Vargas Llosa Part 1: Crazies and Crazy Dictators

Why do the beginning of both The Feast of the Goat and Asturias’ El Presidente contain mentally insane characters? Both the Zany and Crazy Valeriano dare to challenge the rule of the dictators that rule their country. Both die for their “crimes”. Perhaps it is an effort by both authors to show that not everyone can be controlled. That fear is not an effective tool in dealing with those who lack rationality. Crazy Valeriano’s mockery of Trujillo enrages him because, somewhere, he finds truth in the impersonation. The fact that the dictator feels threatened by the antics of this obviously insane man and his female companion are an indication of his overall sense of insecurity of the dawning consciousness of the tenuous hold that he has over “his” country. The brutal death that he orders for these two makes evident the true extent of his rancor. They are not jailed, relocated or even shot. They are instead fed alive to Trujillo’s sharks. I think that Trujillo feels slightly embarrassed, that he has perhaps shown a sign of weakness, when he decides to free the two insane the next morning (he is too late of course).

Perhaps the insane are symbolic of what the dictator is when stripped of some of his power; he is insane and a mockery of himself. All of the dictators we have seen, short of Asturias’, have lost touch with reality: Bolivar in his fits and fevers at night; The Supreme in his mystical ramblings and visions; and Trujillo’s in his blind and weeping rage at his own impotence. Perhaps dictators have to be crazy. To try to control everyone and everything in their domain, when that is impossibility, one has to be crazy. To believe that one’s rule can extend indefinitely one has to be nuts. To believe that one’s body will last forever, that it can be controlled, like the people around you, is insane. To a certain extent, I think it is the effort to control everything, even when it cannot be done, that drives these dictators crazy.

As for myself, I think I’ll go crazy if I have to read another book about a sadistic, bastardly dictator. These novels, combined with a German literature class themed on war and genocide, have given me enough scenes of brutality to chew on for the summer at least! I think I’ll head for fantasy land with a re-reading of Lord of the Rings when exams are done.