Analysis: Our Man in Havana

## Introduction

Graham Greene's *Our Man in Havana* (1958) presents a rich text for structuralist analysis, revealing how meaning emerges not from individual elements but through the systematic relationships and oppositions that organize the narrative. Through a structuralist lens, the novel's apparent chaos of espionage comedy resolves into a carefully constructed system of binary oppositions, symbolic structures, and mythic patterns that reflect deeper cultural anxieties about authenticity, power, and meaning in the modern world.

## Binary Oppositions and Deep Structure

The novel's surface narrative masks a complex system of binary oppositions that structure meaning throughout the text. The primary opposition between **reality/fiction** operates at multiple levels, with Wormold's fabricated intelligence reports serving as a mise en abyme of the novel's own fictional status. This central binary generates subsidiary oppositions:

**Authenticity/Performance** manifests in Wormold's transformation from genuine vacuum cleaner salesman to performative spy, while Hawthorne embodies the opposite movement from performed authority to revealed incompetence. The text suggests that in the modern intelligence apparatus, performance has replaced substance as the primary mode of operation.

**Center/Periphery** structures the novel's geopolitical framework, with London as the metropolitan center issuing commands to colonial Havana. Yet Greene subverts this hierarchy by demonstrating how the periphery's fictional reports shape the center's understanding of reality, creating a feedback loop that destabilizes traditional power relationships.

**Order/Chaos** appears in the contrast between the rigid bureaucratic structures of MI6 and the improvisational chaos of Cuban politics, yet the novel reveals how each system contains its opposite: bureaucracy produces chaos through incompetence, while apparent chaos masks its own systemic logic.

## Mythic Structure and Narrative Functions

Applying Vladimir Propp's functional analysis to the novel reveals its conformity to mythic narrative patterns. Wormold functions as the **reluctant hero** called to adventure by the **dispatcher** (Hawthorne), accepting the quest to provide for his **princess** (Milly). The vacuum cleaner drawings that become missile installations represent the **magical helper** that enables the hero's success, while Captain Segura serves as both **villain** and **false hero**.

The novel's mythic dimension extends to its treatment of the **trickster** archetype. Wormold embodies the classical trickster who survives through wit rather than strength, transforming mundane objects (vacuum cleaners) into instruments of power (military installations). This transformation echoes creation myths where the trickster brings order from chaos, though in Greene's postmodern context, the trickster creates meaningful chaos from bureaucratic order.

## Symbolic Systems and Paradigmatic Relations

The novel's symbolic economy operates through substitution and metaphor rather than direct representation. The **vacuum cleaner** functions as the master signifier, its parts capable of transformation into any military hardware through the simple act of labeling. This linguistic alchemy demonstrates Saussure's principle that the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary and conventional.

The **cocktail** emerges as another key symbol, representing the artificial mixing of elements to create new combinations. Wormold's invention of the "Wonder Bar Special" parallels his invention of intelligence networks, both being fictional creations that gain reality through social acceptance. The recurring motif of **alcohol** throughout the text serves as a metaphor for the intoxicating effects of fiction, blurring the boundaries between reality and performance.

**Photography** operates as a meta-textual symbol for the novel's own procedures. Just as photographs can be manipulated to show non-existent realities, Wormold's reports create fictional agents and installations that become "real" within the intelligence system. The camera thus represents the technology of modern fiction-making, whether in espionage or literature.

## Linguistic Structures and Communication Systems

The novel foregrounds language as both communication tool and instrument of deception. The **code names** that transform ordinary Havana citizens into intelligence assets demonstrate language's power to create new identities and relationships. Teresa becomes "Angel," and ordinary mechanics become "agents," showing how linguistic designation can override social reality.

**Bureaucratic discourse** emerges as a distinct register that generates its own reality through specialized vocabulary and procedural language. The intelligence services speak a language that creates the world it claims to describe, with "sub-agents," "networks," and "installations" conjured into existence through proper documentation.

