“United Fruit Company” By Pablo Nerudo

The United Fruit Company was an American Corporation that traded tropical fruits grown in the third world Latin American countries and sold in the United States and Europe. As you go through the lines of the poem you will sense that there’s a political and economical struggle. The literary theory that best suit to this poem is Marxism since it tackles about the clash of inferior (lower class) toward the superior (upper class)

            The structures of the poem are: (1) it doesn’t follow specific measures in terms of number of syllables; (2) there’s no rhyme scheme; (3) free verse. It doesn’t follow certain pattern such as aa aa or ab ab. In addition, the author uses different typical cipher in the poem such as Coca-cola Anaconda(mining com), Ford motors, which are all symbol of American industry and powerful corporation; and another one is flies – which represents something infuriating. He also uses metaphors and similes. Another one is imagery and symbols like for example repetition. On the case of the word flies, it is repeated 11 times in 10 lines. The repetition of the word gives the readers an idea of the repetition of the workers of the company. Furthermore, the repetition of flies lead to the visualizing something dead, which is presented later in the poem. The tone of the poem is Ironic and cynical, while its theme is political manifesto.