<div id="jnf-middletres">
<div id="jnf-content">
<div id="body-page"> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="body" -->
<h1 class="center"><span class="center"><em>Under the Volcano</em> Study Guide</span></h1>
<h2 class="center">Chapter 4 </h2>
<table width="90%" border="1" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th width="7%" valign="top" scope="col"><div align="center"> Page</div></th>
<th width="93%" scope="col">Reference</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><div align="center">97</div></td>
<td><em>intelube</em><br>
<br>
"Significanse of "interlube" has passed from my mind" (Lowry in letter to Albert Erskine from 1946). </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><div align="center">97</div></td>
<td><em>see tee emma<br>
</em> <br>
C.T.M. (Confederation de Trabajadores Mexicanos), the "mexworkers confederation" </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><div align="center">98</div></td>
<td>on the Ebro they were retreating<br>
<br>
The first of many references in this chapter to the Spanish Civil War raging at the time. The references are correlatvies of Hugh's guilt at having betrayed the Consul by becoming Yvonne's lover. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><div align="center">98</div></td>
<td>Bill Hodson<br>
<br>
Hugh is dressed like a Cowboy. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">99</td>
<td>the new message from Garcia<br>
<br>
A reference to a celebtrated event in the Spanish-American war, 1898, when lieutenant Rowan carried a message from President McKinly to General Garcia, leader of the Cuban guerillas fighting against the Spaniards. See also the popular essay, "A Message to Garcia", by Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915). <em>Messsage to Garcia</em>, an American film based on the episode, appeared in 1936. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">101</td>
<td>England long asleep<br>
<br>
A political reference to England's failure to intervene in the Spanish Civil War. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">102</td>
<td>in time for Munich<br>
<br>
i.e., the Munich agreement of September 30, 1938 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">103</td>
<td>Malebolge<br>
<br>
The name given by Dante to his eighth circle in Hell, consisting of ten circular trenches, designated <em>bolge</em>. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">103</td>
<td>Bernal Diaz<br>
<br>
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the <em>conquistadores</em> with Cortes and author of a classic account of the Conquest,<em> Historic Verdadera de la Conquista de la Neuva-Espana</em>, Madrid, 1632, English translation by A.P. Maudsley, <em>The True History of the Conquest of New Spain</em>, London 1908-16. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">103</td>
<td>Prescott<br>
<br>
William H. Prescott, author of the <em>History of the Conquest of Mexico </em>(1843). This is Prescott's description of the episode Hugh is referring to: "On the ninth day of their march, the troops arrived before the strong city of Quauhnahuac, or Cuernavaca, as since called by the Spaniards. ... The town was singularly situated, on a projecting piece of land, encompassed by barrranacas, or formidable ravines, except on one side, which opened on a rich and well cultivated country... The Spaniards, on arriving before this city ... found themselves separated from it by one of the vast barrancas before noticed, which resembled one of those frightful rents not unfrequent in the Mexican Andes, the result, no doubt, of some terrible convulsion in earlier ages. The rocky sides of the ravine sunk perpendicularly down, and so bare as scarely to exhibit even a vestige of the cactus ... The bottom of the chasm, however, showed a striking contrast to this, being literally choked up with a rich and spontaneous vegetation; for the huge walls of rock, which shut in those barrancas, while they screen them from the cold winds of the Cordilleras, reflect the rays of the vertical sun, so as to produce an almost suffocating heat in the enclosure, stimulating the soil to rank fertility of the <em>tierra calente</em> ... At the bottom of the ravine was seen a little stream ... This rivulat, which at certain seasons of the year was swollen to a torrent, was traversed, at some distance below the town, where the sloping sides of the barranca afforded a more practicable passage, by two rude bridges, both of which had been broken, in anticipation of the coming of the Spaniards ... The general, annoyed by his position, sent a detachment to seek a passage lower down, by which the troops might be landed on the other