1. The United Fruit Company
Geetika Mukkamala, John Kruper, Lara Hakam, Rohan Perisetla

2. Culture and Context

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Neruda’s Style

7. 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

8. Phases of Neruda Poetry
Love poetry about his love life with his wife.
Surrealistic poetry with his experiences as the foundation.
Direct political commentary.
Poetry of everyday life focusing on the common person and objects.

9. The Poem

10. 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.

11. 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)

12. 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,
Tachos (nickname for García), Nicaragua,
Carias, Honduras,
Martínez, El Salvador,
Ubico (full name: Jorge Ubico y Castañeda), Guatemala,

13. 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
Repetition

14. 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)

15. The Company disembarks Among the blood-thirsty flies
brim-filling their boats that slide
with the coffee and fruit treasure
of our submerged lands like trays.
Meanwhile, along the sugared-up abysms of the ports,
Indians fall over, buried
in the morning mist:
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

16. Creative Interpretation

17. Works Cited
“Pablo Neruda.” World History. The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, Web. 12 Nov
"Neruda's Participation in Modernism." Pablo Neruda. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov