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of charges in the betaine by such as lithium with greater solvation allowing more facile rotation in the betaine intermediate lowering the amount of reversibility |
the application of the johnson corey chaykovsky reaction in organic synthesis is diverse the reaction has come to encompass reactions of many types of sulfur ylides with electrophiles well beyond the original publications it has seen use in a number of high @@ profile total syntheses as detailed below and is generally recognized as a powerful transformative tool in the organic repertoire |
many types of ylides can be prepared with various functional groups both on the anionic carbon center and on the sulfur the substitution pattern can influence the ease of preparation for the reagents ( typically from the sulfonium halide eg iodide ) and overall reaction rate in various ways the general format for the reagent is shown on the right |
use of a sulfoxonium allows more facile preparation of the reagent using weaker bases as compared to sulfonium ylides ( the difference being that a sulfoxonium contains a doubly bonded oxygen whereas the sulfonium does not ) the former react slower due to their increased stability in addition the by @@ products of sulfoxonium reagents are greatly preferred to the significantly more toxic volatile and odorous by @@ products from sulfonium reagents |
the vast majority of reagents are at the ylide carbon ( either r1 or r2 as hydrogen ) reagents are much rarer but have been described |
if the ylide carbon is substituted with an electron @@ withdrawing group ( ewg ) the reagent is referred to as a stabilized ylide these similarly to sulfoxonium reagents react much slower and are typically easier to prepare these are limited in their usefulness as the reaction can become prohibitively sluggish examples involving amides are widespread with many fewer involving esters and virtually no examples involving other ewg's for these the related reaction is typically more appropriate |
if the ylide carbon is substituted with an aryl or allyl group the reagent is referred to as a semi @@ stabilized ylide these have been developed extensively second only to the classical methylene reagents ( r1 = r2 = h ) the substitution pattern on aryl reagents can heavily influence the selectivity of the reaction as per the criteria above |
if the ylide carbon is substituted with an alkyl group the reagent is referred to as an ylide the size of the alkyl groups are the major factors in selectivity with these reagents |
the r @@ groups on the sulfur though typically have been used to synthesize reagents that can perform enantioselective variants of the reaction ( see variations below ) the size of the groups can also influence diastereoselectivity in substrates |
reactions of sulfur ylides with ketones and aldehydes to form epoxides are by far the most common application of the johnson corey chaykovsky reaction examples involving complex substrates and' exotic' ylides have been reported as shown below |
the reaction has been used in a number of notable total syntheses including the danishefsky taxol total synthesis which produces the chemotherapeutic drug taxol and the kuehne total synthesis which produces the pesticide strychnine |
the synthesis of aziridines from is another important application of the johnson corey chaykovsky reaction and provides an alternative to amine transfer from though less widely applied the reaction has a similar substrate scope and functional group tolerance to the carbonyl equivalent the examples shown below are representative in the latter an forms in situ and is opened via nucleophilic attack to form the corresponding amine |
for addition of sulfur ylides to enones higher 1 @@ 4 @@ selectivity is typically obtained with sulfoxonium reagents than with sulfonium reagents many electron @@ withdrawing groups have been shown compatible with the reaction including ketones esters and amides ( the example below involves a weinreb amide ) with further conjugated systems 1 @@ 6 @@ addition tends to predominate over 1 @@ 4 @@ addition |
in addition to the reactions originally reported by johnson corey and chaykovsky sulfur ylides have been used for a number of related homologation reactions that tend to be grouped under the same name |
with epoxides and aziridines the reaction serves as a ring @@ expansion to produce the corresponding or the long reaction times required for these reactions prevent them from occurring as significant side reactions when synthesizing epoxides and aziridines |
several cycloadditions wherein the ylide serves as a nucleophilic carbenoid equivalent have been reported |
living using as the catalyst and ( ) methanide as the monomer have been reported for the synthesis of various complex polymers |
the development of an enantioselective ( ie yielding an enantiomeric excess which is labelled as ee ) variant of the johnson corey chaykovsky reaction remains an active area of academic research the use of chiral sulfides in a stoichiometric fashion has proved more successful than the corresponding catalytic variants but the substrate scope is still limited in all cases the catalytic variants have been developed almost exclusively for enantioselective purposes typical reagents are not prohibitively expensive and the racemic reactions can be carried out with equimolar amounts of ylide without raising costs significantly chiral sulfides on the other hand are more costly to prepare spurring the advancement of catalytic enantioselective methods |
the most successful reagents employed in a stoichiometric fashion are shown below the first is a bicyclic that has been employed in the synthesis of the β @@ adrenergic compound ( dci ) but is limited by the availability of only one enantiomer of the reagent the synthesis of the axial is rationalized via the 1 @@ 3 @@ effect which reduces the nucleophilicity of the equatorial lone pair the conformation of the ylide is limited by strain and approach of the aldehyde is limited to one face of the ylide by steric interactions with the methyl substituents |
the other major reagent is a camphor @@ derived reagent developed by aggarwal of the university of bristol both enantiomers are easily synthesized although the yields are lower than for the reagent the ylide conformation is determined by interaction with the bridgehead hydrogens and approach of the aldehyde is blocked by the camphor moiety the reaction employs a base to promote formation of the ylide |
catalytic reagents have been less successful with most variations suffering from poor yield poor or both there are also issues with substrate scope most having limitations with methylene transfer and aliphatic aldehydes the trouble stems from the need for a nucleophilic sulfide that efficiently generates the ylide which can also act as a good leaving group to form the epoxide since the factors underlying these are at odds tuning of the catalyst properties has proven difficult shown below are several of the most successful catalysts along with the yields and enantiomeric excess for their use in synthesis of ( e ) oxide |
aggarwal has developed an alternative method employing the same sulfide as above and a novel alkylation involving a rhodium carbenoid formed in situ the method too has limited substrate scope failing for any electrophiles possessing basic substituents due to competitive consumption of the carbenoid |
the treaty of ciudad juárez was a peace treaty signed between the then president of mexico porfirio díaz and the revolutionary francisco madero on may 21 1911 the treaty put an end to the fighting between forces supporting madero and those of díaz and thus concluded the initial phase of the mexican revolution |
