Question:
Pablo Neruda - Poem help?
Neruda's 'The United Fruit Co.'. It's a great poem, except when the pressure is on to make a presentation and there's no real resources to use that I can find. ^_^0 So, any links or your own personal thoughts on its themes and such would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, guys.
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Neruda??s poem, ??La United Fruit Company?? is a protest, not just against the greed and corruption
of North American companies in Latin America, but also against the consumeristic propaganda
used by companies like the United Fruit Company and Coca-Cola in the United States to portray
their activities in the South as benign.
**
An Analysis of 'La United Fruit Company' de Pablo Neruda
??La United Fruit Company?? by Pablo Neruda, laments the exploitation of the Latin American
countries by North American companies. Neruda begins the poem with a biblical tone, lending the
poem an epic or mythical feeling.
This religious language, juxtaposed against the names of icons of consumerism like Coca Cola,
Ford Motors and The United Fruit Company reveals a sarcastic disdain towards the arrogance of
the North. At the same time, Neruda weaves in the quasi-religious language of Democracy
employed by the companies in popular culture to cover up their immoral behavior. The exploited
Latin American countries are ??baptized?? in the propaganda of the North as ??Banana Republics??, a
euphemistic phrase, derogatory in the sense that it belittles the idea of democracy in Latin America
as limited and primitive, almost cute, and conveys the not so subtle message that by selling off
their natural resources, the ??Banana Republics?? could be elevated from their primitive conditions
towards a more modernized and democratic level of existence.
Neruda uses the image and language of fruit as an extended metaphor for the Latin American
countries, using adjectives like ??juicy?? and ??sweet??. By describing the coastline of his country as the
hips of a woman, Neruda likens the plundering of Latin America to the act of rape. For Neruda, the
Latin American countries are like a fresh, virginal fruit, consumed by the north then carelessly cast
aside to rot.
By invoking the memory of dead ancestors, over whose graves the North American companies
erect their operations, Neruda both comments on the irreverent attitude of the northern companies
towards the cultures and histories of the exploited lands, but also points to the history of imperial
conquest that has manifested Latin American history from the time of the great indigenous empires
like the Incas and Mayas, to the conquistadors of Spain.
The cavalier attitudes of companies like the United Fruit Company and Coca Cola are only the
most recent iterations of the pattern of conquest and
domination that has plagued Latin America since its earliest history:
Here, the biblical reference to the ??crowns of Cesar?? (translated in the English version as ??imperial
crowns??) represents the United States. The ??comic opera?? refers to the puppet governments set up
by the CIA in Latin America to safeguard the interests of North American companies at the
expense of the Latin
American people. Neruda describes the orgy of blood and greed that ensued, portraying the
bloody Latin American dictatorships supported by the United States as carnivorous flies, parasites
that live off the suffering, rotting fruit of Latin America.
The repetition of the word ??mosca?? (fly), combined with the alliteration of ??zumban?? (buzzing noise of
an insect) and ??tumbas?? (tombs) creates a musical tone that amplifies the extended metaphor of
Latin America as a fruit being consumed by parasites. Now, however, the fruit is rotting and putrid.
Toward the end of his poem, Neruda??s sarcasm changes to lamentation as we witness the pillage
of his country:
The ripe, juicy. virginal fruit we saw at the beginning of the poem has turned into a ??bunch of rotten
fruit?? cast aside to the waste pile. The Latin American people have been used and discarded
mechanically in the same manner as expendable produce, their dead bodies buried in obscurity or
dumped into the water.
Good luck