The Power of an Omnipresent Government
In the novel, The Good Cripple by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Juan Luis’s father, Don Carlos is symbolically present as an omniscient figure throughout the course of his son’s kidnapping. Because Don Carlos is occasionally attendant throughout the novel, some may argue that his character plays an insignificant role in the story. However, his absence ironically plays a major aspect in the story, which makes him the most powerful character because his distinct decision-making actions affect the fate of his son’s life, as well as the kidnapper’s.
The absence of a character is more important than one believes. In a journal article written by Safi Mahfouz, he describes omniscient characters as “offstage” characters and he writes how important their role actually is. In his article, Safi states, “Despite their absence these unseen characters act as driving forces of the dramatic onstage action […] These absent characters function as a proximate cause for the onstage action.” In other words, although these offstage characters are not seen in most events of the story, they still serve a strong purpose. Referring back to the novel, The Good Cripple Don Carlos acts as one of these forces that trigger other events to take place. For example, had he sent the money to the kidnappers beforehand, Juan Luis wouldn’t have had his foot amputated, instead, it was. Yet this action only happened because of the decision Don Carlos made by simply not responding. Neglecting Don Carlos’ presence defeats the entire purpose of the story. Another quote in Safi’s article states,
Those we do not glimpse on stage are still there, because they motivate the actors to take a certain action and advance the plot, but their physical presence is unnecessary. In fact, their absence may make them appear more powerful simply because we only know them by inference. (Mahfouz)
In other words, characters that are not present are still in fact ironically existent. The reason is because we only know them by speculation. For instance the novel does not necessarily describe Don Carlos’ personality, but with context, we are able to speculate the kind of person he is. This is done not only so readers can imagine a detailed physical portrayal of Don Carlos in their minds, but also so that they can make inferences of his character by the way he chooses to present himself. The vivid depiction of Don Carlos given in the novel implies that he lacks compassion, and is unsympathetic. Since readers only know Don Carlos by this context, his absence in the story is strongly felt because it frustrates the reader to know that he has the power to save Juan Luis yet, he is too stubborn to do so. These are reasons why Don Carlos plays a significant role in the story as an omnipresent figure.
An omnipresent is described as someone or something that is present everywhere and at all times. For instance, a well-known scripture called the Holy Bible represents God as an omnipresent. As the bible states, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3) Meaning God is universal and is watching over everyone at all times. God is also represented as an omnipotent meaning having unlimited power over everything. The whole concept of God being and omnipresent and an omnipotent is portrayed by Don Carlos’ character in the novel, The Good Cripple because he has the full power and potential to free is son from the kidnappers by simply making the decision to deliver the ransom the kidnappers ask for but it is up to him whether he wants to or not.
Another concept that is perceived as omnipresent is the government. The government is responsible for enforcing civil laws for people of the United States nation to follow such as freedoms of the press, religion, rights of property and so on. The people of the nation are all being controlled to follow a set of rules and because of this, this means that the government has authority over everyone and everything. The government also knows important credential information about the population. The people don’t see or feel the government, but we are still being controlled by it all the times. Metaphorically speaking, the government acts as a watchful eye over the entire nation acting as both an omnipresent and omniscient. Likewise, Don Carlos is represented as a man with the most power because he possesses a great amount of money and has the ability to free his with it but also, represented as an omnipresent figure because although he may not physically be there in most events, his presence can still be felt due to the fact that the kidnappers rely on him if whether he decides to put in the effort to save his sons life.
Throughout the novel, Don Carlos’ absence greatly affects the unfortunate misery his son has to go through. The text states, “Your old man doesn’t want to play along,” he said [El Horrible]. “So you’re going to have to help us out if you don’t want us to start getting drastic.” (Horrible, 25). The “old man” the kidnapper, El Horrible, is referring to in this quote is Don Carlos. This quote describes how much of a difference Don Carlos can make if he simply responded to the kidnappers request. This is an example of Don Carlos being presented as an omniscient in the novel. Although Don Carlos is not physically there with Juan Carlos and the kidnappers, the audience takes into account that Don Carlos is seen as a significant figure because he is in control of what the kidnappers do to his son. In continuation with the story, Don Carlos fails to respond and the kidnappers end up amputating Juan Luis’s foot. Another quote in the novel states, “Call the old man within half an hour,” the Tapir reminded him. “And if we’re not back by Twelve, scram.” (Tapir, 46). After negotiating with Don Carlos and setting up a location to meet, the kidnappers plan to change course if Don Carlos fails to meet them. Once again, the kidnappers refer back to Don Carlos before making another action. Don Carlos is mentioned throughout these events in the novel very distinctively, yet he is seen as a man with great power and in control over everything.
