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Idea of the modern > El Señor Presidente > Flashcards

El Señor Presidente Flashcards

1
Q

Author

A

Miguel Ángel Asturias

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2
Q

The nature of political dictatorship

A

and the affect it has on society

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3
Q

Tohil

A

Mayan deity: Of fire, but also sun, and the god of rain. People would sacrifice to this god so that crops would grow & the harvest would be good. There are parallels between Tohil and the President.

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4
Q

Hallucinatory scene

A

hallucination of the president arriving in night vision as an indigenous rain god.

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5
Q

christianity and mayan belief systems

A

Christian imagery is universalised/ mayan belief systems are explored. The two are often layered over each other

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6
Q

Pattern of inversion of what is set out by religious beliefs in practice

A

A god/ president that asks for human sacrifice seems antithetical to christian values

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7
Q

Cara De Angel as sacrifice

A

One reading of the novel is that Cara De Angel ultimately becomes the sacrifice, so that the president can survive.

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8
Q

Presentation of the President

A

All powerful and God like, leader of a tyrannical regime.

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9
Q

Chapters 13 & 14

A

A series of national celebrations

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10
Q

Use of biblical language

A

Pray to god, singing hymns, language reflecting christian prayers, ‘Señor” instead of dios, “hijo de pueblo’ en vez de “hijo de dios”

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11
Q

The president as a deity

A

presented as an inverted god rather than a good or evil god. His actions are antithetical to the actions of God

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12
Q

The president is based on

A

Manuel Estrada Cabrera:

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13
Q

The president does not say much in the novel

A

and yet the whole story turns around his character. He manipulates every single character.

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14
Q

KEY THEMES

A
  • Fear
  • Anxiety
  • Oppression
  • Despair
  • Desertion/ being abandoned/ abandonment
  • Retaliation/ revenge/ seeking to regain what has been lost
  • Escape
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15
Q

Another Important theme

A

Alienation at the hands of the state; separation from others and the destruction of relationships. (Reminiscent of marxist theory.)

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16
Q

Narrative perspective

A

Third person omniscient narrator

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17
Q

Lack of independent / free thought

A

No one is free physically or mentally because the president knows or discovers the thoughts, actions and feelings of each character

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18
Q

There is a general feeling of insecurity/ unease throughout the novel

A

The resignation of the characters to the decisions of the President (dictator) which leads to their degradation as people.

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19
Q

Rebellion

A

Is condemned to fail in the novel.

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20
Q

The explicit and deeply descriptive nature of the novel

A

transports the reader to the claustrophobic environment within the novel.

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21
Q

The world which the president governs is depicted as

A

An infernal world; a hell on earth.

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22
Q

Opening scene of the novel: sensory appeal

A

bells clanging, screeching, lightness shrinking, beggars cowering in the shade…

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23
Q

Nearly all of the action takes place in darkness.

A

People beg for light, the president wears all black, Cara De Angel wears grey.

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24
Q

Confusion of guilt and innocence.

A

Often the innocent are found guilty of things they have not committed; e.g. Cara de angel thinks that his wife is now the president’s lover but this is not true.

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25
Q

Men are threatened and hounded;

A

because their honesty and integrity represents a threat to the regime. Meanwhile the guilty are

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26
Q

Chapter 2:

A

At the police station; the beggars that witness the murder are tortured into confessing that they witnessed a false version of events.

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27
Q

Chapter 5:

A

Doctor Bareño: p.140; a large number of deaths have taken place because intravenous drugs were replaced with cheaper alternatives whilst the doctors pocket the difference. Rather than being rewarded for uncovering this bad practice; he is arrested for drawing light to this.

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28
Q

Men who are guilty of crimes / violence or who betray their loved ones

A

are rewarded with promotions or new jobs. This demonstrates the evil of capitalism.

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29
Q

The president is presented as a destructive character

A

whereas a God would usually be considered ‘constructive’

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30
Q

Woman is put in jail and separated from her new born baby which she can hear crying out of hunger.

A

She is prevented from feeding him and he starves to death. The woman goes crazy and wants to return the baby to the place of safety in her womb– the womb becomes a tomb.This is another example of inversion and subversion of human values.