the treaty stipulated that díaz as well as his vice president ramón corral were to step down by the end of may and that he was to be replaced by francisco león de la barra as interim president and hold presidential elections those who had suffered losses due to the revolution would be the indemnified and there would be a general amnesty díaz resigned on may 25 and interim president francisco león de la barra was the new incumbent díaz and his family his vice president corral plus josé yves limantour and rosendo pineda left mexico for exile |
significantly the treaty did not mention or institute any social reforms that madero had vaguely promised on previous occasions it also left the state essentially intact additionally madero supported the unpopular idea that all land disputes were to be settled through the courts staffed by the old judges a decision that led to outbreaks of sporadic violence particularly in rural areas |
on june 7 1911 madero entered mexico city in october 1911 he was elected president under the banner of the partido along with josé maría pino suárez his new running mate as vice @@ president madero pushed aside francisco vázquez gómez the vice presidential candidate for the anti @@ party in 1910 as being too moderate |
the rebellion against the government of porfirio díaz broke out in late 1910 after díaz had his rival francisco madero imprisoned and had announced his own victory in a falsified election madero's earlier vague promises of agrarian reforms had attracted many supporters he himself escaped from prison and fled to texas from where he issued his famous plan of san luis potosí this manifesto called for an armed uprising against the and establishment of free and democratic elections as a response to madero's proclamation violent clashes began throughout mexico in november 1910 |
in the guerrero district of chihuahua pascual orozco attacked federal troops and sent dead soldiers' clothing back to díaz with the message te van las hojas más tamales ( here are the wrappers send me more tamales ) he then began operations which threatened ciudad juárez additionally political support for madero's rebellion came from abraham gonzález who accepted the plan of san luis potosí |
at roughly the same time agrarian unrest in the state of morelos turned into a full blown rebellion under the leadership of the zapata brothers emiliano and |
encouraged by the news of the uprisings madero crossed the border back into mexico in february 1911 he was joined by pancho villa and orozco and in april the army began approaching ciudad juárez orozco and villa led the way with 500 men each while madero followed up with 1 @@ 500 riders the city was besieged by the end of the month after madero's army encountered some resistance in the chihuahuan countryside madero asked the commander of the city's garrison to surrender but the latter refused hoping that the fortifications he had constructed would allow him to defend the city until reinforcements arrived concerned also with the possibility that a direct attack on the town would cause artillery shells to cross the border into the united states which could provoke an outside intervention and faced with a series of peace proposals from díaz madero hesitated in attacking the city he in fact ordered his commanders to lift the siege orozco however disregarded the order and joined by villa attacked after two days of fighting the city fell to the insurrectionists madero intervened personally to spare the life of the city's commander gen navarro whom both orozco and villa wanted executed for his previous killing of rebel pows this coupled with the fact that both leaders were ignored by madero in his political appointments outraged and estranged them from him |
at about the same time that villa and orozco were marching on ciudad juárez the zapatista revolt gathered strength and spread to the states of puebla tlaxcala mexico michoacán and guerrero on april 14 madero had emiliano zapata officially designated as his representative in the region however zapata was worried that if he did not fully control all the major towns in morelos by the time that madero concluded negotiations with díaz the demands of his agrarian movement and the issue of the autonomy of morelos would be ignored or sidelined zapata's first military action was to take the town of where he obtained essential supplies subsequently zapata for political and strategic reasons decided to attack the city of cuautla in order to mislead his opponents however he initially attacked and captured the towns of de matamoros ( which was subsequently retaken by federal forces ) and from there he made a wide circle around cuautla and captured yautepec and where he gathered more supplies munitions and soldiers by may out of all the major urban centers in the region only cuautla and the capital of morelos cuernavaca remained outside of his control |
zapata began the attack on cuautla on may 13 with 4000 troops against 400 elite soldiers of the so @@ called golden fifth the fifth cavalry regiment of the federal army the battle took almost a week and has been described as six of the most terrible days of battle in the whole revolution it consisted of house to house fighting hand @@ to @@ hand combat and no quarter given by either side general victoriano huerta arrived in nearby cuernavaca with 600 reinforcements but decided not to come to the relief of cuautla as he was afraid that the capital would revolt in his absence on may 19 the remains of the golden fifth pulled out of the town which was then occupied by zapata's soldiers |
the successful capture of cuautla made zapata a hero to ordinary people throughout mexico and new corridos were written about him after zapata's taking of cuautla the federal government controlled only five states and some urban areas porfirio díaz himself later stated that while he felt that he could defend against villa and orozco in chihuahua the fall of cuautla was the event which persuaded him to agree to peace with madero |
as early as march 1911 madero's representatives met in new york with díaz's finance minister josé yves limantour and the mexican ambassador to the us in order to discuss the possibility of peace between the two sides limantour proposed an end to the hostilities and offered an amnesty for all revolutionaries the resignation of the then vice president ramón corral the replacement of four díaz cabinet ministers and ten state governors by ones chosen by madero and the establishment of the principle of no @@ reelection which would prevent díaz from seeking yet another term as president ( which would have been his ninth ) madero responded positively although he also stated that any kind of peace deal had to include an immediate resignation by díaz |
faced with the siege of ciudad juárez and the outbreak of rebellion in morelos díaz and members of his cabinet became more willing to negotiate and launched a skillful peace offensive aimed at madero this was largely a result of panic among the large landowners associated with the díaz regime ( the hacendados ) and the financial elite which represented a moderate wing within the government some among the in fact expected that zapata would soon march on mexico city itself unless peace was concluded with madero |
