We talked today in class about the pressure that lies on a dictator for balance in their terror campaign; not enough fear and the peasants revolt, too much fear and they revolt. While this is a pressure there are ways to make it easier, and Trujillo has them down. The first is to target another group that is somewhat separate from your populace, but is similar enough to make them fear the charge. For Hitler it was the jews, for Trujillo, the haitians. This gives your people something to hate and fear.
Trujillo seems unaffected by this pressure and did whatever he pleased, but he is absorbed in and drunk with his own power. His pulling whatever women he wants lead to no resistance because of the Dominican hyper-masculinity that is present throughout the book. The populace is used to the hyper-masculinity and, because Trujillo is El Jefe, they process it as his balls are the biggest for him to be ruling.
Traditionally action is associated with manliness and masculinity, so it's odd that in a society where an exaggerated masculinity is the norm that no action is taken. In the face of El Jefe's masculinity the entire country is, like Abelard, reduced to "alternat[ing] between impotent rage and pathetic self-pity" (229). The entire hyper-masculine country is emasculated by the huevos of one man and his goons.
which then goes to what other people were saying in class, that because they are unable to take action and thus assert their masculinity, they find other ways of declaring it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the hypermasculinity, it brought to mind a disturbing irony (read no further if you are squeamish). Quite a few mentions were made, in footnotes or text, that male prisoners suffered torture to their genitalia or even castration (110, 226). So at the same time that they were actually asserting their masculinity in a real way by opposing Trujillo, they were also being emasculated in a very literal sense.
I also found it ironic that this hyper-masculine country was so emasculated by Trujillo's dictatorship. It was quite sad since Oscar comes from such a hyper-masculine country and he is emasculated himself everyday, not only by girls, but by guys as well.
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