The Maine

The Maine represents both the history between Cuba and the United States, and the long standing tension between both countries. It also warns the reader to always approach a government story with skepticism. DeMille introduces The Maine in Chapter 1 on the first page, signaling its significance to the reader. Mac describes it as “a 42-foot deep-sea fishing charter boat. . . named for my home state - not for the American battleship that blew up in Havana harbor” (3). The American battleship reference, is a reference to the USS Maine that exploded in 1898 and ignited the Spanish American War, and lead to the U.S. involvement in Cuban independence. At the time the attack was blamed on the Spanish, though later historians have claimed it could have been the result of an internal boat malfunction. Mac’s boat The Maine is one of the reasons Carlos, Eduardo, and...