the moderate view within the díaz government was represented by jorge vera estañol who in a memo to the minister of foreign affairs wrote that there were two revolutions taking place in mexico a political revolution based mostly in the north whose aim was mostly to establish free elections and remove díaz himself from power and a social revolution whose aim was anarchy which was spreading throughout the mexican countryside estañol recommended coming to terms with the first group of revolutionaries by agreeing to the principle of no re @@ election and a general amnesty in order to prevent the second group from succeeding in addition to his fear of anarchy estañol was also worried that the social revolution would lead to a military intervention by the united states |
estañol's views represented those of the portion of the upper class which was willing to come to terms with at least a portion of the middle class in order to crush the peasant uprisings as exemplified by those of zapata which were erupting throughout mexico limantour who broadly agreed with estañol had the support of the mexican financiers who feared the downgrading of mexican international credit and a general economic crisis as a result of ongoing social unrest as well as that of the large landowners who were willing to come to terms with madero if it would put an end to the agrarian uprisings |
these social group were in turn opposed by the more reactionary elements within díaz's government mostly concentrated in the federal army who though that the rebels should be dealt with through brute force this faction was represented by general victoriano huerta who would later carry out an attempted coup d'état against madero likewise the general and potential successor to díaz bernardo reyes stated in a letter to limantour that the repression ( against the insurrectionists ) should be carried out with the energy punishing without any pity anyone participating in the armed struggle in the end however díaz dismissed the advice from his generals as custer @@ like bluster and chose to seek peace with the moderate wing of the revolution limantour had finally managed to persuade him to resign |
at the same time there was also disagreement among the rebels the left wing of the revolutionary movement represented by zapata and orozco ( villa for the time being tended to support madero ) warned against any possible compromises with díaz in the end their suspicions proved correct as the treaty that was eventually signed neglected issues of social and agrarian land reform that were central to their struggle |
the most significant point of the treaty was that porfirio díaz and his vice president ramón corral resign and that de la barra acting as interim president organize free elections as soon as possible |
additionally the treaty stipulated that |
an amnesty for all revolutionaries be declared with the option for some of them to apply for membership in the rurales |
the revolutionary forces were to be demobilized as soon as possible and the federal forces were to be the only army in mexico this was in order to appease the army which had opposed a compromise with madero |
madero and his supporters had the right to name fourteen provisional state governors and to approve la barra's cabinet |
pensions were to be established for relatives of the soldiers who had died fighting the rebels |
policemen and judges as well as state legislators that had been appointed or elected under díaz were to retain their offices |
the treaty was signed on may 21 díaz resigned accordingly on may 25 francisco de la barra became the interim president madero entered mexico city on june 7 |
zapata however refused to recognize the interim government of de la barra and for the time being the fighting in morelos continued madero met with zapata on several occasions during june while initially zapata trusted madero with time he became increasingly concerned that the goals of his revolution were not being fulfilled he was particularly angry that madero did not plan on carrying out any kind of agrarian reform or the breakup of large additionally the press in mexico city controlled by the landowners began referring to zapata as a bandit and federal generals such as huerta continued attacking his troops under the pretext that zapata failed to demobilize in violation of the treaty sporadic fighting in southern mexico continued in november 1911 shortly after madero's inauguration zapata issued the famous plan of ayala in which the zapatistas denounced madero and instead recognized pascual orozco as the rightful president and leader of the revolution |
madero also earned the great displeasure of other revolutionaries including pascual orozco madero's first act after the treaty was signed was a gesture of reconciliation with the díaz regime as a result of the treaty he was given the right to appoint members of the la barra cabinet he chose mostly upper class maderistas including his wife for the post in the treasury he also maintained the existing federal system by keeping the sitting judges of the supreme court the legislators in federal and state assemblies and the bureaucrats of the various federal agencies venustiano carranza who was going to become a major revolutionary in his own right and a future president of mexico stated that after the treaty madero had deliver ( ed ) to the reactionaries a dead revolution which will have to be fought over again díaz after leaving for exile in france observed that madero has unleashed a tiger let us see if he can control him |
orozco who saw himself as being instrumental in madero's victory over díaz was merely appointed as a commander of the rurales in chihuahua which increased his resentment when he tried to run for governor of the state madero supported his opponent abraham gonzález and eventually pressured orozco to drop out of the race when in the aftermath of the plan of ayala madero ordered orozco to lead federal troops to suppress zapata orozco refused in march 1912 orozco issued his plan of and formally declared himself in rebellion against madero |
the feast of the goat ( spanish la fiesta del chivo 2000 ) is a novel by the peruvian nobel prize in literature laureate mario vargas llosa the book is set in the dominican republic and portrays the assassination of dominican dictator rafael trujillo and its aftermath from two distinct standpoints a generation apart during and immediately after the assassination itself in may 1961 and thirty five years later in 1996 throughout there is also extensive reflection on the heyday of the dictatorship in the 1950s and its significance for the island and its inhabitants |
the novel follows three interwoven storylines the first concerns a woman urania cabral who is back in the dominican republic after a long absence to visit her ailing father she ends up recalling incidents from her youth and recounting a long @@ held secret to her aunt and cousins the second story line focuses on the last day in trujillo's life from the moment he wakes up onwards and shows us the regime's inner circle to which urania's father once belonged the third strand depicts trujillo's assassins many of whom had previously been government loyalists as they wait for his car late that night after the assassination this story line shows us the assassins' persecution each aspect of the book's plot reveals a different viewpoint on the dominican republic's political and social environment past and present |