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31
Q

Enforced separation

A
  • a key reoccurrence– many families are separated
  • They are not just separated in a physical sense, but the president is destroying all normal bonds and ties so that all that remains is allegiance to him.
  • Friendships, families, relationships are progressively destroyed so that their alliegance to him is all that can benefit them.
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32
Q

Example of individuals betraying conventional familial bonds

A

When Camila is abandoned, Cara de Angel takes her to her uncle who refuses to acknowledge their relation to her. They don’t want to be associated with her or general Canales.

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33
Q

2nd Example of individuals betraying conventional bonds / this time a friendship

A

Major Farfán; he is betrayed by his lover la Mariana who is involved in a plot to poison him, organised by the president’s men. Cara de Angel tips him off and saves him. Farfan later betrays Cara de Angel and captures him at the end of the novel in another demonstration of the breaking down of bonds built on trust, friendship etc.

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34
Q

Spying and surveillance

A

key themes in the book and repeated throughout

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35
Q

Chapter 10: Description of Cara de Angel’s house

A

La concinera is spying on someone who is spying on someone else. Vicious cycle of spying and betrayal.

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36
Q

Choosing to spy for the president

A

means basic human ties and friendship are subordinated in favour of offering loyalty to the president

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37
Q

Society is broken down into individuals

A

The next step is that the individual is then broken themselves, personality wise or in terms of morality

38
Q

Religious story of the angel’s rebellion

A

in contrast to the idea of the all powerful president

39
Q

Two key rebellions in the novel

A
  • Cara de Angel’s rebellion
  • The rebellion that Canales starts in the countryside. He creates a revolution designed to topple the regime; this is the only time in the novel that directly contrasts the pattern of destroying the collective. An attempt at organised unity.
  • However the rebellion occurs in the background of the novel, it does not succeed, it crumbles and fades away.
40
Q

Cara De Angel’s Rebellion

A
  • Receives more attention in the novel. It is compared to lucifer’s rebellion against God. Cara de Angel’s name reflects the appearance of an angel; and hints at the idea of being a fallen angel.
41
Q

Lucifer

A

was God’s favourite angel before he fell. “El favorito era”

  • This feeds into the inversion of the biblical story.
42
Q

Cara De Angel’s first job is:

A

To make Canales flee and set him up.

But he experiences a crisis of conscious when he realises that Canales will be murdered.

He takes advantage of the situation; and kidnaps Camila in order to rape her. He slowly develops pity, compassion, tenderness and then love for her.

43
Q

Cara De Angel is described as a cloud

A

lacking in weight, and influence; floating around on neither one side or the other.

44
Q

His development of love for Camila signifies a change in him

A

he turns his back on evil and decides to pursue good, in an attempt to win God’s grace and mercy as Camila is dying. There is obvious subtext r.e. the power of love here.

45
Q

Camila is an innocent whilst she is protected by her father and nurse.

A

When he flees and is killed; suddenly those familial bonds are broken. She becomes alienated and then physically begins to die. Is she then saved by the miracle of love? only temporarily as this too is taken from her when she is left waiting for Cara de Angel in the US.

46
Q

When Cara de Angel Marries Camila

A

she stops dying; and recovers. Arguably the peak of Cara de Angel’s transition from evil to good.

47
Q

subversion of the mythical structure

A

Good does not triumph over evil;

Evil triumphs over good.

48
Q

Camila’s pregnancy offers the prospect of hope

A

new life; but this could also be seen as depressing as it could also signal the renewal of a cycle where the baby will inevitably experience pain/ suffering/ evil.

  • Camila is renewed by the life of her son
  • “make thee another self for love of me”
49
Q

The countryside

A

Provides the antithesis to the gotham like city setting of the novel.

The child is conceived in the countryside; a scene interspersed with the description of the decapitation of the chicken.

Spurting blood/ spurting semen

at the moment of death; new life is created.

50
Q

The baby

A

Named Miguel; rebirth of Cara De Angel and he lives on through his son.

51
Q

The book deals with political struggle and human struggle

A

Oppression must be combatted not just in terms of military dictatorships, but also in terms of human love and emotion.

52
Q

The novel has several complex new ways of representing reality

A

Urges the reader to imagine the world in different ways and drags them to confront the uncomfortable truths in reality.

53
Q

Asturias as a modern author

A

Cannot just describe or explain, but conveys a sense of expression via his exploration of narrative techniques.

