Marissa Cook

Chen/English 220
Allusion Final Draft/Edit
14 April 2014
The Gold Cycle: Alluding to Colonial Mining in Through the Arc of the Rain Forest
Brazil had once before emptied its wealthy gold mines into the coffers of the Portuguese
Crown, and consequently financed the Industrial Revolution in England, Brazilian congress
members argue in Karen Tei Yamashitas futuristically magical novel, Through the Arc of the
Rain Forest. They aptly connect the gold rush of Brazils colonial past to the Mataco, the
mysterious substance found under a region of bulldozed Amazonia and the subject of great
public interest, which they believe should be used and studied under greater restrictions. After
all, [t]his time, if there was any wealth to be had, it had better remain in Brazil (96). The
congressmen allude to a world-changing event that began in 1693, when Portuguese explorers
journeying through their Brazilian territory made just the discovery for which two centuries of
colonizers had been hoping: rich gold deposits. This discovery sparked a full century of mining,
prompting vast populations from the surrounding area and even Europeans to rush to Minas
Gerais, or the General Mines. A period of fast-paced change and economic activity continued for
a century before the gold resources dwindled down (Davenport). With the end of the gold
industry and few others to replace it, the Brazilian economy stagnated; Portugal, meanwhile,
used most of their revenue to pay debts to Britain. In spite of the large quantities of gold
unearthed over the past century, neither Brazil nor Portugal fully benefited from the enterprise
(MiningGold).
In the article Exploring Transnational Arcs, Excavating Imperial Legacies, Aimee
Bahng discusses Arc as a multi-layered critique of the historical amnesia that often accompanies

progress narratives, a forward-looking glance that is also haunted by historical retrospection

in which, on the surface of the Amazon, forgotten histories of imperialism are continuously
unearthed (123-124). She examines the various mutations of characters and the Mataco as
symbols of such histories extrapolated into the future as well as the textual allusion to
Fordlandia, the rubber plantation of the nineteenth century attempted by Henry Ford. While these
points are valid and offer incredible insights into the text, other significant meanings can be
pulled from Bahngs own premise that Arc makes use of the empire-building past of imperialist
powers in Brazil as a critique of colonization. There remains another allusion used by Yamashita
in her cautionary tale, which utilizes European history in South America: the colonial gold
rush, another history that resurfaces in Yamashitas treatment of the Mataco.
Yamashitas allusion to the eighteenth century gold rush, repeated in various connections
to gold throughout Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, also, like Fordlandia, brings to the
audiences attention an historical chain of events that mirrors the cyclical rise and fall of
development around the Mataco. Crowds rush toward the promise of material gain, just as the
populations of Brazil and Portugal rushed to the gold mines. The American corporation, GGG,
takes over the area with the production of Mataco plastic like a modern colonial power as
development begins. Finally, the industry then comes crashing down amidst national disasters
and the dissolving of the Mataco, events to parallel the exhaustion of the colonial Minas Gerais,
ultimately the end of the cycle and a return to the beginning, the placid normalcy that had existed
before the rush. In associating the products surrounding the Mataco with gold and mirroring the
cycle seen in the gold rush with the events of Arc, Yamashita warns of this recurring pattern, this
cycle of gold, that occurs when human greed collides with the hope of material gain.

The allusion to colonial gold rush copies the succession of events in Arc, beginning with
the initial rush toward riches, in which masses swarm to places of fortune. Historically in Brazil,
among the populations of So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bahia, the discovery of gold deposits
held such promise for income mobility that in a mere five years a vast number of residents had
dashed to the sites. The haste to acquire fortune even reached Portugals population to the extent
that the government needed to pass laws to keep the majority within the country (Davenport). An
analogous rush toward opportunity explodes in Arc as well. Beginning with Kazumasa
Ishimarus rise to fame and wealth, Batista Djapans pigeon messages take on prophetic qualities,
Mane Pena discovers the magical properties of the feather, and Chico Paco completes a
pilgrimage after his friend Gilbertos miraculous recovery. These initial discoveries of things
valuable, unique, or magical begin with only a sparse few who connect the wonders to the
Mataco, but the miraculous events quickly gain public attention. Crowds follow Kazumasa
hoping to receive charity, flock to Batistas home for fortunes, crowd around Mane Pena for
cures, and contact Chico Paco for the completion of their own religious promises. This interest,
at first, begins innocently. For instance, Kazumasa in particular begins to be called the Japanese
Santa Claus, who turns away no one in need (161). In emulation of his ball as the ticket to his
success, the invention of a similar, electrical contraption worn on the head becomes two
graduates ticket to riches and gets sold in mass quantities; crowds likewise flock to buy them
in hopes of experiencing the same miraculous wealth as Kazumasa (59). The rush for wealth,
whether from Kazumasa or by copying him in the manner of individuals rushing to the site of
gold, seems very much parallel to the behavior of the thousands who went to Minas Gerais,
which initiated one of the largest gold rushes in human history and in which resource and
promise seem endless (Malatesta and Kiernan 44). Unfortunately, what was fun, for a while,

