This was a difficult read for me and I struggled to grasp the true meaning of the book. However, the novel was beautifully 
written, and almost sounded or flowed like poetry. Lispector’s use of poetic style created a mystical and eccentric atmosphere when reading.
It appears as if the narrator, “G.H”, is going through an existential crisis and questioning the very essence of her being. The character, who is only named by what we assume to be her initials, G.H, discusses in each section an accounting of her thoughts on her failures, successes, loves, fears, and passions, within the course of her life. While the book is written in the inner voice of G.H., we as readers are fully immersed into her journey of actualization, almost holding her hand as she tells us her story (page 10).
The structure of this book was compelling because it allowed me to gain an understanding of each section. Although this was a very difficult book to read because of the content with which G.H was trying to share (her crisis), the structure grounded me somewhat because she began each new section using a segment of the last line from the previous section. Lispector’s use of continuity was obviously deliberate as she gave a frame with which the reader could view the inner conversation of the narrator, G.H. . I believe this structure is what allowed me to carry on with the novel, as I felt the first line of each section was a hint of what she was developing in each particular section. It also allowed for the largely dense material to have a certain flow that helped with my comprehension of what I believe she was trying to achieve.
On page 39, the narrator faces a cockroach in her maid’s room, which she refers to as a “burning chamber” (page 41), which triggers a seemingly hysterical episode. Initially, G.H. sees the cockroach and is terrified by it, setting up the reader with a fearful attention. Contrary to what Lispector sets up to us as the reader, she then realizes that she has a similar connection with the cockroach in that they both exhibit an “attentiveness” – mindful observation – to living. She was then alert like the cockroach, something she repeats about her own life repeatedly throughout the novel. The concrete essence of the cockroach became a mirror for her recognition of self, her almost basic nature of being, as described on page 45 and 57 where she says that “[she] [is] the cockroach”. G.H. is working through figuring out who she is, and the cockroach is a symbolic facilitator in this realization of self.
My questions to my classmates are:
- Did you notice the repetitive structure that Lispector used? If yes, did this help you with reading and grasping the true essence of the book?
- What is the significance of the trope of the “third leg”? What do you think it represents?
I like the connection you make about the author setting the reader with fearful attention and then switching to attentiveness. Could you elaborate a little bit on that?
G.H. is working through figuring out who she is, and the cockroach is a symbolic facilitator in this realization of self. This is interesting. But why specifically, a cockroach is a symbolic facilitator? Isn’t it utterly different from GH (and disgusting)?
Hi Eliza! I also felt like I had a hard time understanding what was going on sometimes. The repeated sentences between chapters was a bit weird to me at first because I had assumed that there was some natural continuity to the book and the repetition threw me off, but I got used to it later and I think it brings a kind of “separation” to the continuity of chapters, if that makes sense. To answer your second question, I figured that the third leg referred to something we once believed was essential (and might have been), but over time and through loss, becomes a former, unnecessary part of us, just as how G.H. seems to experience a profound depersonalization and breaking away from ideas like freedom and the self.