  • Asturias attempts to cross the boundaries of how different people experience reality subjectively in the novel.
54
Q

Woman who’s husband is arrested for no apparent reason;

A

experiences a sensation that the bench she is sat on is adrift at sea/ sinking beneath her.

  • By describing these feelings as real, he is describing subjective reality in objective terms. This gives the novel its weird atmosphere.
  • This modern tradition would form the basis of magical realism later on.
55
Q

Tio Fulgencio

A

Lottery ticket vendor

p.212

“how do you become a general, how do you become rich how do you get put in prison? its all the luck of the draw.”

Mispronunciation of this quote reflects the distorted nature of reality within the distorted language.

56
Q

whenever Darkness descends

A

people are lost and alone in the city at night in the nightmarish atmosphere created.

57
Q

Cara de Angel’s Dungeon

A

Atormentados por la oscuridad

tormented by darkness!!!

58
Q

The darkness also reflects the lack of trust and experience of life as an individual with no other substantial relationships with those around them.

A

Can’t see those around them, or where they are, this lack of visibility represents a lack of trust, and translates to a lack of honesty.

59
Q

When does the jailer come around?

A

Once a century: no sense of time in the prison; consumed by darkness time passes very slowly.

60
Q

The characters seem to emerge from nowhere, none of them are grounded in time or history, or given any backstory.

A

These characters are lost in a tempo void; their torment gets worse and worse,

días, meses, años

61
Q

As the sense of anguish grows, the disorientation in relation to time grows

A

bells clanging is the only real sense of time; and the sound evokes a real sense of anxiety in the reader

62
Q

The nightmares in the book;

A

contribute to sense of disorientation and blurring between the lines of real and not real. Also subjective and objective reality

63
Q

Nightmares: General Rozas

A

Sees a gigantic eye Chapter 9

64
Q

Cara de Angel has a nightmare

A

of a meeting with the president when he has taken the form of Tohil.

65
Q

Nightmare becomes a reality/ reality becomes a nightmare

A

The world begins and ends with noise, clanging bells and other noises constantly hound the characters compounding their nightmarish experiences, shattering the silence and playing on their nerves.

66
Q

The novel repeatedly uses expressive language to describe the physical environment, so even the external world that they live in is made to feel hostile

A

e.g. Pelele is chased by dogs and “nails of rain”

he attempts to defend himself from the telegraph poles

Doctor Barreño; checks the rooftops to see if a criminal hand will reach down and strangle him.

67
Q

The characters are never at rest

A

equally restless as their restless uncomfortable, anxiety inducing environment.

68
Q

The president initiates a plot against his Rival General Canales

A

To frame him for murder.

Whilst he first accepts the relationship between Miguel Cara de Angel and Camila; he slowly works against them ultimately destroying their relationship.

69
Q

The fact that the president is never named gives him a mythological dimension

A

rather than the personality of a specific Guatemalan dictator. This creation of a parallel between a deity and a dictator is very deliberate.

  • his presentation as an evil deity who is worshipped in terms that mockingly echo a religious ritual elevates him to a this higher level.
  • he occupies several houses out of town and so no one knows where he is; gives the impression that he is in fact everywhere.
70
Q

The president

A

Readers are not let into the mind of the president. His appearance is continually re-evaluated, re-defined and ulitmately reconstructed according to how he is perceived by others.

71
Q

Does the president sleep?

A

if he does there are rumours that he sleeps by the telephone with a whip in his hand.

Others say that he never sleeps at all.

72
Q

Cara De Angel’s linguistic intensity

A

reflects his inner moral struggle.

he is struggling to affirm his absolute existence and to relate this to an authentic self.

73
Q

General Eusebio Canales

A

Forced into exile after being falsely accuesd of the murder of Colonel José Parrales Sonriente. He appears to be organizing a guerrilla attack on the president. But dies of a a broken heart after reading a false news report detailing his daughter’s wedding to Miguel Cara de Angel.

74
Q

Camila Canales

A

Reluctantly rescued by Cara de Angel when none of her relatives will take her in upon the flight of her father. Cara de Angel eventually chooses Camila over the President. The two marry and she gives birth to his son, but only once Cara de Angel has disappeared. Therefore he never knows of his sons existence. She names her son Miguel, and moves ot the countryside to escape the President’s influence. She is the very picture of the adolescent who has been denied even the smallest margin of liberty.

