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The Broken Ear: Explanation of plot

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OJG
Member
#21 · Posted: 28 Feb 2005 12:11
I don't see how the museum should own the fetish and diamond over the Arumbayas. If it wasn't for Lopez/ Tortilla (can't remember which), both items would still be with the Arumbayas, where they belong.
The only reason the museum came to 'own' them is because they were stolten in the first place.
Moderator Note: See note to previous post - the fetish wasn't stolen from the Arumbaya, but the diamond was: Walker was given the fetish as a gift, and in turn the fetish was given to the museum. Lopez stole the tribe's "sacred stone" (the diamond), and hid it - unbeknownst to all but he - in the fetish; this crime angered the tribe, and the explorers had to flee, taking the fetish and the diamond away. It's hard to say what the legal situation is, but morally and ethically, outside of "finders keepers, losers weepers", the diamond belongs to the tribe, the fetish belongs to the museum.
The Tintinologist Team
cigars of the beeper
Member
#22 · Posted: 5 Jul 2007 16:04
Hi everyone!

I have always been a little confused by the storyline of The Broken Ear.

The way I see it righ now is this: Rodrigo Tortilla steals the fetish from the museum during the night.
He recruits Jacob Balthazar to make a replica of the fetish to return to the museum.
However, it would seem that Balthazar made two replicas and intended to keep one for himself.
He then accidentally kept the real one for himself and gave Tortilla the two replicas.
Tortilla then killed him to keep him from talking and made it look like an accident.
Tintin discovers that it was not an accident but murder and wanted Balthazar's parrot try to find out who killed him and why.
The part that really does not make sense, is why Alonso and Ramon wanted to know who killed Jacob Balthazar?
At that point, there should have been no connection seen between the theft of the fetish and the murder of Balthazar.
Ramon and Alonso wanted the diamond which was hidden inside the fetish, so why did they waste their time listening to Balthazar's annoying parrot?
Luckily for them, and Tintin, the parrot says: "Rodrigo Tortilla, you've killed me!"
It seems to me that they were already suspecting that Tortilla had the fetish and should have been following him already, and they really should not have seen any connection between Tintin and the fetish, because Tintin was really to them only someone who wanted the parrot.
Even so, Ramon and Alonso try to kill Tintin many times but never succeed. By listening in on Ramon and Alonso's conversations one night, Tintin learns that they intend on following Tortilla on board the "Ville De Lyon" and grab his fetish.
Tintin follows them on board and disguises himself as a waiter to escape detection.
While on board, Ramon and Alonso kill Tortilla and steal his fetish.
Tintin then has them arrested, and discovers that the fetish they stole is a fake.
He intends to show the fake fetish to San Theodorian officals, but it is stolen on the way presumably by someone payed off by Ramon and Alonso, and it is replaced with bombs so that Tintin will be accused of being a terrorist.
Tintin is arrested and sentenced to death, but this part is unnecessary to what I am talking about, so I will skip ahead to where Ramon and Alonso capture Tintin.
[They really suspect Tintin now of also wanting to get the fetish and they think he knows where it is.

Now I skip ahead to where Tintin meets the brother of Jacob Balthazar.
Mr. Balthazar tells Tintin that he had found the fetish in Jacob's belongings shortly after he had died. So what really happened?
Why are Ramon and Alonso interested in finding out who killed Jacob Balthazar, and why do they suspect that Tintin is after the fetish too?
And why did Jacob Balthazar keep one fetish, the real one for himself?
The plot is just full of holes to me.

