I believe that Soluri chose bananas because they are so widely known throughout our culture. Who has not seen a banana? Most people have played that game with their bananas of trying to figure out how long before they go black. Usually, it is a game of wait three days for them to turn from green to yellow; on the fourth day, have a banana for breakfast when they have finally reached to the point of golden goodness, only to come home from work on the fourth day to find the remaining bananas covered in black spots. I digress. Bananas have stood as symbols for many societal views. For the US, the banana has stood for their cultural and societal dominance over Honduras and other countries that supply the banana for consumption (3). For the Europeans however, the banana was a symbol of the "Crass popular culture of the United States shaped by both mass consumerism and …show more content…
The banana was a way for the US to get behind the tactics of banana farming, because they truly believed that the people were beneath them, Soluri goes as far as to say "slothful" (2). The English are very accurate when it came to their comment on mass consumerism of the era; Americans have to have the best. That is the whole point of the Miss Chiquita banana, not only did companies want to sell a banana, they wanted to sell you the best banana; some bananas are better than others (186). This caused a major issue in Honduras where companies would rather abandon a land, that spend time to fix it due to the over-cultivation. Workers were forced to become migrant and follow the fruit company jobs or risk being unemployed (85). Things like this are still happening today in our own culture. The popular company, Walmart, is famous for building stores in communities, and then tearing them down to rebuild them several blocks away forcing many out of work while the reconstruction occurs, and destroying the land it was built upon (The High Cost of Low
The Pigman by Paul Zindel is a book that has many symbols, and means of those symbols can be explained to the farthest extent. This will talk about some of the many symbols that are used in this story.
This particular revolution was meant to rid the country of its dependency upon slavery; however, it did very little to procure the exact solution that the natives of this country wanted. It’s stated more than once in this story that a true and honest living is not easily come by for any native of Haiti and they earn very little money when a job is available. People are paid an insubstantial wage, live in shantytowns, and often times go to bed with their stomachs distended from a voracious and unforgiving hunger. In The Norton Mix Introduction to Literature, Danticat shows these significant consequences of the Revolution by stating that when it got really bad for the family, they would boil ground sugar cane so that it would get rid of the hunger pangs that often tormented the children of the poor (p. 229).
Creoles struggle loyalty to their motherland and birth country. In Document A Simon Bolivar stated that creoles are in a complicated situation. They are trying to decide which side they should support. In Document B it showed how unfair creoles were treated even though by blood, peninsulares and creoles are the same. The creoles had a lot less power and worst jobs. The
John Soluri’s book, Banana Cultures, examines the production of bananas in the world market, “interactions among diverse and often divided people, not-so-diverse banana plants, and persistent yet unpredictable pathogen’s that formed and reformed tropical landscapes and livelihoods in export banana zones” (Soluri 5). Soluri talks about the historical entanglement of the Panama and Sigatoka pathogens and the export of bananas cultivation through agro-ecology. While the fungal pathogens infected Latin America, the Gros Michel banana invaded the United States. This stirred up debates over taxes, introducing new forms of dance and providing food for the population. The pathogens destroyed livelihood and earth soils affecting the exports of the bananas
Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.
The Americans were losing patience over the whole Cuban affair because Spain cut shipping and economic interests from Cuba. Americans wanted the economic situation resolved so they could get back to the economic fortunes they were used to; therefore, the worsening economy was one of the main causes of the War of 1898. When the United States finally denounced the dominance of the Spanish government in Cuba, Spain cut its economic ties with the United States. Trade for the United States was impacted greatly. Due to the sharp drop of sugar prices that took place from early 1884, the old Cuban “sugar nobility,” unable to mechanize and cut costs, began to disintegrate and lose its dominant role in the island’s economy and society (Hernandez). This facilitated the United States’ penetration of the Cuban economy, and the United States took over sugar estates and mining interests. It was American machinery, technicians, and capital that helped save the Cuban sugar mills.