readers are shown the regime's downward spiral trujillo's assassination and its aftermath through the eyes of insiders conspirators and a middle @@ aged woman looking back the novel is therefore a kaleidoscopic portrait of dictatorial power including its psychological effects and its long @@ term impact the novel's themes include the nature of power and corruption and their relationship to machismo and sexual perversion in a rigidly hierarchical society with strongly gendered roles memory and the process of remembering is also an important theme especially in urania's narrative as she recalls her youth in the dominican republic her story ( and the book as a whole ) ends when she recounts the terrible events that led to her leaving the country at the age of 14 the book itself serves as a reminder of the atrocities of dictatorship to ensure that the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation |
vargas llosa interlaces fictional elements and historical events the book is not a documentary and the cabral family for instance is completely fictional on the other hand the characters of trujillo and trujillo's assassins are drawn from the historical record vargas llosa weaves real historical incidents of brutality and oppression into these people's stories to further illuminate the nature of the regime and the responses it provoked in vargas llosa's words it's a novel not a history book so i took many many liberties [ ] i have respected the basic facts but i have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive and i have not exaggerated |
the feast of the goat received largely positive reviews with several reviewers commenting on the book's depiction of the relationship between sexuality and power and on the graphic descriptions of violent events |
a film version of the novel was released in 2005 starring isabella rossellini paul freeman and tomas milian jorge alí triana and his daughter veronica triana wrote a theatrical adaptation in 2003 |
the feast of the goat is only the second of vargas llosa's novels to be set outside peru ( the first being the war of the end of the world ) it is also unusual because it is the first to have a female protagonist as critic lynn walford writes of the leading character in the feast of the goat and also vargas llosa's subsequent book the way to paradise both are utterly unlike any of the other female characters in his previous novels |
the novel examines the dictatorial regime of rafael leónidas trujillo molina in the dominican republic trujillo was in historian eric 's words a towering influence in dominican and caribbean history who presided over one of the most durable regimes of the twentieth century during the thirty @@ one years between his seizure of power in 1930 and his assassination in 1961 trujillo had trained with the united states marine corps during the united states occupation of the island and graduated from the military academy in 1921 after the us departed in 1924 he became head of the dominican national police which under his command was transformed into the dominican national army and trujillo's personal virtually autonomous power base |
trujillo was officially dictator only from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952 but remained in effective power throughout the entire period though his regime was broadly nationalist daniel comments that he had no particular ideology and that his economic and social policies were basically progressive |
the novel's title is taken from the popular dominican merengue al chivo ( they killed the goat ) which refers to trujillo's assassination on may 30 1961 merengue is a style of music created by lora in the 1920s and actively promoted by trujillo himself it is now considered the country's national music cultural critics julie sellers and stephen ropp comment about this particular merengue that by envisaging the dictator as an animal who could be turned into a stew ( as frequently happened with goats struck down on the dominican republic's highways ) the song gave those performing listening to and dancing to this merengue a sense of control over him and over themselves that they had not experienced for over three decades vargas llosa quotes the lyrics to al chivo at the beginning of the novel |
the novel's narrative is divided into three distinct strands one is centred on urania cabral a fictional dominican character another deals with the conspirators involved in trujillo's assassination and the third focuses on trujillo himself the novel alternates between these storylines and also jumps back and forth from 1961 to 1996 with frequent flashbacks to periods earlier in trujillo's regime |
the feast of the goat begins with the return of urania to her hometown of santo domingo a city which had been renamed ciudad trujillo during trujillo's time in power this storyline is largely introspective and deals with urania's memories and her inner turmoil over the events preceding her departure from the dominican republic thirty @@ five years earlier urania escaped the crumbling trujillo regime in 1961 by claiming she planned to study under the tutelage of nuns in michigan in the following decades she becomes a prominent and successful new york lawyer she finally returns to the dominican republic in 1996 on a whim and finds herself compelled to confront her father and elements of her past she has long ignored as urania speaks to her ailing father agustin cabral she recalls more and more of the anger and disgust that led to her thirty @@ five years of silence urania retells her father's descent into political disgrace and the betrayal that forms the crux of both urania's storyline and that of trujillo himself |
the second and third storylines are set in 1961 in the weeks prior to and following trujillo's assassination on 30 may each assassin has his own background story explaining his motivation for his involvement in the assassination plot each has been wronged by trujillo and his regime by torture and brutality or through assaults on their pride their religious faith their morality or their loved ones vargas llosa weaves the tale of the men as memories recalled on the night of trujillo's death as the conspirators lie in wait for the goat interconnected with these stories are the actions of other famous of the time joaquín balaguer the puppet president johnny abbes garcía the merciless head of the military intelligence service ( sim ) and various others some real some composites of historical figures and some purely fictional |
the third storyline is concerned with the thoughts and motives of rafael leónidas trujillo molina himself the chapters concerning the goat recall the major events of his time including the slaughter of thousands of dominican haitians in 1937 they also deal with the dominican republic's tense international relationships during the cold war especially with the united states under the presidency of john f kennedy and cuba under castro vargas llosa also speculates upon trujillo's innermost thoughts and paints a picture of a man whose physical body is failing him trujillo is tormented by incontinence and impotence and this storyline intersects with urania's narrative when it is revealed that urania was sexually assaulted by trujillo he is unable to achieve an erection with urania and in frustration and anger he rapes her with his hands this event is the core of urania's shame and her hatred towards her father in addition it is the cause of trujillo's repeated anger over the anemic little bitch that witnessed his impotence and emotion and the reason he is en route to sleep with another girl on the night of his assassination |