Present characters in a novel are not always the most significant characters of the story, but omnipresent characters can also take the role of a main character as well. “Offstage” characters have the same significant value as present characters do. In this case, Don Carlos may not be present at all times in the novel, but he is still ironically significant throughout the story. It is important to take these “offstage” characters into consideration because they still partake an important role in the story, and in some cases, they take the most important role. Just as God and the government act as an omnipresent and omniscient in our personal lives, Don Carlos acts as that omnipresent figure in his son, Juan Luis’s.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s concept behind his novel, The Good Cripple is about the Civil War that took place in Guatemala. But Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s ideal intention of the novel was to describe the violence that occurred during that time of the civil war. The kidnapping of Juan Luis and torture the kidnappers caused him were just examples of the kind of violence that took place. However, the most significant cause of all this violence was triggered by something more powerful and that was the government.
Before the Guatemalan Civil War started, there have been issues regarding Guatemala’s form of government. At the time, the most powerful company in Guatemala was the United Fruit Company (UFC) who controlled about forty percent of the economy and retained fifty percent of land. Guatemalan President, Arbenz wanted to redistribute land to the poor people but the problem was that most of the land was owned by the UFC. Since the UFC was in alliance with the United States, the United States government got involved with the issue regarding the redistribution of land. The United States saw Arbenz’s actions as a form of communism. For this reason, the U.S. decided to take action and therefor launched an invasion with the intention to take over the government. This was when the Guatemalan civil war began. After the attacks Arbenz resigned. The war’s turning point began to happen when armed resistant groups organized together to rebel against their own Guatemalan government and the U.S. government. These groups were called guerillas. After 36 years of violence due to war, the Guatemalan government and guerillas signed a peace agreement, ending the war.
During the war, there were many acts of violence, the kinds of violence that Rodrigo Rey Rosa interpreted in his novel but what triggered these acts of violence to occur? Who was in power? The Guatemalan and United States government triggered a war and took power over the country. Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s ideal of his novel was to show how corrupt the Guatemalan government was that it gave rise to a brutal massacre. Therefor, Don Carlos’s figure as an omnipotent character was used in a way to portray the Guatemalan government and its control over violent actions.
A book called 1984 by George Orwell is about a totalitarian omnipresent government that has control over what the people say, does, think and what they believe. Their slogan was “Big Brother is watching you”. The main character of this book is Winston Smith. Winston Smith carriers a diary with him where he secretly writes about his own thoughts about life and about what he thinks of society. He keeps this diary away from the government because he can get killed for writing about his own personal thoughts other than what the government wants him to think. Later in the story, Winston decides to rebel against the government by having an affair with a woman because doing so goes against the government’s laws. Winston then meets another character in the story named O’Brian who he believes is an active rebellion against the government. Unfortunately, O’Brian tricks Winston into thinking they are a rebellion party and turns him in to the police which O’Brian is also a part of. Winston gets tortured to the extent where he confesses everything they ask him. In conclusion, O’Brian tells Winston what the government wanted all along. The government wanted complete control over the minds of people as an exercise in power, nothing more. The purpose of this book was to give the audience a picture of what life would be like if a free country were to be controlled under Totalitarian government.
The book 1984 by George Orwell relates to the kind of government Guatemala had during the Civil War. Guatemalan President Arbenz was not able to redistribute land to the poor because a more powerful company that was in alliance with the United States owned it. Just as people were not able to do what they wanted in 1984 because they were under government control, that was how the people in Guatemala were controlled as well. The government was both omnipotent and omnipresent.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s novel The Good Cripple illustrates how Don Carlos is the omnipresent God. He acts as some sort of puppeteer that operates the kidnapper’s actions indirectly. But his main intention of writing the novel was to represent how the Guatemalan and U.S. government was in control during the Guatemalan Civil war. The government is the puppeteer in our lives. The government is the omnipresent God in our lives. We the people are slowly being controlled by an unseen power that triggers the population to fight against each other. The government is the one who generates all the acts and forms of violence.
The Holy Bible. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1989. Print.
Mahfouz, SM. "The Presence of Absence: Catalytic and Omnipresent Offstage
Characters in Modern American Drama." Midwest Quarterly-a Journal of Contemporary Thought, 53.4 (2012): 392-409.
Orwell, George. 1984. Ed. Erich Fromm. New York: Harcourt, 1949.
Rosa, Rodrigo Rey, and Esther Allen. The Good Cripple. New York: New Directions
"Timeline: Guatemala." BBC News. BBC, 07 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.
