Explosion in a Cathedral: Analysis of Setting
"Explosion in a Cathedral: Analysis of Setting" explores the multifaceted environments that frame the lives of three orphaned siblings—Carlos, Esteban, and Sofia—who navigate the complexities of their colonial heritage and contemporary realities. The story begins in Havana, where the siblings reside in a home filled with European luxuries that are rapidly deteriorating due to the city's oppressive heat and humidity, symbolizing the disconnect between colonial ambitions and the realities of life in the New World. Their initial excitement over material wealth soon gives way to a sense of futility, prompting them to seek guidance from Victor Hugues, a Haitian merchant who represents a bridge to a more grounded understanding of their identity and heritage.
As the siblings move through their transformed living space, the narrative highlights the rich textures of colonial commerce, contrasting Havana's bustling trade with the chaotic political landscape of Paris during the French Revolution. The story extends to Guadeloupe and Cayenne, where the impact of revolutionary fervor brings destruction and authoritarianism, raising questions about the applicability of European solutions to colonial issues. Ultimately, the journey concludes in Madrid, underscoring the irony that no place offers true refuge from the unpredictable tides of change. This analysis of setting reveals not only the physical spaces inhabited by the characters but also the broader themes of cultural dislocation and the burdens of inherited legacies in a rapidly evolving world.
Explosion in a Cathedral: Analysis of Setting
First published:El siglo de las luces, 1962 (English translation, 1963)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: 1789-1809
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
Home of Carlos, Esteban, and Sofia
Home of Carlos, Esteban, and Sofia. Havana residence of the three orphaned young-adult members of a prominent, although never named, merchant family. Both the dwelling and the offspring have been neglected by the late father, and in her new role as female head of the household, Sofia decides to refurnish the home completely. The result is a material avalanche of furniture, crockery, books, and musical instruments that turns their living quarters into a labyrinth of stacked packing cases and narrow passageways. Carlos, Esteban, and Sofia move among these as if gingerly exploring a strange new world, while delighting in their random encounters with this profusion of worldly goods.
The bizarre manner in which these mostly European objects are treated, and in particular the many descriptions of how Havana’s heat and humidity lead to the rapid deterioration of the new furnishings, exemplifies the novel’s related theme of the breakdown of meaningful communication between Europe and its New World colonies. Although Carlos, Esteban, and Maria are initially delighted with the imported luxuries that their colonial wealth enables them to buy, they soon tire of this essentially meaningless pastime, and welcome the help of the Haitian merchant Victor Hugues in restoring their family’s place in the world. Subsequent plot developments will provide many additional examples of colonial frustration with an inappropriate imperial heritage, and the novel’s graphic portrayal of Old World materials literally destroyed by New World conditions makes this point with telling immediacy.
*Havana
*Havana. Capital of colonial Cuba and bustling commercial center where the novel begins. Business activity, and particularly the exchange of raw materials for manufactured objects, is a major component of the novel’s colonial settings. The novel’s characteristic delight in material profusion is here demonstrated by an exhaustive inventory of the family firm’s warehouse that seems to revel in its mounds of salted fish, spices, grains, and many other articles of commerce.
*Paris
*Paris. Capital of France and center of the French Revolution. Here Esteban and his political mentor Victor, a Haitian businessman turned revolutionary activist, participate in a tumultuous world that sees one day’s dictator become the next day’s victim of the guillotine. The novel stresses the apparent randomness of these events, while visualizing them on a cinematic screen across which surging crowds and impassioned public meetings struggle for dominance.
*Guadeloupe
*Guadeloupe. French-ruled Caribbean island to which Victor is sent as governor, taking Esteban as his chief clerk. Protracted warfare between the incoming revolutionary officials and the old colonial regime, during which Guadeloupe’s capital city is largely destroyed, leads Victor to introduce the guillotine and other aspects of the Parisian terror as a means of defeating his opponents. Although Victor eventually succeeds in establishing his control, the death and destruction that have resulted suggest that European revolutionary methods may not be the best solution to colonial problems.
*Cayenne
*Cayenne (ki-EN). Capital of French Guiana on the northeastern coast of the South American mainland. Esteban stops there on his return journey to Havana and is shocked by an authoritarian government that has established its own reign of terror on the Parisian model. Victor is subsequently appointed the colony’s new governor and is forced to implement reactionary French laws that reinstitute slavery and negate the positive accomplishments of the Revolution. When many of the local subjects revolt and flee into the jungle regions inland, their defeat of the military expeditions sent against them again indicates that European practices are not necessarily effective outside their place of origin.
*Madrid
*Madrid. Spanish capital where Esteban and Sofia spend their final days. Initially depicted as a haven from the instability of Caribbean and French societies, the murder of Sofia and Esteban in a riot makes the ironic point that there are no safe havens in a world where change is both inevitable and unpredictable.
Bibliography
Gikandi, Simon. Writing in Limbo. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992. This insightful work discusses the work of Carpentier in the context of twentieth century modernism and Caribbean literature.
Gilkes, Michael. The West Indian Novel. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Carpentier’s work is discussed in the larger context of the historical and cultural environment of West Indian literature. Contains a chronology and bibliography.
Gonzalez Echevarria, Roberto. Alejo Carpentier: The Pilgrim at Home. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977. Asserts that the core of Carpentier’s fiction lies in the dilemma of what constitutes American history and how to narrate it. Includes a bibliography.
King, Bruce, ed. West Indian Literature. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1979. Excellent overview of the major figures of West Indian literature. Compares and contrasts Carpentier’s work with that of other prominent novelists. Contains a bibliography.
Webb, Barbara J. Myth and History in Caribbean Fiction. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. This excellent work examines the use of myth and history in the works of Alejo Carpentier, Wilson Harris, and Edouard Glissant. Contains an extensive bibliography.