in the novel's final chapters the three storylines intersect with increasing frequency the tone of these chapters is especially dark as they deal primarily with the horrific torture and death of the assassins at the hands of the sim the failure of the coup the rape of urania and the concessions made to trujillo's most vicious supporters allowing them to enact their horrific revenge on the conspirators and then escape the country the book ends as urania prepares to return home determined this time to keep in touch with her family back on the island |
urania cabral and her father agustín cabral appear in both the modern day and historical portions of the novel in the year 1996 urania returns to the dominican republic for the first time since her departure at the age of 14 she is a successful new york lawyer who has spent most of the past 35 years trying to overcome the traumas of her childhood a goal she pursues through an academic fascination with trujillo and dominican history urania is deeply troubled by the events of her past and is compelled to confront her father agustín about his role in those events urania visits her father finding him weakened by age and a severe stroke so much so that he is barely able to respond physically to her presence let alone speak agustín listens helplessly as urania recounts his past as egghead cabral a high @@ ranking member of trujillo's inner circle and his drastic fall from grace urania details agustín's role in the events that led to her rape by the dominican leader and to her subsequent lifetime of celibacy and emotional trauma agustín's character in the modern day portion of the novel serves primarily as a sounding board for urania's recollections of the trujillo era and the events that surrounded both agustín cabral's disgrace and urania's escape from the country his responses are minimal and non @@ vocal despite the of urania's accusations and the enormity of his own actions during trujillo's reign |
rafael trujillo known also as the goat the chief and the benefactor is a fictionalized character based on the real dictator of the dominican republic from 1930 to 1961 and the official president of the republic from 1930 to 1938 and 1943 to 1952 in the feast of the goat vargas llosa imagines the innermost thoughts of the dictator and retells the goat's last hours from his own perspective trujillo's character struggles with aging and the physical problems of incontinence and impotence through fictional events and first person narrative the reader is given insight into the man who during his thirty @@ one years of horrendous political crimes modernized the country's infrastructure and military but whose regime's attacks against its enemies overseas ( particularly the attempted assassination of rómulo betancourt president of venezuela ) led to the imposition of economic sanctions on the dominican republic by the organization of american states in the 1950s the resultant economic downturn in conjunction with other factors leads to the cia supported assassination plot that ends trujillo's life on may 30 1961 |
trujillo's regime is supported by johnny abbes garcía the head of the military intelligence service ( sim ) a brutal man to whom many disappearances executions sudden falls into disgrace are attributed abbes and his intelligence officers are notorious for their cruelty particularly their habit of killing dissidents by throwing them into shark @@ infested waters colonel abbes may be the devil but he's useful to the chief everything bad is attributed to him and only the good to trujillo trujillo's son ramfis trujillo is a loyal supporter of the chief after unsuccessful attempts at schooling in the united states ramfis returns to the dominican republic to serve in his father's military he is a well @@ known womanizer upon trujillo's death ramfis seeks revenge even going so far as to torture and kill his uncle by marriage general jose roman for his part in the assassination conspiracy |
joaquín balaguer trujillo's puppet president is also a supporter and initially his seemingly innocuous character holds no real power following trujillo's death the calm and serenity of balaguer bring about real change in his character and general román comments that this insignificant man whom everyone had always considered a mere clerk a purely decorative figure in the regime began to acquire surprising authority it is balaguer who guides much of the action in the last sections of the book |
the storyline concerning the assassination primarily follows the four conspirators who directly participate in trujillo's death antonio imbert barrera is one of the few conspirators who survives the violent reprisals that follow trujillo's assassination imbert is a politician who becomes disillusioned with the deception and cruelty of the trujillo regime his first plan to kill trujillo was foiled by the unsuccessful attempted overthrow of the regime by cuban paramilitary forces now convinced of the difficulty of his task imbert joins the other conspirators in plotting trujillo's death among the others is antonio de la maza one of trujillo's personal guards antonio's brother is killed as part of a government cover @@ up and antonio swears revenge upon trujillo salvador estrella known as turk is a devout catholic who in indignation at the regime's many crimes against god swears an oath against trujillo turk eventually turns himself in for fear that the regime was torturing his family both turk and his innocent brother are then tortured for months his father remains loyal to trujillo and disowns turk to his face despite all of this turk refuses to commit suicide and does not lose faith in god he is later executed by ramfis and other high level government men turk's close friend amado garcía guerrero known as amadito is a lieutenant in the army who gave up his beloved as proof of his loyalty to trujillo and then later was forced to kill her brother to prove himself to trujillo amadito's disgust with himself and disillusionment with the regime lead to his decision to help to kill trujillo following the assassination he hides out with de la maza and dies fighting in the aftermath of the assassination amadito and antonio de la maza choose to fight the members of sim who come to arrest them opting to die in battle rather than be captured and tortured |
the feast of the goat's major themes include political corruption machismo memory and writing and power olga lorenzo reviewer for the melbourne age suggests that overall vargas llosa's aim is to reveal the irrational forces of latin tradition that give rise to despotism |
the structure of dominican society was hierarchical with strongly gendered roles rafael trujillo the ruler was a cruel dictator who haunts the people of santo domingo even 35 years after his death he is a true caudillo ruling with brutality and corruption he creates a personality cult in his capitalist society and encourages decadence within his regime prior to promotion to a position of responsibility an officer is required to pass a test of loyalty his people are to remain loyal to him all cost and are periodically tested by public humiliation and censure even though acts of disloyalty were rare trujillo violates women and children as an expression of political and sexual power and in some cases takes the wife or child of his lieutenants many of whom still remain blindly loyal even the church and military institutions are employed to give women to the tyrant for pleasure |
many of the assassins had belonged to the trujillo regime or had at one point been its staunch supporters only to find their support for him eroded by the state's crimes against its people imbert one of the assassins sums up this realization in a comment prompted by the murder of the mirabal sisters they kill our fathers our brothers our friends and now they're killing our women and here we sit resigned waiting our turn in an interview vargas llosa describes the corruption and brutality of trujillo's regime he had more or less all the common traits of a latin american dictator but pushed to the extreme in cruelty i think he went far far away from the rest and in corruption too |
