the united fruit co.

Close Reading #2 of “The United Fruit Co.” by Pablo Neruda


When the trumpet sounded, it was
all prepared on the earth,

The whole poem is about the author observing the people in South America, and so far what he sees is people preparing to go to work.

and Jehovah parceled out the earth
to Coca-Cola, inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other entities:
The Fruit Company, Inc.

The key words here are “Coca-Cola, inc.”, “Ford Motors” both of these are reference to U.S. So what the author is explaining is that all the workers in the fields are working for the U.S. The Fruit Co. The actual situation here is that United Sates is taking over the Company of South America.

Reserved for it self the most succulent,
The central coast of my own land,
the delicate waste of America.

While the author is observing the people of South America working he is thinking of how America is selfish and always tries to overtake all the goods and put other...