Summary
The chapter of “Cartagena” follows a young boy Juan Pablo Merendez living in the slums of Colombia. The story opens with him and his friends Luis, Claudia, Eduardo, and Pedro walking to threaten and beat up an old man for no apparent reason. While walking, the kids talk about going to Cartagena, a place in Colombia where things are said to be better. After this, Juan Pablo goes back to his home where he lives with his mother and readers start to learn more about his past.
Juan Pablo started his life on the street after becoming part of the gallada, which was a group of poor kids led by an older boy named Hernando that stole things to support themselves. Hernando and Juan Pablo became friends after a police officer and a businessman tried to kidnap them and they escaped. After this incident, both of their reputations on the street increased, causing a rich and powerful agent named El Padre to recruit Juan Pablo to become a hitman.
For the past four months, Juan Pablo has been working as a hitman under El Padre. Juan Pablo was initially all right with the arrangement because it meant financial security for him and his mom as well as protection from gang violence. However, Juan Pablo realizes the implications of being a hitman when El Padre asks Juan Pablo to kill his friend, Hernando. Juan Pablo pretends like he can’t find Hernando, so El Padre gets another man named Zeno to kill Hernando. Readers then learn that Zeno is the man whom Juan Pablo and his friends beat up at the beginning of the story.
After hearing that Juan Pablo didn’t go through with killing Hernando and beat up the man who did, El Padre calls Juan Pablo and asks him to meet him. Juan Pablo is afraid because he knows that meeting El Padre means certain death for him, but he knows that El Padre will target and kill his mom if he refuses to meet. Juan Pablo and his friend, Claudia, go together to the house that El Padre asked him to meet at; Juan Pablo goes inside to talk. El Padre talks to him and then lets him go outside to talk to Claudia. When Juan Pablo goes outside, Claudia hands him a hand grenade. The story ends with Juan Pablo going back inside and pulling the pin out of the grenade.
Analysis
"Cartagena" is the first short story in The Boat in which Le demonstrates his ability to write from perspectives very different from his own. In fact, "Cartagena" is referenced in the first story of The Boat when the character Nam is talking to a friend about writing what one knows versus writing from other points of view. Nam's friend states, "You could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins." Thus, the first and second stories in The Boat are explicitly set up to contrast one another.
Indeed, "Cartagena" is quite different from the first story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice." "Cartagena" is full of external conflict and serious danger. By comparison, the internal conflict of the first short story feels quaint and even egotistical. Nonetheless, there are many similarities between the two stories. Both feature a young male protagonist who is dealing with how his chosen career impacts his relationships. These main characters both feel that their romantic interests and friends do not understand the conflicts they are facing, leading to them feeling isolated in dealing with the conflicts they are facing. This theme of isolation from friends and family will run through many other stories in The Boat.
Le makes the choice to include many words in Spanish in "Cartagena." Definitions are sometimes given in English within the text, but in other instances, the reader is left to infer the meaning of the words if they do not know Spanish. While Le uses a few Vietnamese words in ""Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" as well as the titular story "The Boat," these generally do not impact the reader's understanding of the plot if they do not know Vietnamese. Perhaps by doing this, Le intends to add authenticity to his depiction of life in a country and continent where he has not himself spent considerable time.
Difficult relationships with parental figures is a theme throughout nearly all of the stories in The Boat. This theme can be seen in Juan Pablo's relationship with his mother, who seems torn between supporting and opposing Juan Pablo being a hitman. As Juan Pablo states, "Of this [his pay as a hitman] at least 400,000 pesos a month goes to my mother, who prays to her God about my delincuencia but takes the money for her medicines and her clothes and her cable TV and asks no questions." However, this is not the only complicated parental role in the story, as some readers might think. One must also consider Juan Pablo's relationship with the man called El Padre, which means "the father" in Spanish. While this character is not actually Juan Pablo's father, he serves a father-like role of influencing Juan Pablo's ethical decisions and determining the level of protection he has from outside dangers.
Gender is another important theme in "Cartagena." The first four short stories of The Boat are narrated by men, followed by three short stories narrated by women. The short stories narrated by men generally only include objectified female characters such as characters the protagonist has a romantic or sexual attraction to or those who the protagonist is related to such as a mother or daughter. In "Cartagena," the misogyny is explicit in the beliefs of Juan Pablo, who narrates the story. He states on the first page of the story, "He is the oldest of us (except for Claudia, who doesn't count because she is a girl)" (p.29). Claudia is a skilled part of the gallada and even dated Juan Pablo previously, and yet he still does not see her as someone who "counts."
