20 pages • 40 minutes read
Pablo NerudaOde to a Large Tuna in the Market
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Tuna
The tuna represents the natural world and acts as a foil—contrast—to man. Neruda gives the tuna the status of a hero who has been unjustly slain in battle. The tuna represents all that should be good in humanity: It is powerful, sleek, fast, grand, deep, and mysterious. In life, the tuna reigns throughout the “unfathomable / darkness, the depths / of the sea, / the great / abyss, / le grand abîme” (Lines 19-24). This tuna represents everything the speaker—and poet—admires: its beauty, strength, and its role in the natural world. For Neruda, the tuna, which most people don’t even view as a majestic fish, is an inspirational creature worthy of poetic dedication.
The Ocean
In the world of this poem, the ocean is dangerous, sublime, romantic, and mysterious. It is wondrous and dark. It is an abyss capable of devouring all who step into its mouth. In this way, Neruda describes the sea the way the ancient Greeks saw it. It is a giver and taker of life. Much like Poseidon—the Grecian sea god and earthshaker—the tuna is “seed / to sea-quake” (Lines 59-60).
The sea also feels like a more natural state of existence when compared to the land. This harkens back to a Darwinian view of nature. All life originated from the sea, and evolution into homo sapiens did not truly begin until life took shape on land. By viewing the sea in a sort of envious, nostalgic way, the poem suggests a sort of lamentation about the current state of life where humanity dominates all.
Weaponry
Neruda uses weaponry in a unique way. While tools and weapons tend to be thought of as humanmade objects, Neruda describes the tuna with the language of weaponry. The inversion gives the tuna even more power, further personifying it. Because Neruda presents the tuna with such power and violence, its eventual death and objectification by man are shocking.
However, what might be even more shocking than the tuna’s appropriation of humanity’s weapons is the lack of weapons given to the humans in the poem. Neruda is careful to give readers no indication of how the tuna was actually killed. This dearth of description adds even more horror to the power humanity has over the natural world. In this sense, it is not just the presence of weapons that adds power to the poem: It is the lack of weapons that does it.
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By Pablo Neruda