The **translation** problem between English headquarters and Spanish-speaking Cuba reflects broader issues of cultural and linguistic colonialism. Meaning breaks down in transmission, creating spaces where fiction can masquerade as fact and local knowledge becomes exotic intelligence.

## Structural Parallels and Homologies

Greene constructs homological relationships between different spheres of activity that reveal the novel's underlying structural unity. The **theater/espionage** parallel runs throughout the text, with both domains requiring actors to assume false identities for the entertainment or deception of audiences. Captain Segura's theatrical torture performances mirror Wormold's theatrical intelligence performances, suggesting that power in the modern world operates primarily through dramatic representation.

The **commerce/espionage** homology appears in the structural similarity between Wormold's vacuum cleaner sales and his intelligence work. Both involve convincing customers to purchase products of questionable value through persuasive presentation. The novel suggests that capitalism and espionage operate through identical mechanisms of manufactured desire and artificial scarcity.

**Religion/intelligence** work emerges as another structural parallel, with both requiring faith in unseen realities and hierarchical command structures. Father Mendez's Catholicism and Hawthorne's intelligence service both demand belief in invisible networks and ultimate authorities, making similar claims to universal truth based on secret knowledge.

## Paradigmatic Analysis of Character Functions

The novel's characters function not as psychological individuals but as structural positions within the espionage system. **Wormold** occupies the position of the **mediator** between different semiotic systems (commercial/military, Cuban/British, reality/fiction), capable of translation between codes because he belongs fully to none.

**Hawthorne** represents the **orthodox interpreter** who mistakes signifiers for reality, unable to recognize the fictional nature of the intelligence he receives. His structural opposite is **Beatrice**, the **skeptical interpreter** who maintains awareness of the gap between reports and reality.

**Captain Segura** embodies the **indigenous authority** who understands local codes that remain opaque to foreign intelligence services. His chess games with Wormold represent the meeting of different strategic systems, each operating according to distinct but coherent rules.

**Milly** functions as the **motivation object** whose desires drive the narrative machinery, though she remains largely unconscious of her structural role. Her materialism provides the economic engine that powers Wormold's fictional intelligence production.

## Syntagmatic Organization and Narrative Progression

The novel's syntagmatic structure follows the pattern of **initiation → elaboration → exposure → resolution**, but with each phase containing its own internal oppositions. The initiation phase establishes the basic fictional premise while simultaneously undermining it through comedy. The elaboration phase develops the fiction's complexity while revealing its absurdity. The exposure phase should destroy the fiction but instead validates it through institutional acceptance. The resolution phase appears to restore order but actually confirms the permanent triumph of fiction over fact.

This progression reveals the novel's deep structure as a **rite of passage** narrative in which the protagonist moves from innocence to knowledge, but the knowledge gained is that innocence (fiction) is more powerful than experience (reality). The traditional bildungsroman structure is thus inverted, with maturation consisting of learning to inhabit fiction rather than discovering truth.

## Conclusion

Through structuralist analysis, *Our Man in Havana* reveals itself as a sophisticated meditation on the systems that organize meaning in the modern world. The novel's binary oppositions, mythic structures, and symbolic systems work together to demonstrate how fiction and reality interpenetrate in complex ways that challenge traditional hierarchies of truth and falsehood.

Greene's text anticipates poststructuralist insights about the instability of meaning while maintaining structuralism's faith in systematic analysis. The novel suggests that while individual spy reports may be fictional, the espionage system itself operates according to discoverable structural principles. In this light, *Our Man in Havana* functions not merely as entertainment but as a structural analysis of how meaning is produced and circulated in bureaucratic modernity.

The novel's enduring relevance lies in its demonstration that the opposition between truth and fiction may itself be a false binary. In a world where institutional power depends on the manipulation of signs rather than the control of things, the ability to generate convincing fictions becomes a form of authentic expertise. Wormold's success as a spy depends not on his ability to discover secrets but on his skill at creating believable narratives—a skill that, the novel suggests, may be the most valuable form of intelligence in the contemporary world.