Under the Volcano

While the first half of the Under the Volcano provides extensive exposition on the lives of the main characters, the second half focuses primarily on the events that led to the dissolution of the Consul and Yvonne’s marriage and the events that lead to their respective demises. The first chapter of this section finds the trio at Jacques’s house, where Yvonne, wracked with anxiety because of the affair, begs to leave. While the others are occupied, the Consul views the painting Los Borrachones, which depicts Hell opening to drag “drunkards” down into its depths. The Consul sees it as a prohibitionist piece of art:

Shrieking among falling bottles and emblems of broken hopes, plunged the drunkards: up, up, flying palely, selflessly into the light toward heaven, soaring sublimely in pairs, male sheltering female, shielded themselves by angels with abnegating wings, shot the sober. Not all were pairs however, the Consul noted. A few lone females were casting half-jealous glances downward after their plummeting husbands, some of whose faces betrayed the most unmistakable relief (208).

This piece casts moral judgment on those who drink alcohol and those who abstain, situating Addiction to Alcohol as a choice. It is clear throughout the novel that the Consul’s own ability to choose has become limited by his addiction. The painting reduces the pain and struggle of the Consul to something evil and elective, a misguided representation of his addiction. The painting also shows the separation of some women from their husbands, suggesting the interpersonal divide that arises from Addiction to Alcohol. It is a representation of the Consul and Yvonne, although Yvonne refuses to ascend to a new life before reaching down to save her love.

Chapter 8 is perhaps the centerpiece of Under the Volcano, having been the original short story that the novel was expanded upon. Its events may be the most important to the thematic cohesion of the novel as a modernist piece of literature. Like many modernist novels, Under the Volcano addresses The Universe’s Indifference Toward Humans. This is nowhere more apparent than in the treatment of the Indigenous American found dying on the road. He is in clear need of medical attention, but not a single person will touch him due to their own desire to stay uninvolved. In fact, the only person who does touch him is the pelado. He steals the dying man’s money and uses it to pay for his bus fare. The pelado does not try to hide the theft either, forcing Hugh to struggle with what his intentions actually are:

It occurred to Hugh he was not trying to conceal it at all, that he was perhaps attempting to persuade the passengers, even though they knew nothing about it, that he had acted from motives explicable as just, that he had taken the money merely to keep it safe which, as had just been shown by his own action, no money could reasonably be called in a dying man’s collar on the Tomalín road, in the shadow of the Sierra Madre (262).

Hugh cannot parse the man’s motives, either for stealing the money or for failing to hide it. He understands that the money would likely have been taken by the vigilante police, but he still struggles to reconcile the pelado’s actions with his own moral code. There will be no repercussions for the theft, and the man on the road will certainly die, meaning that at least now the money will be used by someone. In this moment, the morals and laws that have guided Hugh through his life crumble in the face of reality. The universe does not care about justice, and those who have quick minds and quick hands can profit from the tragedies around them.

After Yvonne, the Consul, and Hugh arrive in Tomalín, they go to the arena to watch bull-riding. Much of this chapter is told from Yvonne’s perspective as she considers her relationships with the men in her life, her father and the Consul. In each she finds the same flaws and reacts in the same way. She has spent much of her life working to lift up and provide for the men that she loves. Both men have experienced Addiction to Alcohol and as a result have lost agency and the ability to provide for themselves. She has consistently altered her life for the benefit of these men. She sees herself, like so many of the characters do, in the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl:

The volcanoes! How sentimental one could become about them! It was ‘volcano’ now; however she moved the mirror she couldn’t get poor Ixta in, who quite eclipsed, fell away sharply into invisibility, while Popocatepetl seemed even more beautiful for being reflected, its summit brilliant against pitch-massed cloud banks (266).

Yvonne is herself Ixtaccihuatl, overshadowed and eclipsed by the men in her life. She comes back for the Consul, sacrificing a life free of the consequences of his drinking. Even when she considers her possible future with him, she situates herself as a support for him, framing her purpose in life as to help him realize his full potential. She has irrevocably tied her fate to his.