Pablo Neruda - Poem help?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

Pablo Neruda United Fruit Company

Answer 3

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair by Pablo Neruda Don't go far off, not even for a day Don't go far off, not even for a day, Because I don't know how to say it - a day is long And I will be waiting for you, as in An empty station when the trains are Parked off somewhere else, asleep. Don't leave me, even for an hour, because then The little drops of anguish will all run together, The smoke that roams looking for a home will drift Into me, choking my lost heart. Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve On the beach, may your eyelids never flutter Into the empty distance. Don't LEAVE me for A second, my dearest, because in that moment you'll Have gone so far I'll wander mazily Over all the earth, asking, will you Come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

Answer 4

United Fruit Company Poem

Answer 5

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I love Pablo Neruda and have links to some of his poetry, but I'm wondering why I should do your homework for you. And how many other people are willing to.....

Answer 6

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RE:
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.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

1

Answer 9

This poem is so amazing :) go Latin American!!!

Answer 10

English Translation of "The United Fruit Company"

"When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehovah gave the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.

It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and banners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns,
encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.

With the bloodthirsty flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overloaded trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.

Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap. "


I'm assuming you are reading it in translation--in English.

The first lines, beginning with "When the trumpet sounded..." are an allusion to the Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible. The poet is comparing the taking over of Latin American countries by Huge American companiess like United Fruit to God handing over the earth and its inhabitants to the woes that the angels with the seven trumpets will call upon the earth at the end of time.

Neruda says that these companies have taken the best part of his country, the way God chose the best people for Himself, and in Revelation, God "seals" his chosen people.

In Revelation it says that those people who are not "sealed," which some take to mean baptized, will not be saved from the terrors the angels will bring. When Neruda speaks of "rebaptizing," he is suggesting that these companies have usurped the power of God--that even God cannot save people from them.

In Revelation, the blood of the martyrs cries out to God from his holy altar. In Neruda's poem, the great dead who established liberty, etc. have no peace and their prayers and cries are not heard.

In Revelation there is a "pageant" in the sky, in which a woman appears. In Neruda's poem, an "opera buffa," a comic opera about a fool, is played out.

One of the terrible plagues that comes upon the earth with one of the seven trumpets of Revelation is a plague of locusts who have the power to torture people. They have the faces of men and the bodies of horses, with tails like scorpions. When Neruda speaks of "flies," this is what he is alluding to. The names of all the kinds of flies are the names of various South American dictators, then they become the corrupt products of the terrible ruin brought by the tyrants.

When he says that the flies came with the United Fruit Company, he compares it to "the Angel of the Bottomless Pit" in Revelation, who brings the insects with him.

Then Neruda moves into a description of the sacking of his country, and the dehumanization of the native people, turning them into ruined commodities. They are nameless, falling into the harbor to be lost with the refuse, the unwanted leftovers and spoiled fruits that have spilled from the ships that take away all the wealth of his country.

The phrase "sugared depths" tells us two things: one, that we don't know of the fallen Indians, because the wealth that passes through the harbor makes the place seem "sweet" to the world, and two, that under the surface of the bay the sea water is sweet, which amounts to being polluted.

The Indians who fall into the morning mist are lost to history, their deaths never seen--the mists are a metaphor for the lies and the virtual slavery imposed by the dictators that make it impossible for the world to see what is really happening.

When the poet compares the sacking of his country to the end of the world in Revelation, we should recognize that Revelation is the story of the Great Judgment that will come. In Revelation it is "The Lamb," the image of Jesus as a victim, who opens the seals that finally allow the seven trumpets, the place where Neruda begins his poem, to blow.

The victim in Revelation becomes the judge. Jesus the Lamb is opening the seals of judgment, because he is "worthy," and the martyrs' prayers rise to God, calling him to judgement. The Indians, and the land, and the dead heroes of Neruda's country will ultimately be known, and this will bring judgment upon the companies and the dictators who have taken everything from his country.

Neruda's complaint is different from many others of his era and his Latin American roots. His call to judgment is based in Christianity, and he calls upon the memory of establishment heroes to call attention to the injustices that United Fruit has caused.

Most of the Latin American writers who complained about these things were "Revolutionary," like Castro and Che Guevara, exporting some form of communism to other countries in Latin America and Central America. They would not have written about people who conquered the land in the first place, "the unquiet heroes, who won greatness, liberty and banners," except to judge them along with the big companies who had taken over these countries. The Indians and the Conquistadores were not on the same side in most poetry and most political writing of the period.

If you saw the movie, "Motorcycle Diaries," you are familiar with Che Guevara and his story. In the movie, it becomes clear that the thing that turns Guevara into a communist revolutionary is the idea that the people he sees suffering are not seen by anyone--they are nameless and faceless commoditites, and no one in the world seems to see them as human beings.

It is interesting that both Neruda and Guevara see the same problem and approach it so differently. Neruda's poem is unique, because while it calls down judgment upon big business and dictatorships, it is not revolutionary, but rather seems to pay tribute to old institutions.

One of those institutions is the church, which other poets and politicians of Neruda's time and place considered an instrument of persecution, an establishment tool that told the people to suffer quietly and to let God save them, rather than rising up against their oppresors. Neruda's attitude toward the church or Christianity in this poem is not completely clear. His use of words would suggest that he feels bitter and cynical about religion, however, there is still a suggestion that he does believe that it has a better past than a future.