The Broken Ear
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| The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) |
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The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) is one of the The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. The Broken Ear is sixth in the series.
The Broken Ear was serialized in Le Petit Vingtième from 1935 to 1937, and first collected in book form in French in 1937. It first appeared in colours in 1943. The Broken Ear features the Shuari indigenous people, named as Jivaros and famous for their tsantsas, or "shrunken heads".
[edit] Synopsis
The story begins when a fetish which originally belonged to a tribe of South American indians is stolen from the Museum of Ethnography. The following day it is back in the museum, along with a note apologizing for the inconvenience caused, saying that the reason had been a bet. Tintin, who is among the reporters looking into the story, realizes that the replacement is a fake, the distinction being a broken ear.
He finds a book with an image of the fetish, drawn by an explorer: it confirms that one of the ears is damaged, while the one back in the museum is not. Tintin then reads that a wood carver called Balthazar has died. Suspecting that Balthazar made a duplicate of the fetish and was murdered, Tintin tries to obtain the man's parrot in order to get a clue to the killer.
But he soon discovers that a pair of South Americans - Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada - are also on the trail of the fetish, following the same clues and employing more ruthless methods.
A lead takes the three men, and their attempts to outwit each other, to South America, where the plot thickens.
This book introduces General Alcazar and his rebels who are fighting against General Tapioca. In a crude manner, Tintin is captured by the soldiers of General Tapioca and finds himself at the gun tips of the firing squad. General Alcazar's rebels save him after throwing Tapioca off the reign. General Alcazar honours Tintin by making him Colonel aid-de-camp. However his happiness doesn't last long as two companies British South-American Petrol and American Oil try to play double sided games with San Theodore and Nuevo-Rico and Perez & Ramon treads dangerous paths to kill Tintin. Tintin manages to escape.
With some luck and with the help of a native he is able to venture into the rainforests in search of the Arumbayas. He meets Ridgewell, the famous explorer, and he learns that the fetish was offered to Walker as a token of friendship during his stay with the tribe. But as soon as the explorers left, the Arumbaya's discover that a sacred stone has disappeared. The stone gave protection from snake-bite to anyone who touched it. Lopez, a half-caste interpreter to the explorers, stole it. Believed to be a diamond, he hid it in the fetish so that he could retrive the stone later. The Arambayas were furious when they found that the stone was missing. They massacared almost all the explorers. Walker managed to escape while a wounded Lopez barely got himself out of the jungle.
Simultaneously, Perez and Ramon are also looking for information on the fetish in the jungle when the three meet again. Tintin manages to capture them but he is then thrown into the river. He manages to escape the piranhas.
With no leads to follow, he return home only to find copies of the fetish being sold in the shops. He goes to the factory that produces them and meets Balthazar's brother, who had found the fetish among his late brother's affairs. However he has sold the original fetish to a rich man called Samuel Goldbarr, who has left for America. Using a plane Tintin manages to catch the ship, only to find that Perez and Ramon are already on the ship and they have got hold of the fetish. During confrontation, the fetish falls and breaks revealing the diamond. All three of them try to save it but fall into the ocean. Tintin is saved by the crew. However, Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada drown.
The original fetish (without the diamond in it) is glued and tied and returned back to the museum.
[edit] Trivia
Like The Blue Lotus, The Broken Ear includes a political subtext. Much of the middle part of the story is set in the fictional South American dictatorship of San Theodoros in which local generals feud for power.
The conflict between San Theodoros and Nuevo-Rico was based on the Chaco War of 1932 to 1935. Western businessmen were accused of provoking the war in order to get their hands on the local oil fields. This view is reflected in shady businessman Trickler who tries to bribe Tintin and, when that fails, resorts to attempted murder and false evidence to get rid of him.
Arms dealer Basil Bazarov, who sells weapons to both sides, is based on the real-life Basil Zaharoff.
In the animated series, Rodrigo Tortilla is removed, and replaced with Lopez. Tintin saves Ramon and Alonso while they drown to death in the comic.
In the French magazine Cœurs Vaillants this was published under the title Tintin chez les Arumbayas (Tintin meets the Arumbayas).
[edit] External links
- The Broken Ear, in Tintinologist.org
- Real-life inspration for the Jivaros at Tintin Planet (in French)
| The Adventures of Tintin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin | ||||
| Characters: | Supporting · Minor · Complete list | |||
| Miscellany: | Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations | |||
