The Slum Analysis

Kunal Kothari
Brazilian Film and Lit
Professor Nascimento
August 8, 2012
Final Exam
1b) The Slum:
The Slum, which was written by Aluisio Azevedo is a book centered on a slum called Sao Romao, its inhabitants, and the people who live close by to this slum. The book takes place in this slum where there are many people with different backgrounds and ethnicities who live there, and they all have their own stories to tell. Throughout this story the author, Azevedo, presents the audience with certain aspects of life in Brazil, specifically race and ethnicity, women’s roles, and Social class. Overall, in my opinion, this book was quite interesting in that it had a unique story and did not have a main character to narrate the novel. However,
He had a lover also, she was black slave named Bertoleza, and she prepared food for him. But Romao felt sorry for her, when her roommate died, and her shack broken into, he helped her with finances, and advised her on what to do with her life. Eventually she would move in, but having Bertoleza as a lover and roommate would later complicate Romao’s life, but I’ll get into that later. Already in the book I can see tension between race and ethnicity. Moreover, Romao’s greed in taking over the slums and changing its system is clearly scene from the beginning scene of the novel. In Brazil at the time there were the Portuguese, the upper race, the mulatto a mix between black and Portuguese, the middle race, and the Blacks who were on the bottom. “A filthy wretch who never wore a jacket and ate and slept with a Negress” (Azevedo 34). This was spoken of Romao by his high class neighbor, Miranda, who happened to be another Portuguese. In essence, we can see that there was a big clash in ethnicity and customs between the Brazilians, Portuguese, and African Americans which we see is a big deal during the later scenes of the novel. Nonetheless, Miranda was angry with Romao for having a slum next to his brand new house that he just moved into to. There was always tension between the Brazilians and Portuguese in the book. After Jeronimo had killed Firmo, his
However, her hopes were shattered one way or another. For instance, there was a chance that Massu could lead them out of the desert. However, he used silence as a way to keep them in the forsaken place and he didn’t tell them that he saw the return of the scientific caravan and he even kept his son from telling the girls. Although, Massu knew that the scientific research group would come in their caravan to take pictures of the sky once every six months, he did not alert Aurea when he spotted them, and instead he kept his mouth shut and demanded that his son should do the same. In essence, we can infer that Massu did not want them to leave the Brazilian