Moderator Note:
Post moved to existing thread
As you will see, you are not the first person to become confused by the proceedings of the plot... We are now several pages into this thread, and it's only marginally clearer now than when we started!
You may (or may not) find the answers you are looking for here!
The Slightly Befuddled Tintinologist Team
Golf Tango Fox
Member
#23 · Posted: 6 Jul 2007 14:20
I agree it is a bit confusing.
You have just reminded me of something that always troubled me - that Tintin actually allowed Tortilla to be murdered.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#24 · Posted: 6 Jul 2007 16:31
Golf Tango Fox:
something that always troubled me - that Tintin actually allowed Tortilla to be murdered

That had not occured to me, Golf Tango Fox. Tintin very easily could have prevented the death of Rodrigo Tortilla.
Mark Falconer
Member
#25 · Posted: 8 Jul 2007 04:19
I don't think Tintin expected that they would bump him off - just that they would raid his cabin or something.
Golf Tango Fox
Member
#26 · Posted: 9 Jul 2007 08:38
I'm only going off memory as my copy is packed away at the moment, but I'm sure that somewhere Tintin hears that they plan to murder him.
Maybe someone with a copy handy can confirm whether I am going senile or not.
Moderator Note: Sorry, your memory is definitely faulty... :-) See below!
The Tintinologist Team
sondonista
Member
#27 · Posted: 10 Jan 2013 06:08
Golf Tango Fox:
something that always troubled me - that Tintin actually allowed Tortilla to be murdered

This bothers me a fair bit too. Surely it would have been enough to catch them in the act of breaking into the cabin?
At first I thought that it was down to Hergé's episodic plotting from one page to the next still happening, where he didn't even know what was going to happen next - but the murder happens at the top of the page. Tintin doesn't overhear them plotting to kill Tortilla, just that they know where his cabin is, so it's possible that he just wasn't expecting him to do that.

Moderator Note: Tintin (in disguise as a servant) is briefly seen serving drinks in the scene, but that's just so we have a sighting of him before he reveals himself, as up until then, we haven't seen him on board ship.
He's never shown to be present for the discussion between the Steward, who gives away Tortilla's location on board, and Alonso and Ramón.
Even if he did hear the converastion - which is possible, but, if so, not shown - there was no discussion of killing Tortilla, just of gaining the fetish.
Tintin may have though that the most reasonable course of events was to wait for them to steal it, for Tortilla to raise an alarm over the robbery, and to catch them all "bang to rights".
He was not to know that they would cosh Tortilla and throw his body over-board (as such, only we readers and the criminals are aware of the events - nobody else on board could do more than guess).
The Tintinologist Team
snowybella
Member
#28 · Posted: 7 Sep 2018 06:30
1. Nobody knows who stole the fetish - the only clue we get is a shadowed figure shining a torch at the object (page 1 frame 8). There is a thread about who it could be, which is worth checking.

2. As others have already said, the intepreter Lopez somehow managed to get the diamond inside the statue. Parhaps Lopez noticed there was a hole in the broken ear?

3. Alonzo and Ramon found out about the diamond when they went into Tortilla's cabin (page 55 frame 6).

Other questions -

tybaltstone:
how would it be in the museum unless it had been stolen (and swapped) before?

There are two alternatives. The first is, as harishankar says, Walker didn't know of the diamond in the fetish, and gave it to the museum, or, Walker kept it, and as the fetish swapped hands with dealers, somebody, at some point, may have bought it to donate to the museum.
Harrock n roll:
why was it necessary to have a replica made and then have to murder the sculptor to cover his tracks

There were probably a mix-up: Tortilla, failing to notice the broken ear, might have said that he wanted two replicas of the statue (one for the museum and one for himself), and Balthazar may have made one copy first (also not noticing the broken ear), absent-mindedly thought Tortilla gave him the original and put it in his suitcase, and then, for the second replica, copied the first and then gave both to Tortilla. This then progresses to what Jyrki21 thinks happened.

Harrock n roll:
We don't find out how Tortilla came by the note.

Tortilla may have acquired the note some time later, or else why would Tortilla bother to murder (if it was him) Balthazar before he made accurate replicas of the fetish?

Mull Pascha:
it must mean that Perez and Bada are in league with the general, right?

Colonel Jiminez is probably an acquantance, and since they become officers, judging from their outfit, for Alcazar (page 23 frames 5-9), they probably support neither Alcazar or Tapioca.

cigars of the beeper:
Why are Ramon and Alonzo interested in finding out who killed Jacob Balthazar

Alonzo and Ramon, having seen it in the newspaper, might have thought there would be a reward for them if they found out who killed Balthazar, and subsequently bought the parrot for answers.
cigars of the beeper:
why do they suspect that Tintin is after the fetish too?

