Maria Dos Prazeres Analysis

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW: An Analysis of “Maria dos Prazeres”
Maria dos Prazeres is the representation of every human being. Figuratively, she mirrors how people are scared of what they don’t know and so we try to do the best we can to control the circumstances in our favor. “Three months ago it had been revealed to her in a dream that she would die, and from that time on she had felt closer than ever to this child of solitude.” After that dream, the way on how she lived her life had completely changed. She tried to prepare for her own death and for whatever may happen to her. But the story is not only about the life of Maria; it is about life and people in general. The way in which Maria lived her life represents how we live ours.
People in general are afraid of the unknown. “’What I mean,’ she said, ‘is that I am looking for a place where I can lie down in the earth with no risk of floods and, if possible, in the shade of trees in summer, and where I won’t be pulled out after a certain period of time and thrown away in the trash.’” In the passage, Maria tells the funeral salesman exactly what she wants. Even in her death, she wants to control whatever will happen to her. She wants to be sure with every detail of her grave. We all try to live a safe life so as we will feel more secure with ourselves. If we set up structures in which we feel safe in, we can predict what will be the outcome of the decisions we make and the things we do. Because of Maria’s fear that no one will cry for her death, she even teaches her dog to go to the grave regularly and cry for
When Maria was first introduced as a character, it was shown that she had a very structured way of life. She does things in a very routinely manner. But in the span of the story, she starts to be more spontaneous with her actions. “But on the third Sunday she took advantage of a moment’s carelessness to fulfill one of her great dreams, and with her lipstick she wrote on the first, rain-washed stone: Durruti. From then on, whenever she could she did it again, sometimes on the gravestone, or on two or on all three, and always with a firm pulse and a heart stirred by nostalgia.” Maria know learns how to take risks and it gives her a sense of liberation. Living a monotonous and rigid lifestyle is like not living your life at all. It is like you were programmed, like a robot, to do a specific task at a given time and do another at another time. It is like a social death. The sense of liberation and excitement that we feel when we do something “bad” is due to the fact that we do not do this often. Like uncertainty, we are afraid of change, but this actually excites the mind and the