New York under the snow

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New York under the snow ( Spanish Nueva York bajo la nieve ) is an experience report by the modernist author José Martí about the snow storm that occurred in New York in March 1888 and killed around 400 people. Written on March 15, 1888, the crónica was published on April 27 of the same year as an article in the Argentine magazine La Nación .

content

The beginning of the article describes how spring is coming to the city. Suddenly a snow storm breaks out and surprises people. In two days the snow defeated New York. If the power supply fails and the telephone network and traffic infrastructure collapse, for example, only limited action can be taken against fires that break out and are sparked by the storm. Because of the snowstorm and the damage and restrictions it caused, people's survival is more dependent than usual on the mutual support of the residents. There are dead, injured and rescued throughout the bay. The person who suffered defeat from time to time has proven himself well in the end and fought against the white enemy.

Interpretation of the content

The situation described here is based on an event actually observed by the author. He tries to describe the events he has seen in a comprehensible way for the readers of Latin America, especially Argentina. A resident of Argentina cannot imagine a snowstorm. Martí therefore had to find a suitable equivalent with which to describe the disaster. For this reason he wrote of this storm as the "Great White Hurricane". A cyclone wreaks havoc in warmer regions and kills numerous victims. This made it possible for José Martí to vividly describe what was happening to an audience in another place in the world.

The city of New York plays a special role in this context. At that time, the city was already a symbol of modernity and progress. Everything seemed possible here, nothing could triumph over human strength. Now all of this is unimportant in "New York under the snow", the blizzard moves into the city just as easily as it does in an uninhabited area. The technical achievements such as telephone and railroad cannot withstand the storm; nature is stronger than anything man created.

In this context, José Martí's criticism of modern society is palpable. He describes people who, despite the deadly danger of the snowstorm, rush into the city, on the one hand because they cannot live without modern achievements such as newspapers, theater or telephones, and on the other because they are afraid of not showing up for work. Here Martí criticizes the greed of modern society. In addition, increasing commercialization harbors dangers for people who are afraid of their livelihood and who fear for their jobs. Martí, for example, describes the scene of a messenger boy who is sent into the storm by his employer to deliver a message and is killed in the process. Martí condemns this decline in humanity. At the same time, however, he also shows the good sides of people to help each other in times of greatest need, and thereby emphasizes that despite all negative developments there is always reason to hope and trust.

Analysis of the language

Martí's writing style bears typical features of modernism. Rich in linguistic expressions, a realistic picture of the described situation is drawn using numerous linguistic means. The language is highly artistic and rich in symbols and details that create a flood-like mood and give the situation a dramatic mood.

Martí plays with antithetics to create a tense atmosphere. It begins with a peaceful description of the onset of spring and the awakening of nature and then quickly turns into a description of the storm and the cold. He contrasts people's struggle for survival with death, speaking of the awakening of nature on the one hand, and destruction on the other. He also creates tension through the contrasting images of fire against ice and helpfulness against selfishness.

Martí describes the snow storm in many ways. He chose numerous terms for one and the same thing, describing the snowstorm and the storm with the words 'la ventisca' (blowing snow), 'el vendaval' (storm) and 'la borrasca' (storm). The content of the article could be summed up in a few sentences, but Martí describes the events with all the details in artful language and long, expressive sentences, in order to give the Argentine reader the feeling of being part of the event. For this he uses numerous metaphors, such as the image of a mole retreating into its cave (“como un topo en su cava”) to describe the frightened residents of New York. In addition, the word "exhaustos", which is derived from the English word exhausted, shows that new word creations have emerged in Spanish.

A key part of the article is the paragraph:

“Grande fue la derrota del hombre: grande es su victoria. La ciudad está aún blanca: blanca y helada toda la bahía. Ha habido muertes, crueldades, caridades, fatigas, rescates valerosos. El hombre, en esta catástrofe, se ha mostrado bueno. "

Here Martí describes people's ability to deal with disasters. It is to be understood as a message about the soul of the person who can fight in times of greatest need and shows compassion and helpfulness for his fellow men. The writing style of this section is very different from the rest of the text. These are very short, simple sentences, as opposed to the long, nested sentences in the rest of the article. This section should stand out stylistically in order to make clear the important message that man shows himself to be kind-hearted in the greatest need. It is also noticeable that José Martí always speaks of "el hombre" ("man"). So he describes the characteristics of the human race in difficult situations and divides people into categories (good, bad, brave, cruel), but in the end he makes his judgment about all people in general, including all their strengths and weaknesses.

literature

Primary literature

  • Martí, José: “Nueva York bajo la nieve”. In: José Martí: Ensayos y crónicas. José Olivio Jiménez (ed.). Madrid: Cátedra, 2004, pp. 291-297.
  • Martí, José: “Nueva York bajo la nieve”. In: José Martí: Ombras comlpetas, Habana 1991, Vol. 11, pp. 417-422 (online at: http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/ar/libros/marti/Vol11.pdf )
  • Secondary literature
  • Rainer Hess, Gustav Siebenmann, Tilbert Stegmann: Literary studies dictionary for Romanists . 4th edition A. Francke Verlag, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-7720-8031-6 .
  • José Olivio Jimenez: La Personalidad Literaria y Humana de José Martí . In: José Martí (author), José Olivio Jiménez (ed.): Ensayos y crónicas . Cátedra, Madrid 2004, ISBN 978-84-376-2131-9 , p. 11 ff.
  • Hans-Joachim König: Small history of Latin America . Actual New edition Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-017062-5 .
  • Dieter Reichardt (Ed.): Author Lexicon Latin America . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1992, ISBN 3-518-38828-2 .
  • Dieter Reichardt: Latin American authors. Literary dictionary and bibliography of German translations . Erdmann Verlag, Tübingen 1972, ISBN 3-7711-0152-2 .
  • Michael Rössner : Latin American literary history . 3rd edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01858-X .
  • Michael Zeuske : A Brief History of Cuba . 3rd edition Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-49422-2 (Beck'sche series; 1371).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Martí, José (2004): Nueva York bajo la nieve. Madrid: Cátedra, 2004.
  2. ↑ See Reichardt, Dieter (1972): Latin American authors. Literary dictionary and bibliography of German translations. Tübingen u. Basel: Horst Erdmann Verlag, p. 426.
  3. ↑ a b cf. Martí 2004, p. 294.
  4. ↑ Cf. ibid. P. 292. (Great was the defeat of man: great is his victory. The city is still white: white and icy the whole bay. There have been deaths, cruelties, benefits, the exhausted, brave rescues Human proved to be good in this disaster.)

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