Since Ramon bumps into Tintin and sees his adress for the missing parrot, once Ramon breaks in and sees the cage, Alonzo and Ramon have good reason to suspect Tintin is on the case.
cigars of the beeper:
why did Jacob Balthazar keep one fetish, the real one for himself?

Jacob Balthazar kept the fetish so he could manufacture it.

Mark Falconer:
I don't think Tintin expected that they would bump him off

Tintin could easily have thought they would push a piece of cloroform-soaked cotton through the bottom of the door, then break in, etc. or else, like in the cartoon (not the earliest, first Belvision cartoon version - what is left of it doesn't go up to there (the rest, except for part 1 which goes up to page 8, is apparently lost) - but that's for another discussion...), he would have rushed in and tried to catch them in the act.
mct16
Member
#29 · Posted: 9 Sep 2018 00:25
There appears to be a lot of confusion about the plot, especially the events behind-the-scenes, so here is how I see it:

In the mid-19th century, an explorer called Walker leads an expedition in the jungle of San Theodoros and meets the Arumbayas who give him a fetish as a token of friendship. Lopez, an interpreter, steals a diamond from the Arumbayas. He hides the diamond in the fetish: the head can be loosened and the body is hollow enough to make a hiding place.

When the Arumbayas discover the theft of the diamond they attack the expedition. Lopez and Walker are the only survivors and manage to escape. Walker, unaware of what Lopez did, returns to Europe with the fetish which is eventually donated to the museum.

Back in San Theodoros, Lopez, who suffered a serious injury, is dying and writes a confession stating that the "diamond is in the fetish with the broken ear".

Several decades later, in San Theodoros, Rodrigo Tortilla finds the confession. Some research into Lopez's life enables him to identify the fetish in question and he goes to Europe in order to get it and the diamond. During the journey by ship he loses the piece of paper and it is found by Alonzo Perez and Ramon Bada. They do not understand what it means but the word "diamond" is enough to intrigue them.

Tortilla, Perez and Bada do become acquainted during the journey to Europe but the latter two do not connect Tortilla to the piece of paper they found.

Tortilla steals the fetish from the museum. He then gets Balthazar to make a fake. It is unlikely that Tortilla tells Balthazar about the diamond, but Balthazar is intrigued as to why Tortilla has gone to so much trouble. Balthazar may have suspected that the fetish was of some value and decided to keep it in the hope of getting something out of it: he lived in a loft and was not regular with the rent according to his landlady so he did have motives for this. He therefore makes two fakes: one to be placed in the museum and another to deceive Tortilla. The real fetish is hidden by Balthazar in a trunk.

Tortilla then murders Balthazar. He puts one of the fake fetishes in the museum in order to get the police to drop the case - which they do. Tortilla then leaves for South America, unaware that the fetish he is taking with him is also a fake.

Alonzo Perez and Ramon Bada learn about the theft of the fetish and, when it re-appears at the museum, notice, like Tintin, that it does not have the "broken ear", which is mentioned on the piece of paper. They also learn of Balthazar's death and conclude, like Tintin, that he made the fake. Through the parrot they learn that Rodrigo Tortilla murdered Balthazar.

Tortilla is making his way back to San Theodoros with the fake fetish but is murdered by Perez and Bada on the "Ville de Lyon". While they and Tintin battle it out all over South America, Balthazar's brother finds the real fetish in his late brother's trunk and uses it as a model for his wood carving business. He then sells the original to an American collector. Perez and Bada try to steal it from the collector but are caught by Tintin; the fetish is broken and the diamond lost to the sea.

Does that clear things up?
snowybella
Member
#30 · Posted: 9 Sep 2018 02:47
mct16

I think that's the best explanation of the plot that I've ever seen, so yes, I think that will clear things up for everybody.

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