The treasure of the Sierra Madre (Time reading program special edition)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a great story from mysterious author, B. Traven, that was later turned into a movie that was as good as the novel. Treasure begins by introducing Dobbs, a WWI veteran now trying to make a living in Mexico doing oddjobs. After countless failed attempts at keeping a job, Dobbs decides to team up with another wayward American, Curtin, and go mining for gold in the mountains of the Sierra Madre. The two men team up with a grizzled old prospector, Howard, and begin mining. This is an excellent novel about the power gold can have over someone. It has the ability to turn a normal man into a greedy, murderous, violent creature who will do anything for money, gold, and power. Highly recommended. What makes this novel so appealing is B. Traven's writing style. He is very straightforward in telling the story of three men hoping to hit it big. Also, Traven tells several stories about the history of gold in Mexico through the grizzled old prospector, Howard. These asides help to support the idea of the effect of gold and its power over anyone who comes across it. And if you enjoy this book, I highly recommend seeing the John Huston movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim Holt. For a great read that brings the reader into a completely different world, check out The Treasure of the Sierra Madre!

After reading this book, I was amazed at the drift and contrasting focus of this book. At first, I could not figure out whether the first passages are meant to introduce us to our heroic protagonist so as to have him remain a hero. Did he mean for the main character, Dobbs, to be a hero? While in South America, a victim of oil company greed, Dobbs is somewhat likeable and is an everyman as a bum. Then Traven carries the story into the gold mines of Mexico and gradually allows him to deteriorate into a greed driven paranoid maniac. Was this a drift in the writer's original intention? We are left wondering whether he meant to take the character of Dobb, a vagabond American, and transform him from a relatively hopeful bum struggling to survive in Latin American into a greed possessed and self destructive monstrosity. The ugly male dialogue is full of nasty testosterone and competition. Males on the margin communicate very directly with each other, as evidenced by Traven's colorful insults. Whereas some critiques point out that his male to male stuggles are similar to Earnest Hemingway; others indicate he has developed the social consciousness and economic context surrounding his characters like Upton Sinclair. I would like to point out that his talent for embedding stories within stories is similar to the English writer, A.S. Byatt. His embedded stories are swift tangents, totally relevant to the movement of the main theme, and yet a distanced commentary. For example, one story is about a hard scrappy widow women gold miner who brings her gold to the capital fighting every kind of low class riff raft and thieves as she makes her way out of the jungle and into civilization. Yet, the upper class steal her fortune and cause her to disappear. A cautionary tale that greed is far beyond class lines and in fact may even be less openly evident in the wealthy, but surely just as deadly. The character of Howard, the man who has learned through trail and error to control his greed so as to keep his life was developed beautifully by Traven. He seems too mature and wise to be true and yet he remains true. The novel can be taken at various levels. A structural approach would see all the characters as victims of economic oppression, fighting each other like rats in a jar. Yet the individual character development would argue against this interpretation. Dobbs became evil, Howard remained sane. I found the book to be excellent. Tension filled, strong dialogue, unexpected character development, socially conscious, culturally reflective, rough, and elegant in its time honored message.

Traven deserves recognition as one of the great social novelists, right next to Stienbeck and Orwell-anyone who wonders why need only to read this, his most well-known work (thanks to the film by John Huston). Traven's story is a simple enough tale of how greed can corrupt men, but his intimate portrait of the social conditions which brings this about is what makes the book special. Set in Mexico between the two World Wars, it starts with a destitute American vagabond who's reduced to begging for his meals. He joins up with another American to work at oil camps, only to be exploited and cheated out of their pay. Eventually the duo team up with an old prospector and head to the hills to seek gold.When they do find some gold, it gradually begins to corrupt them like some cursed treasure from myth. Even though the old prospector warns the two younger men at length of what gold can do to men's minds, paranoia and obsession slowly infiltrate the men's heads. While the men's encounter with bandits is one of film's most famous moments ("Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges!"), many other predators lurk in the dusty Mexican landscape. Traven's familiarity with the area is one of the elements that makes the book so strong, as he is able to capture the textures and smells of the mountains and bring them to life. As the story plays out, Traven seems to reveal a strong belief in karma or cosmic justice of sorts and in the end, only the indigenous Huichol Indians emerge as wholly admirable people.

I read this book when I was in the 7th grade. I did so primarily because I was a real Bogart fan way back then. I hadn't seen this particular movie at the time so the book was a whole new adventure for me. And an adventure it was. For years I was convinced that I, too, would eventually go gold mining in Mexico. I would spend hours trying to think about how I would sneak all my gold back into the country. Mind you, I don't believe I missed the point of the story even in my youth. It is a brilliantly told tale of how greed can destroy a man. Sounds simple enough but the beauty of the book lies in our being able to witness the gradual transformation of Fred C. Dobbs from a likeable, down-on-his-luck vagabond to a despicable, paranoid SOB who is obsessed with his gold. It wasn't until years later that I came to appreciate the politics of the book. As a social (not political) commentary it can stand alone. It worked fine for me that way until I had read his Jungle Books and others novels. Traven is an anarchist first and foremost and he articulates his case in all of his books; often in ways that may not seem readily apparent. Looking back at "Treasure" with this perspective, the images of anachism suddenly seem clear. We see three men down on their luck (read that to mean victims of industrialized society-two of the men were just cheated out of their pay after working, indirectly, for an oil company). They form a pact among themselves and go away from society to make their fortune. While away from society all is idyllic as the men work in harmony with each other, obeying the rules that they agreed on for themselves. A crisis arises when one briefly returns to society for supplies. When he returns, he is followed by others who corrupt the idyllic state. Soon after, there are some indications of changes in Dobbs character but the true changes occur when the decision to return to society is made. Well, I'm no anarchist and you don't have to be either to enjoy this masterpiece. That, by the way, is true about all of Traven's works.

Though it was written more than 70 years ago, Traven's Treasure of Sierra Madre holds up beautifully. Traven was a superlative storyteller--unpretentious, forceful, and possessed of a sophisticated political awareness that puts most contemporary writers to shame. John Huston's '48 film version is extremely good but leaves out Traven's bitter anti-clericism, a key element in the novel. More than a great adventure story, Sierra Madre is a powerful allegory about greed and its deadly allure.