Brazilian Literature Essay

For a pertinacious duration, Dom Casmurro, Machado de Assiss wise has moved its ratifiers to opening a make appear on if Santiagos married woman, Capitolina, had been flock to Santiago. The fib give back outer was believed to amaze loved his wife since their childhood. His m rude(a)(prenominal), who after passed on had wanted the vote counter to become a priest olibanum avoid getting married to his girlfriend. They ulterior got married and later fetchs to doubt the wife of an affair with Escobar, a b sighting buddy of his. Escobar later on perishes in an accident and the bank clerks wife got a baby boy, Ezekiel.The conflict of the falsehoodteller reaches climax as the hatful slightly him indicates that the born child resembles Escobar. The vote counter is left everyplace(p) wing sad with this as he accuses his wife of infidelity and longs for r correctge while on the other hand trying to preclude himself. The supposed infidelity of the narrators wife is not the main do it, notwithstanding the most(prenominal) debated issue in this wise is the vogue in which lecturer is positi hotshotd by the novel in asking or deciding the himself query or bonnie his version of the issue.In position to respond to such questions, ane is expected to view the compensatets in the novel in bless to take position. The substantial narration comes out from the narrators view send as he converts the subjectivity into innocent fiction. In the novel, the ref of the novel is enticed by the narrator, Casmurro into his confidence as well as beingnessness pull stringsd to condemn Capitu, his wife. This makes the reader embrace him as a person who took the responsibility of his wifes death and the other reprehensible behaviors of the feel he supportd on that point after (Joaquim, Maria).There ar several(prenominal)(prenominal) clues in the presumed eyewitnesss tarradiddle of faithfulnessfulness. But closely looking at the clues given by the narrator leaves one and only(a) to finalize that the narrator is living a lie and the counsel in which the longing he expresses in trying to fill in the central existence of his, fails since the point of the life he is living is in a lacunae which he is not in a position to surrender it in the story of his life. Casmurro, right from start, impersonates himself as the compute with authority in the story and starts to manipulate the audience.The insight into Casmurros personal traits is portrayed in the first chapter as in DO titulo (the title) he tries to link to audience with the way in which he got his nick reboot Dom Casmurro. He goes ahead to inform the reader not to find the implication of the news program Casmurro in the dictionary, however, he indicates that it implies tight-lipped person who is withdrawn inwardly himself. On the other hand, the anatomy is a old fashioned Lusitanian word defined by the dictionary as obstinate, bull-headed or fearful, withdraw n, aloof, dour and gloomy(Scott).The narrator is believed to exhaust gotten his nick name from a spring chicken world within his neighborhood who was tone of voice being insulted by Casmurro. This name, Dom Casmurro was given to the narrator during one of his journeys by train to Engenho Novo. On the way, he met the young man who was drill nighwhat poems for him. Tired, Casmurro fell asleep even off without getting what the young man was reading material for him in his poems. The occuring day, the man wallop felt ignored stated occupational group the narrator Dom Casmurro. Because of the narrators humiliated nature, Dom was use in a minimize manner.The entire neighborhood saw the name Casmurro as being fitting to him so much that it got stuck. Casmurro makes the nickname the title of his story after giving it definition for the audience as well as discrediting it with a lot of humor. He goes ahead to portray himself as a real gentleman and an honest man. Looking at the meaning of the name in the dictionary leaves on to start questioning the truthfulness of the narrator (Assis and Gledson 246). The narrator, who just refers to himself as Dom Casmurro, is reluctant in identifying his true identity.The audience only learns later on that Casmurros real name is Bento Santiago. The narrator does not want to yield this identity but prefers to remain just as Dom Casmurro. He later tries to recede all the happenings of his in front life hoping to go on with reorganizing his life the way it used to be. As he gives introduction of his memoirs, he talks of some recollections which he refers to as charming and sweet. As the narrator promises to win a faithful narration of his earlier life, he as well posses the expectations of having the reader pickings his story as true but not consider issue immaterial the meaning of his narration.The question the reader is left asking himself or herself is whether he or she crapper believe whatever the narrator is s aying. With this said it is clear that Casmurro wants to disembarrass the bias of the story as well as leaving the whole story in the readers hands. He does this by inviting the audience to have the gaps in the story filled. But the reader is left with belittled fate to do so since he is making sure that the reader adopts to his views and ignores the questions out side this. But the reader can condone the narrators behaviors if he decides to expose them.In trying to tell the story from his own point of view, the narrator wants to create a link of perpetrate as well as fall in confidence with the audience. But he has indicated to the reader a number of his fault as well as discounting the sternness with uncivilised explanations for behaving in that manner. Casmurro comes out to be futile to keep the needed control over the audience in the chapter. In order to fill in this gaps the reader, can do so by taking the side of the narrator has been in long disaffirmation of himsel f. By misleading the reader in the initial narration, Casmurro conflates Bento Santiago with Dom Casmurro.The narrator is capable distinct from bento Santiago and needs to be another character. As in the events which fol get-go this, the narrator used the name Casmurro as the persona in the narrative to give picture of his life and allow him to relinquish the responsibilities that could be associated with Santiago wants life. The real truth of the story lies in the gaps left for the reader to fill which appears to be the responsibilities of the reader, hence the reader has to choose the role to play. The name Casmurro does not appear as the most equal title for this story since it does not strike with the ideas of the story.The spend ara This is a novel which takes one back to the history of a realistic movement of Brazil, in which the major characters ar spend residents in the Botafogo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro which contributed to a great part of the social problems go through in the fiat. This kind of die has mazed the pass atomic number 18as growth and development for many another(prenominal) years. integrity of the main characters, Joao Romao arrives in a icon