Essay On The United Fruit Company Poem

“The United fruit company” is a great poem apart from when there is pressure on when making presentation. Neruda’s poem is not only just a protest against corruption and greed among the Latin American Companies of North America, but it is at the same time critiquing consumeristic propagandas that are spread by the United States Companies encompassing the likes of companies like ‘coca cola’ and ‘United Fruit Company’ portraying their activities as a benign in the South. The poet seems to have some things in common with Ernesto Guevara since they are able to identify the common problem even though their methods of approach seem to differ. Neruda is unique in his poem given the fact that he directly calls for justice through the judgment of dictatorship caused by the North through their big businesses. This poem is not revolutionary in any way, but it also pays tribute to former revolution institutions. A good example of such old institutions that is used by Neruda in his poem is the church, an institution which had been formerly regarded by powerful politicians and poets as a persecution instrument, an institution that allowed people to be humiliated quietly in the name of God.
This poem expresses grief over the exploitation of the Latin American states caused by the companies from North America. Neruda gives the poem a biblical tone by alluding to the book of revelation, the last book of the bible. Following the takeover of Latin American countries by gigantic American nations whereby United Fruit Company is one of them, the poet compares it to when God will hand the earth and the people in it to the anguish that angels who have seven trumpets when he declares the end of the world. The poet laments through the poet how those companies have invaded the better part of his nation, just like the way God selected his beloved ones, and in the book of revelation, God permanently “seals” his people. As a result, Neruda lends the poem the poem a mythical or an epic feeling. The religious language that is juxtaposed by Neruda against big names in consumerism like The United Fruit Company, Coca Cola and Ford Motors among others shows a sarcastic condescension towards the North’s conceit. In addition, the poet weaves in the democratic language that is quasi-religious, applied by companies to cover up some immoralities in the name of popular culture.
According to the poet, the North baptizes the exploited or the oppressed Latin American countries in their propaganda giving them the name “Banana Republics’”. This is means that the idea of democracy in Latin America is belittled as limited and as primitive but almost smart and therefore conveying the not so subtle communication meaning that by letting go of their natural resources, the so called “Banana republics’” could have a better chance of being elevated from their primitive and limited conditions to the highest level of modernity and democratic levels. The poet applies the language and image of the fruit as an example of an extended metaphor for the Countries from Latin Americans, therefore describing the coastlines of his own country as the woman’s hips by using some spicy terms like, ‘sweet and juicy’. The poet still carries on by comparing the predatory of the Latin American Countries to rape acts. Neruda compares the Latin American Countries to virginal fruits that are still fresh, eaten by the North and then recklessly thrown aside to rot.
Neruda also invokes the memories of long gone ancestors, over the owners of the graves of the companies belonging to the North where they have launched their operations, Neruda gives his comments concerning the irreverence of attitude and pride of the companies from the North towards the history and cultures of the lands that are exploited, and at the same time, identifying the imperial conquests history that has marked the history of Latin America right as from the indigenous empire’s great time, just like the Mayas and Incas, right to Spanish conquistadors. According to the poet, the cavalier attitude of Ford Motors, Coca Cola and the United Fruit Company are among the latest iterations of domination and the conquest’s pattern to plague the Latin American companies from their earliest history. In the poem, the ‘crown of Cesar’ or ‘imperial crowns’ as translated in English version, represents the United States of America. Therefore, the ‘comic Opera’ is clearly referring to the set up of the nation’s set up by the ‘Central Intelligence Agency (CIA’ for the sake of safeguarding the interests of the so called North American Countries but at the expense and sacrifice of the Latin American People. The poet here is describing greed as well as the orgy of blood that clearly followed signifying the dictatorship that is promoted by the United States towards the Latin Americans.
In his poem, Neruda terms the orgy blood as ‘parasites’ and ‘flies’ trying to dwell of the humiliations, the rotting fruit the ‘Latin America’. The poet uses the word ‘fly’ or ‘mosca’ Repeatedly coupling it with the buzzing sound that is produced by the insect ‘zumban’ as well as by creating an amplification of a musical tone ‘tombs’ (tumbas) therefore amplifying the unending metaphor terming it as a fruit that is being eaten by the parasites now, although, the fruit happens to be putrid and rotten.
When concluding his poem, the poet’s sarcasm switches to lamentations as we testify the pillage of ‘Chile’ Neruda’s country: The virginal fruit that was mentioned in the initial stage of the poem has suddenly turned to be ‘bunches of rotten fruits’ thrown away to the garbage. This indicates how the Latin American Countries have been exploited and mechanically discarded then dumped just like when the expendable produce is dumped after being used. Neruda’s criticism appears to be contrary to other writers of his era as well as his Latin American roots. His work and call for realization as well as judgment is more of Christianity or, biblical. Neruda therefore calls upon the Latin Americans to wake up to draw attention and focus on most of unending historical injustices that have been committed against them by the North. This is where he uses ‘United Fruit Company’ as a case study in his poem to speak his heart out.