according to literary scholar peter anthony the two important components of machismo are aggressive behaviour and hyper @@ sexuality aggressive behaviour is exhibited by displays of power and strength while hyper @@ sexuality is revealed through sexual activity with as many partners as possible these two components shape the portrayal of trujillo and his regime in the feast of the goat as lorenzo observes vargas llosa reveals traditions of machismo of abusive fathers and of child @@ rearing practices that repeat the shaming of children so that each generation bequeaths a withering of the soul to the subsequent one |
in a display of both aspects of machismo trujillo demanded of his aides and cabinet that they provide him with sexual access to their wives and daughters mario vargas llosa wrote of trujillo's machismo and treatment of women [ h ] e went to bed with his ministers' wives not only because he liked these ladies but because it was a way to test his ministers he wanted to know if they were ready to accept this extreme humiliation mainly the ministers were prepared to play this grotesque role and they remained loyal to trujillo even after his death trujillo's sexual conquests and public humiliations of his enemies also serve to affirm his political power and machismo in 's words the implication is that maximum virility equals political dominance |
trujillo's attempted sexual conquest of urania is an example of both political manipulation of agustín cabral and sexual power over young women however as trujillo's penis remains flaccid throughout the encounter and he is humiliated in front of the young girl the encounter fails to satisfy his requirements for machismo |
all of the novel's storylines concern memory in some sense or another the most apparent confrontation of memory is on the part of urania cabral who has returned to the dominican republic for the first time in 30 years and is forced to confront her father and the traumas that led her to leave the country at 14 she was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the dictator himself a sacrifice her father made to try to gain favor with the dictator again a fact to which she alludes throughout the book but which is only revealed at the very end the book concludes with her recounting the memory of that night to her aunt and cousins who never knew the true reason she left the country when her aunt is surprised that she remembers all these details she responds that while she forgets many things i remember everything about that night for urania forgetting the atrocities committed by the regime is unacceptable her father on the other hand is not capable of joining her in this process of remembering since he has suffered a stroke and is not capable of speaking however urania is angry that he chose to forget these things while he was still capable of acknowledging them |
memory is also important in the sections of the novel that deal with the assassins each recalls the events that led him to take part in the assassination of trujillo these incidents included the 1956 kidnapping and murder the 1960 murder of the mirabal sisters and the 1961 split with the catholic church these historical events are used by vargas llosa to connect the assassins with specific moments that demonstrate the violence of trujillo's regime trujillo too is shown reflecting on the past not least his own formation and training at the hands of the us marines |
but above all mario vargas llosa uses the fictional urania to facilitate the novel's attempt at remembering the regime the novel opens and closes with urania's story effectively framing the narrative in the terms of remembering the past and understanding its legacy in the present in addition because of her academic study of the history of the trujillo regime urania is also confronting the memory of the regime for the country as a whole this is in keeping with one purpose of the book which is to ensure that the atrocities of the dictatorship and the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation |
in her treatment of the novel maría regina ruiz claims that power gives its wielder the ability to make prohibitions prohibitions that are reflected in history the study of which reveals what is and what is not told the government's actions in the feast of the goat demonstrate the discourse of prohibition foreign newspapers and magazines were prohibited from entering trujillo's country as they were seen as a threat to the government's ideas mario vargas llosa takes part in this discourse by recounting what was prohibited |
ruiz notes that writing also has the power to transform reality it brings the reader back to the past allowing the reader to comprehend myths or distorted stories told by historians ruiz contends that knowing the past is crucial to one's understanding of the present that takes us to postmodernism and argues that the feast of the goat can thus be seen as a postmodern discourse that gives power to history recreation |
the construction of fictions surrounding the events of trujillo's regime allow a degree of freedom from the horrors that took places author julia alvarez contends that these events can only finally be understood by fiction only finally be redeemed by the imagination while richard patterson claims that vargas llosa and to a large degree trujillo and his brutal reign through use of narrative structure vargas llosa's writing acts as a cathartic force for this period in history |
the novel is a combination of fact and fiction blending together these two elements is important in any historical novel but especially in the feast of the goat because vargas llosa chose to narrate an actual event through the minds of both real and fictional characters some characters are fictional and those that are non @@ fictional still have fictionalized aspects in the book the general details of the assassination are true and the assassins are all real people while they lie in wait for the dictator to arrive they recount actual crimes of the regime such as the murder of the mirabal sisters however other details are invented by vargas llosa such as amadito's murder of the brother of the woman he loved |
those within the regime are also a mix of fictional characters and real people president balaguer is real but the entire cabral family is completely fictional according to wolff vargas llosa uses history as a starting point in constructing a fictionalized account of trujillo's spiritual colonization of the dominican republic as experienced by one dominican family the fictional cabral family allows vargas llosa to show two sides of the trujillo regime through agustin the reader sees ultimate dedication and sacrifice to the leader of the nation through urania the violence of the regime and the legacy of pain it left behind vargas llosa also fictionalized the internal thoughts of the characters who were non @@ fictional especially those of the goat himself according to literary scholar richard patterson vargas llosa's expands all the way into the very dark area of trujillo's consciousness ( as the storyteller dares to conceive it ) |
