The United Fruit

Company
Geetika Mukkamala, John Kruper, Lara Hakam, Rohan Perisetla
Culture and
Context
 The United Fruit Company
and American Imperialism
● The United Fruit Company: American company interested in the
international trade of fruits, particularly bananas
○ Such fruits grow well in Central America and other tropical
countries such as Peru or Chile
● The company exploited cheap labor to make huge profits,
○ In some cases, they had large enough monopoly to control the
entire economy
○ Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala were the primary
victims, labeled Banana Republics
 Neruda’s Relationship with
the Company and Chile
● Neruda was a communist who supported the Soviet Union for its
idealistic support of the working class and for its success in World War
Two
● Neruda viewed the United Fruit Company and America (not the
individual Americans) as imperialists stealing the natural
recourses of his country and abusing the labor of poor Chileans
Communism and Poetry
◉ With the impact of communism, Neruda shifted to talk more about
social change and a Chile free from American Imperialism.
◉ Political Involvement: Supporter of Marxist Allende who was later
overthrown by a US coup with Pinochet.
◉ Opinion on the US: Strongly disliked American imperialism b/c:
◎Took advantage of Blue Collar workers
◎Capitalism didn’t help the working/lower classes.
◎Condemned aggression in Korea and US involvement in Chile
◎https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDOI24RRAE
Neruda’s Style
 Modernista Era
◉ A movement driven by a desire to overrule traditional norms and
express a new sensibility developing during the time.
◉ Blend of:
◎ Romanticism
◎ Parnassianism
◎ Symbolism
Phases of Neruda Poetry
1. Love poetry about his love life with his wife.
2. Surrealistic poetry with his experiences as the
foundation.
3. Direct political commentary.
4. Poetry of everyday life focusing on the common person
and objects.
The Poem
Dominant Effect

In the poem, “The United Fruit

Company”, Pablo Neruda uses
allusions to American Imperialism
while creating a lamenting tone to
portray the detrimental effects of
foreign companies on Chilean
society.

”
Literary Devices Used
◉ Allusion
◉ Imagery (Especially of things related to the sea)
◉ Onomatopoeia
◉ Similes
◉ Metaphors
◉ Repetition (of fruit references)
◉ Personification
◉ Point of View
◉ Listing (similar to Whitman’s style)
 Allusion Quick Note: The Flies!
Lines 20 through 23 of the poem discuss the dictatorship of
the flies. It references these presidents:
◉ Trujillo, Dominican Republic, 1930-1961
◉ Tachos (nickname for García), Nicaragua, 1936-1956
◉ Carias, Honduras, 1933-1946
◉ Martínez, El Salvador, 1931-1944
◉ Ubico (full name: Jorge Ubico y Castañeda),
Guatemala, 1931-1944
When the trumpet sounded, everything
on earth was prepared,
the Jehovah distributed the world
to Coca Cola, Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other entities:
The Fruit Company, Inc.
reserved the juiciest for itself,
the central coast of my own land,
the sweet waist of America.
it re-baptized the lands
“Banana Republics”
and on the sleeping dead,
on the restless heroes
who’d conquered greatness,
liberty and the flags,

◉ Allusion
◉ Imagery
◉ Metaphors
◉ Personification
◉ Point of View
 it founded a comic opera:
alienated free wills,
gave crowns of Caesar as gifts,
unsheathed jealousy, attracted
the dictatorship of the flies,
Trujillo flies, Tacho flies,
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies soppy
with humble blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz
around common graves,
circus flies, learned flies
adept at tyranny.

◉ Allusion
◉ Onomatopoeia
◉ Metaphors
◉ Personification
◉ Listing (similar to Whitman’s style)
 The Company disembarks Meanwhile, along the sugared-up
Among the blood-thirsty flies abysms of the ports,
brim-filling their boats that slide Indians fall over, buried
with the coffee and fruit treasure in the morning mist:
of our submerged lands like trays. a body rolls, a thing
without a name, a fallen number,
a bunch of dead fruit
spills into a pile of rot.
◉ Imagery
◉ Similes
◉ Metaphors
◉ Personification
◉ Repetition
 Creative
Interpretation
Works Cited
◉ “Pablo Neruda.” World History. The Modern Era.
ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

◉ "Neruda's Participation in Modernism." Pablo

Neruda. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.