Symbolism In Cuban Poetry

Cuban Literature At first glance, Cuban literature may seem edgy or even quirky with its selection of settings and objects, but upon analyzing deeper, it is clear that Cuban poetry and literature is depressing and distressing, Themes of oppression and immigration surge through the literature of the region, developed by other literary devices, but why? Cuba, under the rule of Fidel Castro, is a downcast nation. The influence of the dictatorship is clear in Cuban poetry through theme, diction, symbolism, and personification.
Themes prevalent in Cuban literature are often negative and doleful. Themes of self-depreciation and failure are conventionally used in Cuban poetry. For example, in the Cuban poem, “Man on the Edge” by Herberto Padilla, …show more content…
One instance of this technique is used in “A Fountain, a House of Stone” by Herberto Padilla, in which the world is symbolizing Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba. In this poem, the world is described in a negative connotation throughout. “Can we describe the world this way,/...nailing us down with its eyes,/hunting down in our innards” (Padilla 308). The personification used by Padilla amplifies the anger and the quality of the symbolism in the poem. In “Man on the Edge”, also by Herberto Padilla, the wind is used as a symbol of self. “Like an enormous wind/ which barely survives in the wind outside” (Padilla pg. 307) is an example of personification and symbolism coinciding. Together, the two literary devices are connecting to the self-depreciation theme the poem withholds. Another example of the pair of literary devices working together in “Man on the Edge” is with time symbolizing oppression. “Feeling himself enclosed by his times/...condemned irretrievably to his own time” (Padilla pg. 307) explains the idea. Time is referred to negatively as if it is holding the main character of the poem back from his goals, in the same way oppression