Notes

The interactive oral developed my understanding of the President to a more in-depth and multifaceted view. For example, the fact that the author made the setting and time frame ambiguous with certain insinuations by incorporating the type of technology, communication such a letters and telegraphs and foreign events out of the country such as the Battle of Verdun helped me focus less on the historical correspondence between the book and genuine events that have occurred and more on the brutality, manipulation, and masquerade brought on as the effects of a single-party government.
This discussion also expanded my understanding of the disintegration of values brought on by this type of society. The government brought such fear to the people that families and friends were willing to turn against or turn their back to each other once they were declared to be public enemies of the government. In addition, marriage was looked down upon, gossip was rampant, and hospitality and altruism were perversed. Relations take away devotion and commitment to the government, which is why the government not only feared it but purposely tore it down according to the president’s whims by separating families. The extremities of passion and fear also portrayed the hostility of this society. Patriotism through impassioned speeches by seemingly modern everyday citizens such as the poet and corrupt deals and offers made by the government to carry out unethical behavior and fear brought by wretched torture and dehumanization in addition to the idealized, pure image of the president fostered loyalty of citizens to their country.
I also better understood the role of machismo in this book. Though Asturias appears to brush my sexism in the book by implying it in certain situations without offer a real critique, he may be portraying the transition of caballerismo to machismo or compensation of certain characters because of their gender.. La Masacuata was always the hard working woman while Vasquez, because of his voice and name, tries to make up for this feminine quality with sex or his title as the the secret police. The involuntary machismo hint at the standards that males are supposed to hold up against, and again, this involuntary action may be another portrayal of the degeneration of the society.