The Slum Summary
Status: the Answer When Combining Race, Gender, and Social Mobility Brazil in the 1800’s was a combination of two worlds, the European world, and the New World. Aluísio Azevedo depicts the conflict and synergism of the mixing of these two worlds in The Slum. The Slum is the story of a neighborhood where members of both worlds collide, forced to interact with one another and it becomes a microcosm of the entire country. The characters in this community each represent a facet of the two worlds. By looking at each character and the slum itself, it is possible to decipher Brazil. To gain status in Brazil there is a need to create the right impression and be able to navigate the culture of the times to gain social mobility all while following
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In the beginning, the construction of the slum was made with stolen materials, the labor being done by João himself as a way to cut costs (The Slum 4). This works as an analogy for the way Brazil began, on land that was stolen from the natives who inhabited, and developed by the cheap labor of those natives and later by the slaves. As the Sao Romão grew is similar to the way Brazil began, starting piece-by-piece working from the coast inland. The character of Sao Romão is like Brazil, bringing people from all walks of life, “continually swallow[ing] new citizens,” there were immigrants from the homeland Portugal, other European countries like Italy, blacks, and the vast mixture of races that could occurring with people interacting (mulattos of varying degrees). In the slum the differences apparent to each individual yet when threatened by outside forces, there was an ability to unite as one. An example is the fight between Piedade and Rita (Portuguese verse Brazilian) these two individual fight over their difference and are encouraged to fight by the other residence of Sao Romão to the point that a fight breaks out among the other residents., yet when a rival neighborhood begins to attack Sao Romão rallies together to defend themselves. This is comparable to how the white population and most of the mixed population united against the freeing of the slaves or for the fight for
In the beginning, the construction of the slum was made with stolen materials, the labor being done by João himself as a way to cut costs (The Slum 4). This works as an analogy for the way Brazil began, on land that was stolen from the natives who inhabited, and developed by the cheap labor of those natives and later by the slaves. As the Sao Romão grew is similar to the way Brazil began, starting piece-by-piece working from the coast inland. The character of Sao Romão is like Brazil, bringing people from all walks of life, “continually swallow[ing] new citizens,” there were immigrants from the homeland Portugal, other European countries like Italy, blacks, and the vast mixture of races that could occurring with people interacting (mulattos of varying degrees). In the slum the differences apparent to each individual yet when threatened by outside forces, there was an ability to unite as one. An example is the fight between Piedade and Rita (Portuguese verse Brazilian) these two individual fight over their difference and are encouraged to fight by the other residence of Sao Romão to the point that a fight breaks out among the other residents., yet when a rival neighborhood begins to attack Sao Romão rallies together to defend themselves. This is comparable to how the white population and most of the mixed population united against the freeing of the slaves or for the fight for