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John Christmann History 116 Dr. Lary October 13th, 2013 Comparative Book Review

There is a common theme between the books Bananas! and Fathers and Sons. These two books form quite the odd pair for a literary analysis. Regardless, there is an interesting common theme with an interesting contrast as well. Before getting right into laying out a schema that can be applied to both books to draw out the common structural theme, need to describe exactly what it is that is being looked for. The common theme that will be described is what is dubbed the lord-serf mentality. This mentality is cross-ideological; it can be instantiated by various ideologies A common example of this phenomenon is racism. Racism can be actualized by various ideologies; different regimes that can be described as fascist or communist were all capable of displaying racist mentalities. Racism is not a structural feature particular to any single ideology. Fascists, conservatives, liberals, communists, and anarchists can all display racist mentalities; this is exactly what is claimed for the lord-serf mentality. Now to lay out the general structure that will subsequently be explored. Call a situation where one group of people exercises some level of power rooted in authority over a different and distinct group of people such that no member from the ruling group is also a member of the ruled group a lord-serf scenario. In a lord-serf scenario, one group of people is called the lords and a different and distinct group is called the serfs. The mentality displayed by both groups is called a lord-serf mentality. The lord groups mentality is from the perspectival-value-set of the lord side of the mentality, and the serf groups mentality is from the perspectival-value-set of the serf side. Perspectival-value-set being the set of values held by those of the perspective of one of the aforementioned groups. Two discrete historical situations can both display a lord-serf structure, regardless of the scope or pedigree of the authority that enables and legitimizes the

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lords to rule over the serfs. The lord-serf structure is exhibited in both Bananas! and Fathers and Sons, and this structure will be drawn out while contrasting the different authoritative power structures which legitimize and enable the lord-serf mentality among the players and characters in each book. Power generally is the overcoming of desires held by a group through some form of coercion such that the set of desires held by the serf group is not the set which any member would hold in a situation where the lords do not rule over them. In both books, there is a ruling group (lords), exercising power over serfs, and that power is enabled by a level of authority had by the lords and assented to in some way by the serfs. In the book Fathers and Sons, the lords are the Russian aristocratic families, the serfs are the landed peasants, and the power is rooted in authority founded on and grounded in historic cultural traditions. The power is the ownership of land which the peasants were bound to. Those who owned the land and equipment used by the peasants were the aristocrats. The peasants in this book were on the cusp of a revolution which would ultimately delegitimize the historic tradition and authority, which would start by the aristocrats slowly loosening their grip on the peasants (Turgenev 9, 12). In Bananas! the same abstract structure is instantiated by the relation held between the paid laborers on the banana farms, and United Fruit (the owners of those farms). The entire workforce was forced to live on company property, had no say over their conditions, and had to buy things from the company store (Chapman 77). In Fathers and Sons, Nikolai Kirasnov was a landowner (lord) whose land had a set of peasants (serfs) bound to it. The serfs were under the authority of the owner of the land that they were bound to, and the authority was essentially grounded in tradition. Bazarov, on the other hand, was a nihilist and anti-traditionalist who the serfs viewed as no master and one of them (Turgenev 51). Bazarov may have been representative of the new wave that was crashing ashore to destroy the existing, legitimizing, traditions of the landed serf-owner dichotomy, and erect in its place the ideals of Western liberalism. However, he is clearly

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opposed to Western liberalism as well (Turgenev 57). Regardless, he is still representative of a movement in Russia that was opposed to the extant legitimizing traditions, and that is enough to smash the lord-serf structure. In Bananas! such a character wont be found. The closest comparison may be Colonel Arbenz and Jose Figueres. However, both of them were representative of liberalism to some degree, and were not nihilists (Chapman 122-3). In Bananas! the lords were those who ran United Fruit, and the serfs were the workers who performed the manual labor in the banana fields. The serfs were treated poorly by United Fruit, and essentially were landed and bound to the areas owned by the company if they wanted to work for them, and were forced to purchase essential goods from company owned stores by using a company scrip (Chapman 77). There were, among the workers on United Fruits banana fields, incipient revolutionaries (Chapman 82) out to overthrow the existing authority that legitimized the power exercised over the workers by the company. So, like in Fathers and Sons there was also an anti-authoritarian movement among the serfs present in Bananas! (Chapman 81-3). However, unlike Russia in Fathers and Sons, reform would not be the result of such a movement. United Fruit was known to call in local militaries to quell any riots caused by unruly serfs and even went so far as full on massacres (Chapman 89, 91). In Fathers and Sons, the serfs are in the midst of reform on the part of the lords (Turgenev 12). This is at a time in Russia when the peasantry is being given land of their own, albeit not very good land. Both Nikolai and his brother are in favor of reform, although Pavel may just be a liberal to emulate the French, who Russian aristocrats really enjoyed imitating (Turgenev 56). Russian aristocrats adopted liberal ideals from France, and even went so far as speaking French to each other to prove how chic they were. Compare this to the workers for United Fruit. The reform gestured at in Russia is at least genuine, although in the end it wont go well for Russians until the fall of communism. So, in Bananas! the serfs are ruled by the lords (United Fruit), and the power over

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the workers is legitimized by implicit capitalist ideals that allowed the company to pay its workers how it wanted to, and dictate the work conditions under the auspice of the workers having the freedom to quit as they wish. The structure of power is not in the midst of being overturned like in Turgenevs novel. United Fruit, arguably, is but one facet of a larger machine that is unfettered globalist capitalism. The multinational character of these companies allows for the ideas to stick around by jumping from country to country just in case a previous country wised up and passed some labor laws. The company isnt rooted in one country, so there is no set tradition it is beholden to that dictates its ideology. Unlike Fathers and Sons, which is in one country under one set of traditions, United Fruit could move around if one country changed its traditions or laws or withdrew some sweetheart deals that previously enticed United Fruit to do business in that country to begin with. In Fathers and Sons, the lords were the Russian land owners who inherited the serfs, the peasants bound to the land. Their power was rooted in traditional authority which was in the process of slowly being delegitimized and ultimately replaced by a form of Marxism that itself eventually became nothing like Marxism, and culminated in the rule of Josef Stalin. It is arguable that the structure is still preserved in the multinational character of companies like United Fruit who can still move into developing countries and exploit a needy work force and loose to nonexistent labor laws. So, there is a common structural theme present in both Fathers and Sons and Bananas!. While that theme is common, there are some differences, as has been pointed out above. The means of legitimation for the peasants in Fathers and Sons is largely traditional and is being slowly eroded by a shift in ideology. The means of legitimation in Bananas! is essentially rooted in an extreme capitalist ideology, and is arguably still going strong in the form of large multinational corporations.

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Work Cited Chapman, Peter. Bananas How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World. Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate Books Ltd., 2007. Print. Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons. New York, New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2005. Print.

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