This week’s book got my attention from the very beginning and the end of the novel really took me by surprise. I overall really like this week’s novel as it has some very interesting themes that stood out to me. I would also like to point out that although it was a very short read, it took me a while to actually finish it. Certain aspects were a lot to take in, it would be difficult for me not to feel extremely drained after a couple of pages and I had to do something else.
To begin this blogpost I would like to talk about the main character, Macabéa. She is a woman who we can tell is very disconnected from reality, which at some point it even gets frustrating how badly her ignorance gets to be. Nevertheless, I was never able to blame her for her ignorance, as she is a woman that lives a hard life, and this “delusion” or ignorance portrayed throughout the novel is what makes her one of the most genuine characters. We often tend to have difficult parts of our life and (at least me) grasping onto an idea, a hope or a future that may seem out of touch of reality is what keeps us going. Her character is tragic in a sense that she does not understand the circumstances she lives in, the despair that we feel for her is nowhere near Macabéa’s heart or mind, which takes away our hope that she might set herself free from this ignorance.
An important thing I want to note from this novel is the concept of the man. For starters, Clarice Lispector decides that the narrator is a man, who will be in charge of Macabéa’s story. Why would she not want to be the narrator herself? Will there be a prejudice by the public if a woman were to portray such a heart-wrenching story of another woman? Is is more fair for a man to tell a sad story about a woman? I think there is something really interesting from the fact that Lispector decides to narrate this story from a man’s perspective. Another thing I would like to note is the constant image of a man in Macabéa’s story that will be what ultimately “saves” her. Either from her despair of wanting someone to love her, or to take her out of poverty and give her a life that she desires. Either by Olímpico who would have “saved” her from never being loved by anyone or by the foreigner that would “save” her from poverty, it was always the man that was going to save Macabéa.
My question for this week is: What do you think about this? Did you find another instance where there was another savior other than men? Also feel free to answer some of the other questions I wrote on the top if you want to !!!
Sometimes shorter books are more difficult to read than longer ones (for example, poetry books). In fact, there are poetic qualities in this Lispector novel. Although there are not very complex allegories, there are phrases that are like flashes that dazzle us and that provide another layer in the dense literature of Lispector. I think you did the right thing: you took your time to read this book. There are also books that ask us for a different tempo, and I think you managed to find the one that this novel requires.
It’s interesting how differently two people can interpret the same book. My impression was that the book showed how men only belittled, humiliated, and failed to help Macabéa and were even the source of most if not all of her struggles. The narrator being a man is a thought-provoking choice, but I thought of it as being representative of how women often do not get to control their own narrative in the patriarchy. This is consistent with Macabéa not controlling her life and image. Great post!
It seemed to me to be almost like a hyper-realistic version of Cinderella, especially in the way you explained that a man seems to be ‘needed’ to ‘save’ Macabéa. But a part of that realism that Lispector might twist from a fairytale narrative like Cinderella is the fact that Cinderella might not even know luxury. In this case, it’s Macabéa that doesn’t know luxury, nor does she know pain from pleasure, and so it’s those little things that seem odd and mundane to us that are so very special for her. Being too poor wasn’t really prominent in her mind until she was told the fortune about her great incoming wealth, nor was (‘romantic’) love very important until Olímpico came into her life.
Hi! I really appreciated reading your post. I was trying to put my finger on why I also found this book so difficult to read, and I think you hit the nail on the head: “her character is tragic in a sense that she does not understand the circumstances she lives in”. I couldn’t find the words to express how uncomfortable that I felt while reading this, but that is exactly it. I agree that this lack of awareness takes away our hope that she might, someday, somehow, free herself of this brutal existence. It made me reflect and think about everyone else in the world who has to tolerate abuse on some level, but knows no different and thinks that is what life is. Whether it was a mix up/lie, In a sense, the fortune teller saved her, and showed her a glimpse of what life could be… the possibilities it holds. I feel like in that moment Macabéa was given a taste of a life she couldn’t even dream of, and felt like it was meant for her… that she deserved and was destined for it.