The Harp and the Shadow

The Harp and the Shadow: A Novel, by Alejo Carpentier

On a thematic level, The Harp and the Shadow is a novel dealing with masks, deceptions, and hidden truths. Specifically, the main action of the story centers around the issue of whether Christopher Columbus should be canonized as a saint. On the one hand, a St. Columbus could be a symbol that ties together disparate parts of the Catholic church in Europe and America. On the other hand, that symbol might be tainted, through accusations of adultery, slavery, and personal greed. As the novel progresses, we are taken past the layer of “the Harp”, the image of pure motives for family, God and country that Columbus attempted to leave behind, and instead descend into the depths of “the Shadow”, or the reality behind Columbus, his voyages, and his motivations behind them. Through the presentation of some substantiated historical material, some “myths” long part of the Columbus legend, and some outright fabrication, Carpentier provides an image of Columbus as an egotistical, self-styled Christo-phoros, or Christ-bearer, who lies, steals, enslaves --all for the vain goal of “pursuing a country never found that fades away like a castle of enchantments. . . [following] vapors, seeing things that never become intelligible, comparable, explicable, in the language of the Odyssey or in the language of Genesis.” (126) Carpentier’s Columbus is a man obsessed with his own personal glory and how history will remember him.

One of the most exaggerated portions of Columbus’ life depicted the novel is his reputed sexual relationship with Queen Isabella. This charge is not substantiated in the documents we have for Columbus, yet it plays a major part in the novel. According to the story, Queen Isabella pawns her jewels to purchase the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María only after she and Columbus make love. (68) Later, after the first voyage, Isabella doesn’t believe that Columbus discovered the Indies, yet finances a second voyage after a night of intense passion. (106) On one level the sexual interaction between Isabella and Columbus symbolizes the way in which Columbus treats the new lands he has discovered --as something to be dominated and conquered in his quest for personal glory. Columbus will say or do anything to further this end and enhance his own position. “I speak of gold mines where I know of none. I speak of pearls, many pearls, merely because I see some mussels that ‘signal their presence.’ I say only one thing that is true; that the dogs here seem not to bark.” (87)

Carpentier, like Sales, has Columbus hoping that he has discovered new lands, as opposed to the Indies. Proof of this is inferred from the cargo on Columbus’ ships --one would not bring trinkets to the orient. (81) Carpentier also maintains that there was no distinction between the tainos and the caribs except that Columbus wished to characterize them differently to serve different purposes. (110) When Columbus wants to emphasize the wealth to be had in slaves, the Indians are depicted as gentle, easily domesticated folk. Later, when Columbus needs to justify harsh treatment towards the Indians, they become bloodthirsty cannibalistic savages.

The Harp and the Shadow concludes with the decision that Columbus is no saint. The move for his canonization has failed. As the decision still rings in the air, the image of Columbus the saint --the image Columbus himself tried to perpetuate according to Carpentier, starts to fade away. The point the author seems to be making is a simple one; if we probe the myth of Columbus, we will penetrate the fiction of Columbus “the harp” and discover for ourselves “the shadow” that is the man behind the myth.

PUBLISHER: San Francisco. Mercury House, Inc., 1990.