Bryan Mayer
Literary Analysis Essay
Professor Robello
10/11/12
The Meaning of Lectors
Starting from the late eighteen hundreds, lectors began their presence in cigar
factories. A presence that became well known to all cigar factory workers. To most
workers the lectors were everything, letting workers minds escape from work for a little
while, shaping workers opinions on politics and sports, and always keeping the workers
pandering what’s next? The very important key to any lector’s success. For Juan Julian in
Ana in The Tropics, he was just about all that. He opened workers imaginations showing
them there is a world out there besides their little cigar factory. We see as Juan Julian
reads the story Anna Karenina, Conchita’s mind does just that “ I don’t know about you,
but ever since he started reading Anna Karenina my mind wanders to Russia”(Cruz 28).
Juan Julian has Conchita so attached to the story she can’t seem to get her mind off it.
Juan Julian made his presence known and had his different effects on each character.
However, for a few characters it seemed Juan Julian was much more then just a lector.
Juan Julian had a lasting effect on Marela, we can see from the first confrontation
that to Marela, Juan Julian was already more then just a lector. “ We hear Marela pee on
herself from nervousness”(18). Marela gets so nervous her first time meeting Juan Julian
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she can’t help but pee her self. By Marela peeing herself Cruz foreshadows that their will
be something to come between Marela and Juan Julian. Throughout the play we see
Marela’s feelings for Juan Julian start to come to life a bit. “ You can smell the cologne
from his handkerchief every time he dries his forehead? The fragrance wraps itself
around the words like smoke”(27) Marela seems to get so in depth with Juan Julian with
little things he does such his drying his forehead, much more then any other character
notices. Which lets readers see that Marela has different feelings for Juan Julian then
everyone else, and expresses those feelings in a distinctive way. Juan Julian has the
biggest emotional impact on Marela, everything Juan Julian does Marela seems to cherish
like when Juan Julian let Marela keep Anna Karenina for the night. Marela was
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