75
Q

El Pelele

A

“who looked like a corpse when he was asleep” and had eyes that “saw nothing, felt nothing” is critical to establishing a tone of the novel and triggering the novel’s action.

By choosing Pelele as a representative of the innocent, a political, who suffer the abuses of a totalitarian regime […] Asturias shows how dictatorships corrupt people and destroys their values to the extent that compassion for one’s companion in distress ceases to exist.

The only happiness el Pelele experiences is through the memory of his dead mother; which annoys the other beggars.

Pelele suffers at the hands of the dominant strict regime; could be associated with male as the tolerant is with female.

Happiness when dreaming demonstrates the dream-like state of the nightmarish world of reality in which he has been forced to live.

76
Q

REALITY VS DREAM

A

the separation between the two is blurred, partly as a result of figurative language.

It is also an important effect of dictatorial power

The victims of false accusations experience the blurring of fiction and reality

e.g. Carvajal: he cannot defend himself in the sham trial against him (blaming him for the murder of Colonel sonriente) because the members of the tribunal are so drunk they cannot hear him.

77
Q

Writing and Power

A

Asturias uses language to challenge dictatorial power. Throughout the novel the reader observes the authority of the president over the people through his censorship and control of what they write

chapter “President’s Mail-Bag”
- A stream of letters informs the president of peoples actions. Spies inform him.

  • it is not safe to trust paper; The president publishes an advert in the newspaper saying that he attended the wedding of Camila. When he reads this General Canales dies.
  • Miguel is killed in the same way; he is told that Camila has become the president’s mistress and when he hears this he loses the will to live.

Language; the written word and power are very closely linked.

The characters in el Señor Presidente do not know who to trust and lose their sense of reality. In this state of terror, language is used as a deliberate means of seducing the addressee, rather than conveying information.

78
Q

Hope

A

consistently and repeatedly destroyed by The President.

could be argued that Camila and her baby represent hope; is the system undermined by love?

the love of el Pelele for his mother,

A woman desperately trying to save her husband from death,

A mother’s love for their child.

79
Q

Dictatorship

A

Under a dictatorship; characters slowly lose their human identities. The zany, for instance, whilst fleeing the city is described as running aimlessly with his mouth opened and his tongue hanging out, slobbering and panting.

Dehumanising.

Dictatorships produce otherness and eliminate common ground.

80
Q

Doña Benjamin Venjamón

A

formidable character married to Don Benjamin

81
Q

Benjamins’s

A

they are puppeteers; their career choice echoes the idea that all of the characters in the novel are puppets.

Lack of communication; Don Benjamin is Scared of his wife (As is Doctor Barreno)

they end up shouting opposites at each other rather than having conversations.

He does a sad puppet show thinking that the children will cry but they find it funny. This reflects the inversion of social structures and norms.

82
Q

The president himself feels constantly threatened

A

becomes victimised by his own terror; he is always alone, sleepless nights, constant fear of death and funerals

83
Q

The president’s day

A

National celebration chapter 14. It ends in chaos when people think they hear a bomb, which is actually a band member dropping a drum

demonstrative of the anxiety inducing connotations that sound has for the people. Bells and drums.

84
Q

Internal motifs

A

there is a repitition of the same pattern of oppression, betrayal and the destruction of relationships

85
Q

The book demonstrates the results of a dictatorship

A

through the experiences of people rather than describing the inner workings of a dictatorship itself.

86
Q

A woman loses her baby son to starvation :(

A

she cries “hij- hij- hij”

The broken, incomplete word reflects the destruction of their relationship by death

87
Q

Chapter 18

A

Postman who is drunk is not delivering letters properly; those letters will never be received by the intended recipient.

this is symbolic of the break down in communication between humans

88
Q

The beggars represent the isolation of individuals and breaking down of contact and relations with others.

A

their negative representation as physically deformed makes a clear commentary on this.

89
Q

Virtually all of the characters in this novel end up being broken and degraded in spirit

A

language often reflects the disintegration of specific characters

The very language used to make sense of the world no longer makes any sense at all.

90
Q

humanity is reduced to the level of animals because people are so broken as individuals that they are placed on the same level as animals

A

Repeated motif of animal imagery;

El pelele; compared to a dog

In the brothel; prostitutes wait for clients like cattle waiting for slaughter.

Idea of the modern (3 decks)

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