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The Green Pope

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If an object of a novel is to tell a story and possibly, to reveal a wrong, Miguel Angel Asturias has accomplished his goal.

The author, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, tells the story of an ugly American, George Maker Thompson. Thompson was a pirate in the Caribbean but feels that he's wasted his time as a pirate on the sea and that making money on the water will not lead to riches that he wants to accumulate.

Tompson decides to move inland and is given the name "The Green Pope," also known as the banana pirate.

Thompson meets Jinger Kind, a businessman from New Orleans. They discuss the local people who they consider backward. Their idea is that by taking land from the natives and building roads, they would be bringing civilization and progress in exchange for wealth. Kind also states that ending isolation and opening up a port are signs of progress.

Thompson also meets and becomes charmed with an attractive local woman named Mayaris.

Callously, Thompson, Mr. Kind, Maryaris' mother, Dona Flora and a person called the Commander, set about bullying the natives into selling their land. They don't mind using force and state that if gold bullets (meaning money) doesn't work, there's always lead.

Things go smoothly until Mayaris realizes that Thompson is taking advantage of her people. A servant named Chipo Chipo hears Thompson's people plotting to take the land by whatever means possible. Chipo disappears into the wilds and begins going from village to village to spread the word, not to sell the land and resist by whatever means possible.

Dona Flora has a great deal of land herself. When her daughter Mayaris, dressed in bridal white, goes into a river to drown herself as a protest against Thompson, Dona doesn't seem that distressed. Dona later marries Thompson herself.

It seems that Thompson represents the rich American attempting to buy influence and power from the natives. He is taking advantage of innocent people, content to live their life off the land.

The book was dry, no suspense and it seemed more like reading a text book that a novel. In addition, there isn't any character development and many of the characters are called by their titles so it is impersonal but the message is clear about the powerful, attempting to take what doesn't belong to them from the poor, uneducated natives.