according to Kazumasas ball, quickly becomes corrupted by greed (61, 63). In both colonial
times and the Mataco, the public hastens toward the possibility of riches with a wild get-richquick mentality, a desperate hope of bettering their lives. The demand spirals out of control, and
even more so when GGG develops the technology to extract Mataco plastic and spectators,
like the explorers of the colonial past, [flocked] to denude the forest, in spite of the fact that
none of them could cut even a splinter of the stuff away from the mother lode (144). Still,
upon finding their unreachable dream, some wept at the sight of the shiny stuff, which reflected
back to them a dull image of their happiness (144). The Mataco, like many of the other
miracles of which individuals want a part, turns into a vehicle for material gain, myopically
equated with happiness in perhaps the same manner as whole populations leapt at the gold rush
of the eighteenth century. Vast groups at once see the same opportunity; and thus what begins as
a request to donate to the poor, a pet, a simple feather, a sacred promise made for the sake of a
loved one, or a mysterious substance viewed with wonder (whether gold or the Mataco) triggers
a mad dash and a catalyst for greed, the beginning of a dangerous cycle.
As a driving force behind the widespread desire for quick riches, GGG steps onto the
stage of the Mataco headed by J.B. Tweep, the three-armed quasi-CEO who pushes forward the
development of the area as the cycle of gold, as reflected in the development of the Mataco,
continues. The American companys imperialistic, resource-driven use of the land follows in
many ways the actions of Portuguese colonizers of the eighteenth century. Portugal began its
exploration of Brazil with the hope of discovering silver to rival those deposits found by the
Spanish in their respective half of South America. At last, their efforts yielded the first discovery
of gold. The abundant supply found quickly produced a boom in the colonys economy and a
period of rapid development that carried over to Europe. After the chaos that followed the vast

movement toward the new mines, the Portuguese crown managed to institute order on the public,
taking also a twenty percent tax from all gold production. Even in the face of such extensive
demand and mining, the gold resources lasted for the entire span of the century, especially as
more discoveries were made when the miners pushed deeper into Brazils interior. With a slave
trade focused on obtaining gold from Africa, Portugal further managed to import a labor force
and all necessary technology for the mining of gold, rather than develop the infrastructure of
Brazil (Malatesta and Kiernan 43). Interestingly, GGG follows a nearly identical pattern of
behavior. Nearly direct references also arise that appear to connect GGG with the colonizers
search for gold. For example, J.B. Tweep develops a way to remove Mataco plastic, mine it,
you know, as he explains to Kazumasa, and later, when developing Mataco products, he even
muses that GGG has turned plastic into gold! (112, 142). Apart from these textual connections,
the parallel repeatedly appears, if only between the behaviors of GGG and Portugal. GGG
quickly takes over the area in such a flurry of development that Mane Pena suggests to his wife
that the Mataco, with its rich possibilities, grows buildings, rather than the once expected
crops (77). The corporation continues to develop the region, and an unheard of amount of capital
pours from the American GGG Enterprises into its Brazilian counterpart, jumpstarting economic
activity around the Mataco. However, J.B. Tweep, rather than construct buildings in Brazil,
creating jobs and feeding the people of the area, simply had a twenty-three-floor office building
constructed in Florida and flown in piece by piece, going so far as to import the staff secretary
by secretary, even having the Texas-accented clones re-cloned and flown in for Human
Resources (76). Shockingly mirroring Portugal in imported labor and technology, GGG creates a
boomtown on the Mataco. However, their concern, like Portugal, is mainly for their own gain as
they secure the market for Mataco plastic. Ultimately, GGG creates a great deal of wealth on the

surface but does very little to develop the infrastructure of Brazil as it exploits its natural
resources. Likewise, in the spirit of the Portuguese explorers, J.B. Tweep does not stop at the first
discovered source of the Mataco. Instead, he uses Kazumasas balls attraction to the substance
to discover that the north of Brazil was a veritable gold mine in plastic, another clear
connection to the discoveries of gold through the history of Brazil (144). In Arc, as in history, the
chaos of a gold rush is brought to order by a colonial power which eventually takes the majority
of profit. This development continues in a furor of corporate activity, which in turn leads to
widespread consumption like the commercial use of the feather and the infinite possibilities of
Mataco plastic, the perfect, strongest, most malleable product, as valuable as gold (142).
Overuse of this finite resource, however, whether in greed or in the name of progress,
inescapably leads to its decay. Yamashita depicts the perpetuation of the gold cycle at the peak of
consumption; after which, she cautions, the resources will run out.
Accordingly, the precious resource of the Mataco does crumble away, just as gold
production came to a halt in the eighteenth century and left the Brazilian economy stagnant.
These final stages of fall and return occurred in the colonial gold rush when all the gold deposits
were at last so exhausted Portugal could no longer use it as a source of revenue. In spite of the
large quantities of gold unearthed across the past century, the Brazilian economy, without the
mining industry, remained relatively unchanged; and Portugal, which had sought the profits of
gold mining to rival Spanish power, spent a majority of the revenue collected in paying debts to
Britain, which had accumulated during their wars against the Spanish and Dutch (Davenport).
After bringing about the largest gold rush of the colonial era, neither Brazil nor Portugal
benefited accordingly, and the environment of the region had been negatively impacted (Mining
Gold). A similar chain of events occurs in Arc, when a deadly Typhus outbreak threatens all