side. But, although the banks of the ravine became less fomidable as they descended, they found no means of crossing the river, till a path unexpectedly presented itself, on which, probabaly, no one before had ever been daring enough to venture. From the cliffs on the opposite side of the barrranca, two huge trees shot up to an enormous height, and, inclining towards each other, interlaced their boughts so as to form a sort of natural bridge. Across theis avenue, in mid air, a Tlascalan conceived it would not be difficult to pass to the oppposite bank. The bold mountaineer succeeded in the attempt, and was soon followed by serveral others of his countrymen ... The Spaniards imitated their example. It was a perilous effort for an armed man to make his way over this aerial causeway ... where a single false movement of hand or foot would plunge him in the abyss below ... [Note: The stout-hearted Diaz was one of those who performed this dangerous feat, though his head swam so, as he tells us, that he scarcely knew how he got on.] ... [The enemy] made such a brave resistance, however, when fortunately the Spaniards succeeded in repariing one of the dilapidated bridges in such a manner as to enable both cavalry and foot to cross the river". (pages 194-196).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">104</td>
<td>Spengler<br>
<br>
Oswald Spengler (1880 - 1936), author of <em>Der Untergang des Abendlandes </em>(1918 - 22), (<em>Decline of the West</em>, 1932). The passage alluded to is in Vol. I ('Form and Actuality'): "[Diatribe] appears as the Indian preaching, the Classical rhetoric, and the Western journalism. It appeals not to the best but to the most, and it values its means according to the thoughtfulness of intellectual male-prostitution by speech and writing, which fills and dominates the halls and market-places of the megalopolis" (p. 360). </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">104</td>
<td>dog named Harpo<br>
<br>
i.e., Harpo Marx (of the Marx Brothers) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">105</td>
<td>a sort of 'freezing' of culture: <br>
<br>
"It is during such a 'freezing' that Spengler sees the rise of the totalitarianism and/or colonialism amid spiritual decay" (David Markson) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">105</td>
<td>Brihuega:<br>
<br>
Town in Spain, NE of Madrid, near Guadalajra. In March 1937 the International Brigades (the 'Internationals') won an important victory here over the Nationals. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">106</td>
<td>Chamberlain ... Ebro offensive:<br>
<br>
The Ebro offensive began in July 1938. It was the last desperate effort by the Republicans. Chamberlain met Hitler at Godesberg on 22 Sept. 1938. Hugh confuses the meeting at Godesberg with the Munich meeting on 30 Sept.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">107</td>
<td>Potato Firmin:<br>
<br>
A reference to "Potato Jones", Captain D.J. Jones. In 1937, with his steamer <em>Marie Llewellyn</em> loaded with potatoes, he tried to run General Franco's blockade off Spain, but was prevented by a Briish warship. Since 'potato' is 'papa' in Spanish, and since 'papa' is also with word for Eng. 'pope', and since the Consul is associated with the (dying) Pope on a couple of occasions, 'Potato Firmin' reminds us (somewhat deviously) that Hugh is the Consul's 'other' self. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">107</td>
<td>the paths of glory ... grave<br>
<br>
From Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">109</td>
<td>guapa ... hermosa<br>
<br>
(Span.) 'charming', 'beautiful'</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">111</td>
<td>Ejido:<br>
<br>
"The ejido, a tract of common land for a village, had been a Mexican institution since pre-Cortesian days, but the institution often was abused or ignored altogether. Cardenas breathed new life into the ejido concept. The money for financing the operation of the new ejido concept was administrered through the <em>Natiuonal Bank of Ejido Credit</em>" (DE) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">111</td>
<td><em>Viva el Cristo Rey</em>:<br>
<br>
Rallying cry of the Cristeros, who were militant Catholics opposed to President Cardenas's social reforms. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">111</td>
<td>Juarez:<br>
<br>
Benito Juarez (1806 - 1872), President of Mexico 1861-63, 1867-71, i.e. before and after Emperor Maximilian. He is regarded as national hero. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">111</td>
<td>the Yaquiis, the Papagos, the Tomasachics:<br>
<br>
Indian tribes in Northern Mexico </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">112</td>