vargas llosa also built an image of the regime with the troubled historical events with regard to the historical accuracy of the book vargas llosa has said it's a novel not a history book so i took many many liberties the only limitation i imposed on myself was that i was not going to invent anything that couldn't have happened within the framework of life in the dominican republic i have respected the basic facts but i have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive and i have not exaggerated |
the realist style of the feast of the goat is recognized by some reviewers as being a break from a more allegorical approach to the dictator novel the novel received largely positive reviews most of which were willing to accept sacrifices of historical accuracy in favour of good storytelling |
a common comment on the novel is the graphic nature of the many acts of torture and murder which are depicted in the novel vargas lets the reader see the realities of an oppressive regime with a degree of detail not often used by his compatriots in latin american literature as michael wood suggests in the london review of books vargas llosa tells us far more about the details of day @@ to @@ day intrigue and the sordid sadistic minutiae of torture and murder walter kirn of the new york times suggests that the grisly scenes of dungeon interrogations and torture sessions cast other aspects of the novel in a pale light draining them of their significance and impact similarly kirn implies that the narrative machinery mentioned by wood as being somewhat unwieldy also produces a largely superfluous storyline the plot line centered on urania cabral is described by sturrock as being an emotional centre that focuses the novel and wood agrees that her confrontations with past demons hold the readers attention in contrast kirn's review states that urania's segments are talky and atmospheric [ and ] seem to be on loan from another sort of book |
most reviews of the feast of the goat make either indirect of direct reference to the relationship between sexuality and power salon reviewer laura miller writer for the observer jonathan heawood walter kirn and michael wood each detail the connection between trujillo's gradual loss of ultimate control both over his body and his followers the means by which trujillo reinforces political power through sexual acts and begins to lose personal conviction as his body fails him are topics of frequent discussion among reviewers |
in 2011 bernard diederich author of the 1978 non @@ fiction book trujillo the death of the goat accused vargas @@ llosa of plagiarism |
an english @@ language film adaptation of the novel was made in 2005 directed by luis llosa mario vargas llosa's cousin it stars isabella rossellini as urania cabral paul freeman as her father agustin stephanie leonidas as and tomas milian as rafael leonidas trujillo it was filmed in both the dominican republic and in spain reviewing the film for the trade paper variety critic jonathan holland called it less a feast than a somewhat rushed but thoroughly enjoyable three @@ course meal commenting that the main difference from the source novel was the sacrifice of psychological nuance |
the novel has also been adapted for the stage by jorge alí triana and his daughter veronica triana directed by jorge triana the play was put on ( in spanish but with simultaneous translation to english ) at español ( / chivo ) in new york in 2003 and the production moved to lima in 2007 a feature of the novel's stage version is that the same actor plays both agustin cabral and rafael trujillo for reviewer bruce weber this makes the point that trujillo's control of the nation depended on gutless collaborators |
charles eaton obe afc ( 21 december 1895 12 november 1979 ) was a senior officer and aviator in the royal australian air force ( raaf ) who later served as a diplomat born in london he joined the british army upon the outbreak of world war i and saw action on the western front before transferring to the royal flying corps in 1917 posted as a bomber pilot to no 206 squadron he was twice captured by german forces and twice escaped eaton left the military in 1920 and worked in india until moving to australia in 1923 two years later he joined the raaf serving initially as an instructor at no 1 flying training school between 1929 and 1931 he was chosen to lead three expeditions to search for lost aircraft in central australia gaining national attention and earning the air force cross for his zeal and devotion to duty |
in 1939 on the eve of world war ii eaton became the inaugural commanding officer of no 12 ( general purpose ) squadron at the newly established raaf station darwin in northern australia promoted group captain the following year he was appointed an officer of the order of the british empire in 1942 he took command of no 79 wing at batchelor northern territory in 1943 and was mentioned in despatches during operations in the south west pacific retiring from the raaf in december 1945 eaton took up diplomatic posts in the dutch east indies heading a united nations commission as consul @@ general during the indonesian national revolution he returned to australia in 1950 and served in canberra for a further two years popularly known as moth eaton he was a farmer in later life and died in 1979 at the age of 83 he is commemorated by several memorials in the northern territory |
charles eaton was born on 21 december 1895 in lambeth london the son of william walpole eaton a butcher and his wife grace schooled in wandsworth charles worked in battersea town council from the age of fourteen before joining the london regiment upon the outbreak of world war i in august 1914 attached to a bicycle company in the 24th battalion of the 47th division he arrived at the western front in march 1915 he took part in trench bombing missions and attacks on enemy lines of communication seeing action in the battles of aubers ridge festubert loos and the somme |
on 14 may 1915 eaton transferred to the royal flying corps ( rfc ) undergoing initial pilot training at oxford while he was landing his maurice farman shorthorn at the end of his first solo flight another student collided with him and was killed but eaton emerged uninjured he was commissioned in august and was awarded his wings in october ranked lieutenant he served with no 110 squadron which operated martinsyde g100 elephant fighters out of defending london against zeppelin airships transferred to the newly formed royal air force ( raf ) in april 1918 he was posted the following month to france flying airco dh9 single @@ engined bombers with no 206 squadron on 29 june he was shot down behind enemy lines and captured in the vicinity of incarcerated in holzminden prisoner @@ of @@ war camp germany eaton escaped but was recaptured and court @@ martialled after which he was kept in solitary confinement he later effected another escape and succeeded in rejoining his squadron in the final days of the war |
eaton remained in the raf following the cessation of hostilities he married beatrice godfrey in st thomas's church at shepherd's bush london on 11 january 1919 posted to no 1 squadron he was a pilot on the first regular passenger service between london and paris ferrying delegates to and from the peace conference at versailles eaton was sent to india in december to undertake aerial survey work including the first such survey of the himalayas he resigned from the raf in july 1920 remaining in india to take up employment with the imperial forest service after successfully applying for a position with the queensland forestry service he and his family migrated to australia in 1923 moving to south yarra victoria he enlisted as a flying officer in the royal australian air force ( raaf ) at laverton on 14 august 1925 he was posted to no 1 flying training school at raaf point cook as a flight instructor where he became known as a strict disciplinarian who trained his pilots well here eaton acquired his nickname of moth the air force's basic trainer at this time being the de havilland dh60 moth promoted flight lieutenant in february 1928 he flew a moth in the 1929 east @@ west air race from sydney to perth as part of the celebrations for the western australia centenary he was the sixth competitor across the line after fellow rfc veteran jerry pentland |
