O Ateneu: literary analysis, plot, author

the athenaeumis a novel by writer Raul Pompeia. In this work, the narrator-character Sérgio recounts, in a memorialistic character, his experience as an intern at the Ateneu, a school where the children of the rich nineteenth-century Rio bourgeoisie study. In this institution, the 11-year-old boy will learn to live in a corrupt society, where the strongest survive.

Raul Pompeia, born on April 12, 1863, became one of the main representatives of the Naturalism in Brazil. Therefore, the athenaeumis structured on deterministic theory that the environment in which the characters live is responsible for the formation of their character. Thus, with this work, the author, who killed himself on December 25, 1895, entered the history of Brazilian literature.

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Work summary the athenaeum

1888 naturalist novel.
Written by Raul Pompeia.
Presents a deterministic view.
Prose of a memorialistic character.
Narrator-Character: Sergio.
Narrative space: Ateneu boarding school.

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Narrative time: 19th century.
Themes: education, homoeroticism, religion and human corruption.

Video lesson with book analysis the athenaeum

book review the athenaeum

characters from the book the athenaeum

— Internal:

Americo;
Bargain;
Barreto;
Bento Alves;
Candid;
Egbert;
Emile;
Franco;
Malheiro;
Rebellion;
Ribs;
Snacks;
Sergio.
Angela: maid of D. Emma.
Aristarchus: director.
Bataillard: Gym teacher.
Dr. Claudio: professor.
Ema: wife of Aristarchus.
João Numa: inspector.
Manlio: Portuguese teacher.
Silvino: inspector.
Venâncio: English teacher.

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plot of the work the athenaeum

The book begins with the following speech by the protagonist's father: “You are going to find the world, my father told me, at the door of the Athenaeum. Courage for the fight”. Sergio is 11 years old and will begin his studies at a renowned boarding school called Ateneu, whose director is Dr. Aristarco Argolo de Ramos. At this institution, which receives rich students from Rio de Janeiro, he studies “the fine flower of Brazilian youth”.

Cover of the book O Ateneu, by Raul Pompeia, published by FTD. [1] — Book cover *the athenaeum*, by Raul Pompeia, published by FTD. [1]

Then, the Sergio's first day of class, when Aristarchus introduces the boy and his father to the school. However, when Sérgio's father leaves, the child wants to cry, but manages to hold back the tears, because she is aware that he needs to be strong. On that day, he meets teachers and classmates, like Rebelo and Sanches. Rebelo is the one who warns Sérgio about Ateneu's colleagues:

“Here go the sly faces, generous youth... Perverse ones! They have more sins in their conscience than a confessor in their ear; a lie in every tooth, an addiction in every inch of skin. [...]. They are servile, traitors, brutal, flattering. Go together. They are thought to be friends... Bandit members! Run from them, run from them. They smell of corruption, they stink from afar. Gang of hypocrites! Immoral! Each day of life is ashamed of the day before.”

So, he gives you this advice: “[...]; make yourself strong here, make yourself a man. The weak get lost”. And he reveals that "shy, naive, bloodless boys are gently pushed into the sex of weakness." He is implying that the weakest are sexually subjected. Therefore, he advises Sérgio to “not admit protectors”.

Thus, when Barbalho pulls Sergio's shirt, which almost falls off, the protagonist reacts, grabs a piece of tile and throws it at the other, who dodges. But, at night, Sergio slaps him, and they start a melee fight, which ends when they are warned of the imminent arrival of one of the inspectors.

When taking a bath in a “tank” (or swimming pool) at the school, Sérgio almost drowns. However, he is saved by Sanches. Thus, the initial disgust that the protagonist felt for the boy turns into gratitude and friendship. And, contrary to Rebelo's advice, Sergio ends up admitting a protectionr, who helps him a lot in his studies, but demonstrates sexual interest in Sérgio, who ultimately rejects him.

Influenced by Ribas, Sergio surrenders to devotion and, upon seeing Franco's suffering and humiliation, he becomes his friend, but later realizes he is wrong, as he imagines “generalizing wrong, that contemplation was an evil, that mysticism was treacherously degrading me: the easy coexistence with Franco was the proof".