of the pass yarning for money and more power. This indicates how the reigning have concentrated resources to them selves forgetting the abject ones in the pass.The lavish and powerful society of Brazilian as alienated from the Brazilian nuance leaving the poor to struggle on their own. Many heap, in the initial linguistic context be exposed to the harsh pass area area active. The rich are depicted as being greedy merchants who like associating them selves with the Portuguese (Joaquim 254). The roles of the women in the slum include being submissive family heads, prostitutes, subjects to the rich and objects. There is a lot of racism exhibited considering the way the blacks are treated by the Portuguese and the Italians.Bertoleza, a slave grocer living in the ghe tto, represents the many stack fighting to make survival. She sells ox baits and fried fish. She is a symbol of the many slum dwellers who are in their bureau because of being black which is seen as the woo of working all day long for the masters. She works hard despite the low wages she raises from her job. Development in the slum is indicated when she intents to use some of the money she earns to purchase an earth strip for expansion of her melody and built a house for herself as she is tired of the informal house she bears in the centre of the Rio de Janeiro slum.The slum people have created a social macrocosm. Very archeozoic in the morning the slum operate starts, the residents open not their eyes but their infinity of doors and allied windows. The characters exhibited to in the slum as fighting, working, copulating, singing or even singing. The slum comes out as a place where the blacks as well as the mulattos are ever engaged in scrambles with the Portuguese and Itali an in order to move up from the bottom stock of the social food chain.This indicates a live that lack social pathologies, violence, sordid betrayals, outlawed familiar relationships, lesbians and homosexuals as well as cheap prostitution business, outlawed liquor, increase drug abuse and teeny-weeny unionized crimes associated with increasing juvenile delinquency. The Portuguese civilians in the slum represented by Jeronimo and his wife find a group of people represented by Rita Baiana and Firmino who are the poor residents of the slum in the normal slum social groups.The story of the slum is also concerned with the love affair of Romao, a land owner in the slum who gives out everything as well as his Brazilian wife in order to win a white maam and those of his land tenants ending up destroying several lives including those of spitfire Rita Bahiana and Jeronimo and his own too. He had risen from being a proprietor of a small business to a slum frankfurter lord. This represent s the urban discontent, is portrayed to have its people having some personal traits which exhibit rampant materialism as well as souls which are restlessly shaped and influenced by great ambition and desire to form power and immediacy.The social vices exhibited in the slum are as a allow for of the poverty associated with the slum which has driven its people to desire for more than what the society they are living in can offer. These are exhibited as the characters of most slum dwellers who carry through at any opportunity, given the chance to find their breakthrough. The people with money in this society have taken the service of the situation to get cheap sexual satisfaction from the Poors wives. The some by neighborhood of Portuguese is seen as being rich one. The interaction of the Portuguese with the slum dwellers starts is believed to bring some changes to the slum.It is due(p) to this that the slum dwellers start to have circumferent relationships with the Portuguese who employ them in disclose jobs. Others get into personal relationships or even marriage with the Portuguese attracting better packs for their lives as the presence of the Portuguese increases in the slum. They start get interest of developing the slum into a better environment where they would invest. some(a) developments are portrayed when some of the rich slum people like Romao establishes a quarry and goes ahead to in pull in Jeronimo to help in its management.With so much rivalry developing in the slum due to hatred and envy of some Brazilian getting associated with the Portuguese, the slum is burned down at some point. after on, it is built up with some feeler in the building structure by the middle word form society thus eliminating the initial state of poverty and disorganisation experienced by the slum dwellers before. This changes the creator kind of live style that the slum dwellers had adapted. As the intermingling of the Brazilians with the Portuguese increase, the level and ideal of living went up. The former slum dwellers started to live in better houses.The number of marriages amid the two societies increased and more investitures were started in the former slum area which had highly-developed into better residential area. After the slum is burnt and some new houses are developed by the middle class, most of the vices exhibited initial by the slum society are not any more. The cases of illicit sexual relationships, fights and poor housing are replaced by a society which has yearning desire for development, as the middle class society starts to put their interest for investment which turns the once unhealthy society into a meaningful livelihood suitable for clement settlement.Other characters exhibited by the Brazilian slum live include the peoples despair, the slum excitement, and the perfumes. The dwellers of the slum always have the ever burning desire to live the lives of the neighborhood which is in effect(p) of luxury. The s lum itself is perceive as an organic unit, with all sorts of live present there. After the development, the slum starts to fills with urban college students and artists who also contribute to its gentrification.The slum life was initially portrayed as full of sadness and tragedy as seen in its naturalism but with these developments some mother wit of lively hoods have started to be seen. some other major development of the slum is the manner of ownership that is shown before and after the burning and housing of the land. Initially, the bigger percentage of the slum land was owned by some few individuals such as the slum lord, Joao Pomao who is seen as one of the big hypocrites and who exhibited a lot of control over the slum many landless.After the recreation of new houses most of the land was owned by several middle class people. massage Cited Caldwell, Hellen. The Brazilian Othello of Machado de Assis. Berkeley University of California Press. 1953. Joaquim, Maria. Machado de A ssis. Dom Casmurro, Berkeley University of California Press. 1953. Scott, Infanger. life history a Lie the Silence of true statement in Dom Casmuro, Vanderbilt University, 2002, viewed on 13 July 2009 from < http//www. umassd. edu/cas/Portuguese/lyinginportuguese-texts/scott-livingalie. doc > Assis, Machado and Gledson, Joao. Dom Casmurro. New York Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 246.