In her treatment of the novel , María Regina Ruiz claim that power give its wielder the ability to make prohibitions ; prohibitions that are reflected in history , the study of which reveal 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 was prohibited from entering Trujillo 's country as they was seen as a threat to the government 's ideas . Mario Vargas Llosa take part in this discourse by recounting what was prohibited .