In Miguel Angel Asturias's Nobel Prize winning novel The President, the tyrant of an unknown Central American nation uses psychology as his primary weapon. The President, an anonymous and blurry character, has so much control over every aspect of his country that every move seems to be under his control. His is a totalitarian government, and he is the all-powerful, all-knowing dictator. Such fear of him is present, that in the Spanish version of this book, from all available translations, he is actually described by Asturias as "The Gentleman President." Though not as apparent in the English translation, study of this title relates the respect that Southern American governments, and subsequently their society, states that one must have for a ruler in a Central American country, no matter how much one despised him. Though the basic concept that Cara de Angel, the procrastinator in The President, despises the...