Analyzing Lorca and Savolta: Literary Styles and Themes
Work Area: Andalusia, Roma Neighborhoods
Resources: Metaphors, Personifications, Comparisons, Repetitions
Content and Structure (Lorca)
Lorca stylizes the Gypsy world, moving away from folklore. His work can be divided into two series of ballads, excluding the three archangels symbolizing Cordoba, Granada, and Seville. The first set is lyrical, focusing on women. The second is epic, dominated by Gypsy men and their beliefs colliding with love and societal pressures, often leading to violence. Love and individual rights frequently result in death or injury. The Spanish Civil Guard plays an antagonistic role.
Style (Lorca)
Lorca fuses narrative with lyrical language, echoing ballad traditions with in media res openings and unfinished endings. Dialogues sometimes extend to the narrator. Blood Wedding exemplifies this lyrical atmosphere.
Characters (Lorca)
Characters are primarily Gypsies, adhering to traditional roles. Men are passive, while women express lament and complaint. Men represent maturity and resilience, with minimal physical descriptions. Women are detailed physically and mentally, often depicted as weak. Lorca emphasizes black hair as sensual and erotic. Soledad Montoya represents the archetype of Roma women.
Symbolism (Lorca)
The Gypsy Ballads are rich in symbols:
- Metals (knives, anvils, rings): Gypsy life and death
- Air/Wind: Male eroticism
- Green: Death
- Mirror: Home and sedentary lifestyle
- Water (moving): Life; (still): Stagnant passion
- Horse: Unbridled passion leading to death
- Moon: Death (appears 218 times)
- Alcohol: Negativity
- Milk: Natural
- Women: Eroticism
- Black: Death
- White: Life, light
Savolta Case: Narrative
The narrative shifts between first-person (protagonist) and omniscient perspectives. The narrator knows all characters’ thoughts. Some parts are in third person, with limited narrator knowledge. The narrative is nonlinear, with frequent time jumps, especially in the first part, creating confusion. The second part clarifies the initial confusion.
Argument (Savolta)
The book recounts events in early 20th-century Barcelona around the “Savolta” arms factory. It highlights social differences between owners and workers, exacerbated by rising prices and stagnant wages. The novel features intrigue, suspense, and murder, driven by a leader’s quest for power. A journalist investigates the company’s arms trade during WWI. Love and deceit intertwine with the main plot. The book is divided into two parts, with the first being confusing due to disorganized time jumps.
Main Characters (Savolta)
Javier Miranda
The protagonist, easily influenced, comes to Barcelona seeking work. He is hired by Cortabanyes and Lepprince. He has an affair with Pajarito de Soto’s wife but marries Mary Coral. He eventually uncovers the truth and helps Maria Rosa Savolta.
Paul-André Lepprince
A French-educated, ambitious man who arrives in Spain seeking power. He becomes a major shareholder in “Savolta” through illicit activities and murder. He marries Maria Rosa Savolta but has a mistress, Mary Coral. He dies mysteriously.
Mary Coral
A Gypsy performer, Lepprince’s lover, who later marries Javier without love. She leaves with Max but returns after his death and goes to the USA with Javier.
Domingo Pajarito de Soto
An anarchist journalist who befriends Javier. He discovers Lepprince’s corruption and is murdered.
Nemesio Cabra
A young vagabond hired to watch Pajarito. He delivers Pajarito’s letter to Commissioner Vazquez and is considered eccentric.
Cortabanyes
A Barcelona lawyer, formerly part of “Savolta.” He is obese and clumsy. It is suggested that Lepprince is his son.
Enric Savolta
Founder of “Savolta,” murdered by Lepprince.
Inspector Vázquez
Investigates the deaths of Pajarito and Savolta. He uncovers the truth after Miranda.