The Allegory of the Meat Market in Amores perros: Cannibalism, Consumption, and Money

Abstract:This article argues that the allusions to cannibalism through snippets of text that appear on screen and the insistent representation of commodity and monetary exchange through visual associations, montage, framing, and dialogue establish an undeniable cause–effect, social relationship between money and violence. This indictment is bolstered by a complex network of interweaving stories and multilayered imagery that comprises an allegory of cannibalistic capitalism in Mexico on the eve of the twenty-first century. In this light, the figure of the neoliberal cannibal, the entrepreneur engaged in the commodification of violence, profiting from murder and the spectacle of violence, personifies this allegorical critique of neoliberalism. This interpretation of the film's complex allegory centered on the image of a meat market as a metaphor for cannibalistic capitalism includes a preliminary discussion of the interrelationship between violence, neoliberalism, and cannibalism, followed by a close analysis of the visual language and dialogue.