The President, Miguel Asturias Use of Fear to Control Essay

In the novel The President, Miguel Asturias shows that fear controls personal identity in a totalitarian government. He explains that the fear of death and punishment controls a society and alters the unique way of life. Personal identity is the unique set of emotions, experiences, and lifestyles that make up an individuals life. Religious devotion and Christian resignation becomes apparent in a life dominated by fear and paranoia. True feelings and emotions can be hidden by fear. Fear and paranoia of the surrounding environment can cause a person to live an isolated life. Fear causes people to pray for salvation and have Christian resignation because of the hope they gain from it. Christian resignation refers to the submission†¦show more content†¦The governments use of fear causes weak-minded people to give up a life of opposition to the government and live a life of hope and prayer. Fear leads people to religion because it offers a temporary comfort from the government. The religion caused by fear is considered a part of a persons personal identity. Fear can change and hide the true feelings and emotions of a person. Fear prevents people from voicing their opinion and speaking against the government. Fear of punishment and even death if they speak out forces them to hold back and hide their feeling from others. This become apparent when Angel Face tells his wife Camila how he survives under the Presidents rule by changing his thought process to that of the Presidents. He says his trick to survival is repeating to himself all day long: I think with the Presidents mind therefore I exist(262). Which means he changes his thought process to that of the presidents so hes not seen as opposition to the president. The fear of the President causes Angel Face to hold back and hide his true feelings about the President. He sets up a false personality in order to avoid being a problem to the president. This is also true with Doctor Barreno and his medical findings. The Doctor hides his beliefs and findings about the deaths of a hundr ed and forty soldiers because of fear and threats of the government. The Presidents states to him I am not going to stand theShow MoreRelated Imagery and Metaphor as Resistance in Miguel Asturias The President2063 Words   |  9 PagesImagery and Metaphor as Resistance in Miguel Asturias The President In The President, Miguel Angel Asturias uses madness as his initial tool to launch a social examination of evil versus good under the strains of a terrifying dictatorship. To paint a vivid picture of the political and social atmosphere under the regime of The President, Asturias wields rich and abstract imagery, repetition and metaphors throughout his novel to punctuate, foreshadow, and illuminate. Wind is one of these recurringRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagescombined. During the same time span, however, state tyranny and brutal oppression reached once unimaginable levels—in large part due to the refinement or introduction of new technologies of repression and surveillance and modes of mass organization and control. Breakthroughs in the sciences that greatly enhanced our understandings of the natural world and made for major advances in medicine and health care were very often offset by the degradation of the global environment and massive spurts in excessive