The Autumn of the Patriarch

“[T]here we saw him, in his denim uniform without insignia, boots, the gold spur on his left heel, older than all old men and all old animals on land or sea, and he was stretched out on the floor, face down, his right arm bent under his head as a pillow, as he had slept night after night every night of his ever so long life of a solitary despot.”

The General lies prostrate in this fashion repeatedly throughout the novel. This is the position which becomes the site of much of the novel—both the introductory segments of each section and the representation of the demise of the General which he attempts to evade for all his life.

“[H]e had more time available to take care of the armed forces, not because the armed forces were what sustained his power, as we all thought, quite the contrary, because they were his most feared natural enemy, so he made some officers believe they were being watched by others.”

In one of the first instances of the General’s paranoia, he turns his officers on each other so that they focus less on him. This results in fighting among his officers in the novel and the General’s eventual rule without anyone he trusts. The General’s solitude is a direct result of this paranoia and this characterization drives much of the action throughout the novel.

“The anonymous hand with a velvet glove which waved from a window of a presidential stateroom.”

The General’s body is frequently fragmented in the novel. The hand or his suit become symbols of his power which in turn create a system that doesn’t require the General to operate.