feather-users and all of the birds of the Amazon are killed in an impulsive attempt to stop the
sickness. Meanwhile, the Mataco is literally eaten away by bacteria, perhaps like the many
miniscule humans of colonial times chipping away at a bit of gold at a time until, unexpectedly,
they had consumed it all. A sharp, tragic fall disrupts what, at one point, had seemed like a neverending surplus as the world rushed to the Mataco. Now, with the Mataco gone, vast negative
effects have stemmed from human greed and overdevelopment; just as with the environmental
issues that began centuries earlier, the land will never be the same again (212). Admittedly, the
effects in Arc are made more immediate and catastrophic than the gradual slide in production that
occurred in the colonial mines. Yamashita intentionally amplifies the issue to a level that we
might reach soon, as humanity gains more ability to warp nature, a way of looking forward by
looking back at historical patterns. In fact, she maintains a strong connection to the mentality of a
gold rush in the closing passages of the novel, as Chico Pacos funeral procession passes through
the scarred interior of Brazil. They pass a mining project tirelessly exhausting treasures and
then a gold rush, losing a third of the procession to the greedy furor (209). Although GGG has
flown back to America, the Mataco is gone, and Kazumasa and the remaining characters settle
back into normal lives, human greed has led to vast negative repercussions; and Yamashita points
out clearly that this is only the end of another cycle, one that has repeated itself throughout the
years, and one that can easily happen again.
In Karen Tei Yamashitas Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, human greed is shown in a
dangerous, often destructive process that alludes heavily to the gold rush of colonial Brazil. In
close parallel to the chaos of the discovery of gold, the reader is led to see the behavior of firstworld powers; the eventual fall of overzealous development when resources run dry; the magical
discoveries of the characters, at the root of which Mataco plastic gains abrupt public attention

and is controlled by GGG; and eventually all these lead to outcomes of catastrophic proportions,
for humanity and the environment alike. Although the fall leads eventually to a return to stability,
the parties involved have gained very little from the fast-paced, greed-driven development.
Above all, it should be noted that a return places us only back at the beginning. By relating the
development of the colonial gold rush to the Mataco in Arc, Yamashita draws attention to this
cycle as an arc that develops when human greed destroys valuable natural resources, regardless
of time or nationality, and perhaps with more dramatic consequences each time. In the end,
Yamashitas allusion to the colonial gold rush forms a warning: the cycle of gold can always
happen again.

Bibliography
Bahng, Aimee. Extrapolating Transnational Arcs, Excavating Imperial Legacies: The
Speculative Acts of Karen Tei Yamashitas Through the Arc of the Rain Forest. MELUS
33.4 (2008): 123-144. ProQuest. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Bahng examines Arc, reading the Mataco as a speculative space in which forgotten
histories of US and European imperialism resurface. She suggests that Yamashita
critiques the traditional progress narrative in a sort of postcolonial science fiction,
using history to extrapolate possible futures. Bahng predominantly discusses science and
empire, the mutations of empire, and the allusion of Fordlandia. In this essay, I applied
the allusion of gold rush to her observations of history reflected in future times in Arc.
Davenport, Jade. The Brazilian gold rush. Mining Weekly. Creamer Media, 12 Oct. 2012. Web.
4 Mar. 2014.
This article provides a detailed overview of the colonial gold rush, from prior to the
discovery of gold in the late seventeenth century to the depletion of the gold deposits at
the very beginning of the nineteenth century. It includes information on the effects in
Brazil and Portugal, as well as population movement and the free for all mentality of
the time. This information was prominently useful in describing the history of Brazil
under the control of colonial Portugal but also contributed to my ideas about the chaos of
the gold rush, as mirrored in the Mataco.
Malatesta, Parisina, and James Patrick Kiernan. "The Glitter of Brazil's Minas Gerais Sparked
the Rise of Baroque Opulent Cities and a Distictive Boom Artistic Movement." Americas
51.1 (1999): 40-7. ProQuest. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Although its conclusions focus on the art created during the time of the gold rush, this
article includes in-depth information on the discovery of gold and the involvement of the
government in attempting to control the movement of people and gain revenue. Although

mostly used to give necessary background information, this article lent the phrase cycle
of gold, which is used in this essay.
MiningGold. Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Santa Barbara: ABCCLIO, 2005. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
The article gives a general overview of the history of gold mining in South America.
Several paragraphs detail the Portuguese bonanza upon the discovery of gold, Portuguese
dependence on England, and later gold mining activity, as well as the environmental
impacts of the mining. This article is used predominantly for background information.