<td>rurales:<br>
<br>
The hated rural police of Porfirio Diaz. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">112</td>
<td>jefes politicos:<br>
<br>
Representatives of the Diaz regime whose function was to control political activity at town and village level.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">112</td>
<td>ceaselessly struggle upward:<br>
<br>
Motto of Goethe's <em>Faust</em>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">112</td>
<td>life ... a warfare<br>
<br>
From Marcus Aurelius </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">112</td>
<td>Cristoferus<br>
<br>
St. Christopher </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">113</td>
<td><em>La Sepultura</em><br>
<br>
(Span.) 'The Grave' (also appears later) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">114</td>
<td><em>Cimarron</em>:<br>
<br>
American western (1931) from a novel by Edna Ferber (1929) about pioneer life in Oklahoma. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">114</td>
<td><em>Gold Diggers of 1930</em>.<br>
<br>
A series of "Gold Digger' films (1929, 1933, 1935, 1937) was based on a Broadway play about a group of girls in search of rich hsubands. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">114</td>
<td>Madrugada<br>
<br>
(Span.) 'dawn'. "The hour before the dawn, the last hours of the condemned" (DG)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">114</td>
<td>what is that to us, see thou to that, the bastardos had said:<br>
<br>
i.e. the chief preiests and elders, see Matthew, XXV, 14-15 and XXVII, 3-5. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">115</td>
<td>Be Mexico<br>
<br>
A reference to the national coat of arms of Mexico, which shows an eagle sitting on a nopal (a cactus) holding a snake in one foot. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">116</td>
<td>muchacha<br>
<br>
(Span.) 'girl' </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">117</td>
<td>Cuanto?<br>
<br>
(Span.) 'How much?'</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">117</td>
<td>General Winfield Scott<br>
<br>
American general (1786 - 1866). Hero of the Mexican-American war, 1847. Outflanked Santa Anna who was holding the strongly fortified pass at Cerro Gordo. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">117</td>
<td>W.H. Hudson<br>
<br>
(1841 - 1922) Author of several books on natural history. The story of the armadillo is related in <em>Far Away and Long Ago</em>, London, 1925: "One day I was standing on the mound at the side of the moat or fosse some forty yards from where the men were at work, when an armadillo bolted from his earth and running to the very spot where I was standing began vigorously digging to escape by burying himself in the soil. Neither men nor dogs had seen him, and I at once determined to capture him unaided by any one and imagined it would prove a very easy task. Accordingly I laid hold of his black bone-cased tail with both hands and began tugging to get him off the ground, but couldn't move him. He went on digging furiously, getting deeper and deeper into the earth, and I soon found that instead of my pulling him out he was pulling me in after him. It hurt my small-boy pride to think that an animal no bigger than a cat was going to beat me in a trial of strength, and this made me hold on more tenaciously than ever and tug and strain more violently, until not to lose him I had to go flat down on the ground. But it was all for nothing: first my hands, then my aching arms were carried down into the earth, and I was forced to release my hold and get up to rid myself othe mould he had been throwing up into my face and all over my head, neck, and shoulder".<br>
The armadillo's determination to disappear into the ground is as absolute as the Consul's persuit of self-destruction. If their purposes are crossed, both will pull another person with them. Hugh's first question after the armadillo episode ("do you mind if I ask you straight out if you are divorced from Geoff or not?") could indicate that, unlike Yvonne, Hugh is aware of the risk involved in attempting to rescue the Consul. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">125</td>
<td>the Mac-Paps:<br>
<br>
Nickname for the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a Canadian unit in the International Bridages in Spain during the Civil War. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">125</td>
<td>Joe Venuti<br>
<br>
Jazz Violinist (1904 - 1978). One of (the younger) Lowry's favourite musicians. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="center"> </p>
<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></div>
</div>
</div>