Kobbi Gal

EN 102
12/3/11
Essay B1
Chasing Material

How many books ever written contain two characters possessing the extremes human nature

offers? That is also the case in the play Anna in the Tropics, written by Cuban author Nilo Cruz. The play

presents to us two characters holding completely different perspectives on life. On the one hand

Cheche, a 40-year-old ruthless businessman trying to take over his half-brother’s share of a cigar rolling

factory. On the other hand Marela, the 22-year-old daughter of Ofelia and Santiago, Cheche’s half-

brother. Cheche represents the cruel, materialistic world, but he also represents reality. Marela,

completely on the contrary, embodies the naïve, represents mysticism and symbolizes imagination.

Critics of the play would say that Cruz created these two characters just because two poles make the

whole story much more interesting, watching two counterparts battle to split the audiences’ consensus

about what is wrong and what is right. It does make it more interesting and complex, but there are more

reasons for their creation. Paired with the consequences of the ending, Cruz demonstrates how the

cruel reality inevitably triumphs, and art is decayed, creating these two extremes to show that no matter

how creative an imagination, feet will always stay on the ground. Another reason for this particular

design of the characters is to reveal the death of art and the birth of industrialization. The ground

including both these characters’ representation should be humanity’s aspirations, a balance between

the spiritual and physical.

When the word “materialism” comes into mind, greed and self-indulgence are applied. The

word has a negative connotation. In the opening scene of the play, during a cockfight where Santiago

and Cheche are present, there is a situation where Cheche comes out with revenue. Both Cheche and

Santiago are gambling, but Santiago keeps on losing the bets and compulsively betting more, while

Cheche wins and knows his limitations. Eventually Santiago runs out of money, piteously pleading

Cheche for more money to gamble. Cheche initially rejects his brother’s requests, understanding that it
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is just money involved and his brother is too drunk to comprehend his loses. But when Santiago

proposes to give Cheche another fraction of the factory, Cheche removes his shoe with hesitation (Cruz,

16). Cheche, taking advantage of the situation, sees a clear business opportunity, for his main goal in

the play is to take over the big share of the family-run factory. The scenery itself, the ruthless and

inhumane setting of a cockfight, symbolizes the cruel outside world, where Cheche obviously feels

comfortable in, even coming out with a large profit, in the form of a bigger share in the factory. Cheche’s

materialistic nature results in expansion, while Santiago, who’s more similar to Marela in his nature,

results in contraction.

There is an analogy present between the characters in Anna in the Tropics and Robert M. Pirsig’s

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, linking directly to the core of the two extremes discussed.

The theme of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is two life perspectives, not surprisingly,

introduced by two differently opinionated characters in the book. The narrator represents the “classical”

approach, characterized by detailed knowledge of his old motorcycle (symbolizing life), showing

extreme care, understanding and maintenance of it. The “classical” approach suits the perspectives

Cheche holds, hands-on and ambitious in expanding the factory, ignoring all traditions and quality, but

understanding productivity leads to expansion. In one instance, Cheche tries to convince the workers of

the factory that the machines he intends to bring will apply “Modernity. Progress. Advancement” (50).

The workers reject his planned revolution. The “romantic” approach, held by the narrator’s companion

on his motorcycling trip, John Sutherland, portrays a more relaxed approach, letting fate decide what

will happen with his brand new motorcycle, relying on mechanics along their journey for maintenance.

This approach is comparable to Marela’s approach to life. Marela represents spirituality and mysticism,

relying on the intuitive rather than the factual and tangible. In one of many superstitious acts, Marela

tells her mother that she “wrote the lector’s name on a piece of paper and placed it in a glass of water
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with brown sugar and cinnamon” (14). She believes that the ritual would “sweeten his fate” (15). The

“classical” approach is what the world has turned into, while the “romantic” has been swallowed by an

industrialized monster in the form of machines.

Corruption is an unfortunate symptom of the capitalist, material world. Many

occurrences of white-collar crimes are depicted, almost daily, in newspapers. I feel these shameful

stories should get their own section in the periodicals, because of the fact that they are so frequent. it is

logical to assume that with a material perspective on life comes the side effect of moral corruption. One

who is obsessed with the tangible luxuries ignores ethics and morality when faced with possibilities of

expansion and gain of power. The same person is also ignorant assessing the strength and importance of

art. Obviously the model is Cheche. Cheche’s evidence of corruption makes a continuous appearance in

the play. The first example occurs when in scene three Palomo asks Juan Julian what happens in the end

of the book Anna Karenina when Cheche suddenly barges in stating that “ I would’ve killed the bastard a

long time ago” (67). Cheche shows disrespect towards art in the form of literature, towards the lecturer

and epitomes corruption by stating the most violent of acts on society, murder. The declaration

becomes fact when he eventually murders Juan Julian (82), perhaps as vengeance for his wife running

away with a lecturer or because Juan Julian humiliated him in front of his workers (52-53). Although not

indicated clearly, Cheche is implied to have raped Marela (78), another very strong act exemplifying his

moral corruption. After all these destructive acts of violence and crime, the text does not indicate

Cheche is punished for his actions, but ironically, the characters presented as morally good (Juan Julian

and Marela) have been slaughtered and sexually assaulted, respectively.

On the opposite side of the spectrum lies innocence, in this play, exemplifies by Marela.

Innocences’ roots come from lack of experience in the material world, living in a bubble or a lucid

dream. It is unclear whether Marela’s life’s experiences are parallel to the one described above, as there
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is no elaboration on her childhood. But by simply reading the text, one can identify and name many

features of innocence in Marela’s speech. The boldest example of Marela’s immaturity and naiveness

occurs when she awaits Juan Julian’s disembarkment together with her mother and Conchita. As they

nervously anticipate Juan Julian’s figure, Marela’s takes the word “nervously” to a whole new level.

When Juan Julian finally meets the women, “We hear Marela pee on herself from nervousness” (18).

This is an exaggeration made purposefully by Cruz to demonstrate how innocent Marela is. What 22-

year-old would pee herself from excitement if not the most innocent one? In scene three act two, during

the celebration of the new cigar brand, Marela stands with her mother and father as they are little

drunk. Santiago offers Ofelia to leave, but she responds, “Bah, you just want to take advantage of me

because I’m drunk” (75). The next line Marela, embarrassed, shouts at her mother. If the play would be

visually seen, I bet we would see Marela’s cheek blush up. Hearing her parents indirectly talk about sex

makes her feel uncomfortable, as any 22-year-old that would have heard such a thing would probably

have a more relaxed response. Marela’s innocence is awkwardly taken away by the embodiment of

corruption, Cheche, when he rapes her. Again, corruption goes unharmed.

In the modern world, society splits into two major classes: the ones believing and

consequently better with crafts of imagination. These are the spiritually superior; the ones having wild

imaginations, the ones compassionate about quality, simply put, the artists. On the opposite side stand

out the people better at mathematics, who might be judged as having a shallow reality, but are very

practical. These are the ruthless businessmen, the government representatives, the ones basically ruling

our world. In the play, it is clearly understood what character represents what perspective. Cruz staged

these characters together purposely in the year he did (1929) to make evident the transformation of our

society, from a cultural and traditional one, to a practical and merciless reality. He used traditional

Cuban immigrants, who care most about the quality of their cigars to represent the old perception and a
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half-American jefe to represent the necessary change to modernity. Modernism has digested culture,

just look at what culture values in this day and age.