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, “the only source of food for people living in the city,” are preparing the food they sell. “The Jungle” describes the terrible
A symbol in The Secret Life of Bees is the queen bee, one is found in all hives especially the Caribbean Pink Hive in Tiburon, South Carolina. The queen bee refers to a mated female that lives in the hive; she is usually a mother to most if not all the bees in the beehive. This symbol represents not just the bees hives that the Boatwrights work with, but also August Boatwright herself. The queen bee is a mother to all the bees in the hive just as August is for Lily, Rosaleen, June, and May, sometimes the mother you are born to is not truly meant to be your mother.
I have never had a brother, but if I did, would I look up to him or would he look up to me? This question comes to mind when I read James Hurst's "The Scarlet Ibis," Hurst's short story is realistic fiction, but it seems as if it's non-fiction. "The Scarlet Ibis" is about a boy and his crippled younger brother. Brother wants a younger brother, but when Doodle turns out to be crippled, he tries to teach him how to walk, swim, run, and fight out of his own selfishness. Along the way, both Brother and Doodle feel may conflicting emotions. In the end, these conflicting emotions lead to the unfortunate death of Doodle. Hurst uses symbolism to reveal the conflicting emotions of both Brother and Doodle.
During the second half of the twentieth century, when the Cold War was on its midst, the United States played an important role in world affairs. The increasing military power that the United States had during the Cold War, allowed it to influence the political decisions that many countries had during this time. The United States directly opposed the idea of communism, which the Soviet Union promoted. This conflict between this two great powers, lasted for five decades, and it tremendously affected the political ideologies of the world. Both countries tried to push their political and economic interest to as many nations as they could, especially those close to their borders. During this time, Guatemala was undergoing a social revolution with communist ideas. The revolution happened as a response to the social injustice committed by the United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company started to lose land, due to a land reform passed b...
The Jungle brought about great change in the American meatpacking industry. Upton Sinclair opened up the eyes of people all over America. His novel became a classic muckraking story that started the reformation of meat in America. Without Sinclair, those horribles things that were going in the packing houses would still be happening. Though Sinclair did not originally intend for all this to happen, the people of America should be grateful to the change his book brought
While there are many examples from which to drawn, Enloe’s discussion of the banana and agricultural production in Latin America and beyond, highlights the particular way in which the production of bananas has been gendered as male, while the consumption (particularly that of US-American) is primarily construed as female. For one there is the way in which bananas are marketed as inherently for responsible female mothers in places like the United States, who feel the need to provide certain foods deemed nutritional Enloe 1990, PG). As the consumer is female, so too is the gendered construction of the actual object of the banana: the banana becomes marketed and emblemized through American understanding of the highly sexualized and exotic Latina (Enloe 128-130). On the flip side, Enloe argues that larger historical and political work has construed the production and packaging of bananas as inherently male-lead (Enloe 128 ). In Latin America, Central America, the Carribean and the Phillipeans where bananas are largely produced, not only were men doing most of the business negations but male workers are seen as the fittest for the grueling physical job (Enloe 128). In reality, however, we come to see the invisible work of women, so that women are the backbone of many agricultural labor forces. Increasingly they too are doing actual physical work of weeding and preparing bananas (Enloe 136-139), but they also do a plethora of other “work” that made banana planation’s so functional and profitable, often working in brothers and as substitute wives and housekeepers (Enloe 140-142). It should be noted that in the sex work, they are seen as tangential and not directly related to the work of men in the field. In addition, when
Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a story about a band of patients in a mental ward who struggle to find their identity and get away from the wretched Nurse. As audiences read about the tale, many common events and items seen throughout the story actually represent symbols for the bigger themes of the story. Symbols like the fishing trip, Nurse, and electroshock therapy all emphasize the bigger themes of the story.
However, this does not necessarily mean colonizing Latin America, but rather having it allied and influenced by the United States' mentality and agenda. The book describes the tactics used by the United States to align these countries' policies and politics with its own. The book effectively portrays the role of the United States in the political affairs of Latin American countries. Higgins examines the Eisenhower administration's invasion of Guatemala, which resulted in a revolt to remove the leftist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. The Arbenz administration posed a threat to the dominance of American companies in Guatemala, particularly the United Fruit Company.
This is a prime example of perception and cultural assumption. Varying cultures may view the banana as a different color, such as, green,