. Conclusion Asturia's President was an interesting paradox, and Asturia handled the subject of the President in an unusual way. Instead of centering his novel around the President and his actions, he centered the novel around the people who were affected by the President. The President himself is in the novel so rarely that he is, ironically, a minor character in the novel that is named for him. But, by showing how people are affected by his actions and the action of his Judge Advocate General, Asturia's provides a horrifying vision, where innocent people are imprisoned, tortured, and executed. What's more, the people who suffer these indignities are either completely innocent of anything, or guilty of the most minor of transgressions – the Swine tipped ink on the President's document; a man accidentally took down a notice of the President's mother's anniversary; Angel Face married the daughter of General Canales; Carvajal and Canales were completely innocent. The brutality with which they were dealt for these minor peccadilloes show how power was wielded in a sadistic way. The novel is a brutal indictment of a totalitarian regime, and made for powerful reading. Sources Used Buckman, R.T. (2007). Latin America. Harpers Ferry, WV: Stryker-Post Publications. Green, R. (2000). Dictators. San Diego, CA: Lucent Book, Inc. Miguel Angel Asturias. Nobelprize.org. 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