The totem and the taboo

Yousa narrates through two different time periods two stories, the first for the painter Paul Gauguin, his migration to Haiti away from the European civilization associated with restrictions, seeking to return to the primitive origins of humans where he can capture moments and feelings no longer possible to find in Paris. Yousa describes the circumstances and ideas that led Gauguin to paint some of his most important paintings, narrating the story surrounding each painting in the context of Gaugin's emotional fluctuations. Gaugin in the novel expresses his belief that practicing sex is an essential condition to maintain his artistic enthusiasm for painting, and thus he abandons his Catholic wife, restricted by traditions that deprive her of pleasure, and engages in multiple relationships in an attempt not to remain without a woman. Perhaps what Gaugin was seeking and pursuing was rebellion against the familiar, staying outside the constraints of the community, by living in a primitive society that Gaugin (not necessarily correct) assumes they live on a free instinct that has not been corrupted by missionary teachings. Paradise on the other side of the corner. Author: Mario Vargas Llosa