regarded as one of the raaf's most skilful cross @@ country pilots and navigators eaton came to public attention as leader of three military expeditions to find lost aircraft in central australia between 1929 and 1931 in april 1929 he coordinated the air force's part in the search for aviators keith anderson and bob hitchcock missing in their aircraft the kookaburra while themselves looking for charles kingsford smith and charles ulm who had force landed the southern cross in north western australia during a flight from sydney three of the raaf's five ancient dh9 biplanes went down in the search though all crews escaped injury including eaton's which experienced what he labelled a good crash on 21 april near tennant creek after the engine's pistons melted the same day captain lester brain flying a qantas aircraft located the wreck of the kookaburra in the tanami desert approximately 130 kilometres ( 81 mi ) east @@ south @@ east of wave hill setting out from wave hill on 23 april eaton led a ground party across rough terrain that reached the crash site four days later and buried the crew who had perished of thirst and exposure not a particularly religious man he recalled that after the burial he saw a perfect cross formed by cirrus cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky above the kookaburra the air board described the raaf's search as taking 240 hours flying time under the most trying conditions where a forced landing meant certain crash in november 1930 eaton was selected to lead another expedition for a missing aircraft near ayers rock but it was called off soon afterwards when the pilot showed up in alice springs the next month he was ordered to search for wl and sj hamre who had disappeared in the biplane golden quest 2 while attempting to discover lasseter's reef employing a total of four dh60 moths the raaf team located the missing men near dashwood creek on 7 january 1931 and they were rescued four days later by a ground party accompanied by eaton staying in nearby alice springs he recommended a site for the town's new airfield which was approved and has remained in use since its construction |
eaton was awarded the air force cross on 10 march 1931 in recognition of his zeal and devotion to duty in conducting flights to central australia in search of missing aviators the media called him the' knight errant' of the desert skies aside from his crash landing in the desert while searching for the kookaburra eaton had another narrow escape in 1929 when he was test flying the wackett warrigal i with sergeant eric douglas having purposely put the biplane trainer into a spin and finding no response in the controls when he tried to recover eaton called on douglas to bail out when douglas stood up to do so the spin stopped apparently due to his torso changing the airflow over the tail plane eaton then managed to land the aeroplane he and his passenger both badly shaken by the experience in december 1931 he was posted to no 1 aircraft depot at laverton where he continued to fly as well as performing administrative work promoted squadron leader in 1936 he undertook a clandestine mission around the new year to scout for suitable landing grounds in the dutch east indies primarily timor and ambon wearing civilian clothes he and his companion were arrested and held for three days by local authorities in koepang dutch timor eaton was appointed commanding officer ( co ) of no 21 squadron in may 1937 one of his first tasks being to undertake another aerial search in central australia this time for prospector sir herbert gepp who was subsequently discovered alive and well later that year eaton presided over the court of inquiry into the crash of a hawker demon biplane in victoria recommending a gallantry award for aircraftman william mcaloney who had leapt into the demon's burning wreckage in an effort to rescue its pilot mcaloney subsequently received the albert medal for his heroism |
following a 1937 decision to establish the first north australian raaf base in april 1938 eaton now on the headquarters staff of raaf station laverton and wing commander george jones director of personnel services at raaf headquarters began developing plans for the new station to be commanded by jones and a new squadron that would be based there led by eaton the next month they flew an avro anson on an inspection tour of darwin northern territory site of the proposed base delays meant that no 12 ( general purpose ) squadron was not formed until 6 february 1939 at laverton jones had by now moved on to another posting but eaton took up the squadron's command as planned promoted to wing commander on 1 march he and his equipment officer flying officer hocking were ordered to build up the unit as quickly as possible and established an initial complement of fourteen officers and 120 airmen plus four ansons and four demons within a week an advance party of thirty ncos and airmen under hocking began moving to darwin on 1 july staff were initially accommodated in a former built during world war i and life at the newly established air base had a distinctly raw pioneering feel about it according to historian chris coulthard @@ clark morale though was high on 31 august no 12 squadron launched its first patrol over the darwin area flown by one of seven ansons that had so far been delivered these were augmented by a flight of four cac wirraways ( replacing the originally planned force of demons ) that took off from laverton on 2 september the day before australia declared war and arrived in darwin four days later a fifth wirraway in the flight crashed on landing at darwin killing both crewmen |
once war was declared darwin began to receive more attention from military planners in june 1940 no 12 squadron was cannibalised to form two additional units headquarters raaf station darwin and no 13 squadron no 12 squadron retained its wirraway flight while its two flights of ansons went to the new squadron these were replaced later that month by more capable lockheed hudsons eaton was appointed co of the base gaining promotion to temporary group captain in september his squadrons were employed in escort maritime reconnaissance and coastal patrol duties the overworked aircraft having to be sent to raaf station richmond new south wales after every 240 hours flying time with a consequent three @@ week loss from darwin's strength as deep maintenance was not yet possible in the northern territory soon after the establishment of headquarters raaf station darwin minister for air james fairbairn visited the base piloting his own light plane he was greeted by four wirraways that proceeded to escort him into landing the minister subsequently complimented eaton on the keen @@ ness and efficiency of all ranks particularly considering the challenging environment when fairbairn died in the canberra air disaster shortly afterwards his pilot was flight lieutenant robert hitchcock son of bob hitchcock of the kookaburra and also a former member of eaton's no 21 squadron |
Subsets and Splits