Captain Of The Sands Summary

Brazil’s history may be described as cruel and evil to those who know the truth of its past. When Brazil was first visited by the Portuguese they quickly found that there were rich lands and money to be made off those lands. The coastal areas of Brazil were taken by wealthy settlers, this was over 500 years ago. Jorge Amado’s “Captains of the Sands” was written in 1937 and although the main theme was set around a group of orphan children who ran the streets, there were political undertones that also told a story of the divide between the rich and the poor. When the Portuguese first arrived there were native Indians living in Brazil, the Indians lived off the land and worked for themselves. It was easy for the Portuguese settlers to take
over the country since the native Indians had not set up an advanced civilization that had to be fought for otherwise, instead they were able to swoop in and start establishing themselves with no fight. The boys of captains of the sands also worked for themselves but instead of living off the land they lived off the city by pickpocketing and stealing.
Because these boys were smart and enjoyed freedom so much they almost always managed to escape from the system that failed them. To the native Indians of Brazil and the boys from captains of the sands freedom meant taking care of themselves not having to answer to anyone and being able to enjoy the sunshine. Some of the boys wanted justice, one boy Pedro Bala felt great pride that his father died as a union organizer. I see similar themes throughout the history of all of Latin America, people that were brave enough to speak out were often punished or murdered in an attempt to have complete control over the
population.
The Portuguese were ambitious and knew the value of the goods the land produced and they set up plantations, but these plantations required a lot of manpower and Portugal being such a small country with a population that was not very large could not spare enough people to work the plantations. Since in Portugal much of the population already had slaves, this idea was not new to the settlers and they began to turn the Indians into slaves. Many of the slaved Indians did not survive the torture, they were either murdered or died as a result of the new diseases the Portuguese brought with them. The Portuguese still needed workers for the plantations so they brought in slaves from Africa. When the main boy Pedro Bala was caught he was forced to talk, every time he declined he was beaten. Just like in other Latin American countries’ histories. Pedro was beaten until he was black and blue, and when he still declined to give out the information they wanted they sent him to a tiny room as punishment. The tiny room was not high enough to stand in nor was it wide enough to lie down in, a fellow boy at the reformatory said someone died in there once. This meant that they would rather have these young boys die than get away with even the smallest amount of information. In a way the captains of the sands represent the slaves, from the field work in the reformatory to the whippings they would get from the police as if they were worse than animals.
The boys were organized although it seemed like the whole world was against them, they were aware of the bad things they did but it was survival for them. Jorge Amado drew from different experiences and showed the life that existed but was not acknowledged, the boys that were the captains of the sands were caught for their crimes but tortured for being the lowest in society. People like the police and those who ran the reformatory or orphanages were not interested in giving these children decent lives, instead they knew that the children were worth nothing in the eyes of society and in turn they were treated like
nothing. The African slaves that ended up in Brazil had different customs and traditions that have contributed to the diverse vibrant country that is Brazil today. Some of the culture that was initially brought over from Africa was evident in the Captains of the Sands, for example there were some mentions of types of music and songs. Some of the boys did capoeira which is a dance or form of martial art that was started by the slaves.