Sergio now becomes intimate with Barreto, who shows the protagonist the cruel side of religion, unlike Ribas, who showed him the pleasure of devotion. Barreto speaks of punishments, hell and demons. This makes the narrator turn away from the faith and get a little depressed. But after a holiday with his family, he regains his spirits and indulges in a kind of anarchy.

In addition, it narrates the act of heroism by Bento Alves, with whom he befriends. Such friendship leads the narrator to declare that, “even without the character of despondency that so outraged the Rebelo, a certain effeminacy can exist as a period of moral constitution”. And he claims that he cherished the friend “femininely” because the other was strong, brave and could protect him.

Bento Alves even gives Sergio flowers and also fights with Malheiro because of his friend. So, after learning about the fight between the two boys, Sérgio has the following reaction:

For my part, I gave myself wholeheartedly to the despair of the romancers, guarding the barred window with sighs of a prison where the gentle gentleman was allowed to be detained, for the sole purpose of proposing a matter to the troubadours and troubadours medieval.

From there, Sérgio begins to narrate the events that took place in his second year at Ateneu and says that A love letter between two boys arrived at Aristarchus. The letter was sent by Candide, who signed it with the name Candida. Aristarchus discovers that the recipient of the letter is one Emilio and exemplary punishes the two students.

The friendship between Bento Alves and Sérgio comes to an end in a violent way, as the two end up attacking each other in a physical fight. This event leads to Bento Alves leaving school. Sérgio then begins a strong friendship with Egbert, a love affair that ends when Sérgio is enchanted by D. emu, the director's wife: “Then the enthusiasm of our fraternity began to die down”.

Next, the narrator reports that Franco “has been ill since the last time he went to prison”, as he was always punished for his bad actions. In this way, the boy ends up dying. However, the Athenaeum soon gives in to the festivities to commemorate the statue, the bust made in honor of Aristarchus.

Later, Sérgio falls ill because he gets measles and goes to the infirmary. But this is not a source of unhappiness for the protagonist, as he receives the care of his beloved D. Emma: “Your presence was enough to revive me in bed”. And the narrator realizes that what he feels for her is not what he feels for his mother.

As Sérgio's family is in Europe to take care of his father's “sickness”, the boy is forced to spend his vacation at the Ateneu. But the school is on fire, and Sérgio is saved, as he leaves the infirmary in a hurry. And we learned that the fire, supposedly, was caused by Americo, a new student, who was not resigned to living there.

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Psychological elements of the work the athenaeum

The book can be seen as a Sergio's long stream of consciousness, since the time of narration, that is, when the narrator tells the story, he is far from the time of the narrative, that is, when the story told happens. Therefore, the narrator, as an adult, recalls the school period of his childhood.

From this perspective, he can analyze the facts that have already occurred and the reactions of the characters, as you can see at the beginning of the work, when Aristarchus, the school principal, is appointed by the narrator as a vain man, who likes decorations, whose “calm, sovereign, gestures were of a king". The narrator considers him a kind of sick person, “of this atrocious and strange disease: the obsession of the statue itself”.

Aristarco is more of a businessman than an educator and knows dissimulation as a way to achieve his goals:

His diplomacy was divided into numbered bins, according to the category of reception he wanted to dispense. He had manners of all degrees, according to the person's social condition. True sympathies were rare. At the heart of each smile, there was a secret of coldness that was clearly understood.

By describing the student Sanches as possessing a “slimy sweetness of an ancient crook”, the narrator suggests one more covert behavior. The same dissimulation is present in the attitudes of Rebelo, who, at the same time that he appears to have a “patriarchal mildness”, knows how to produce “injuries and curses” to defend himself.

It should be noted that the repugnance that, at first, Sérgio feels for Sanches is associated with a kind of “instinctive homophobia” of the character, portrayed as a natural process, according to the scientific theories defended in season. However, by accepting Sanches' protection, Sérgio surrenders to passivity, since the other is intelligent and helps him in his studies.

Thus, Sergio is psychologically fragile, as he is extremely influenceable, as demonstrated by his involvement with religious affairs, under the influence of Ribas, and also when he assumes a feminine posture, in his transition to adulthood, by becoming homoerotically involved with Bento Alves.

All these experiences form the character of Sergio, who sees weakness and strength as synonymous, respectively, with feminine and masculine. Finally, as a narrator temporally distant from the narrated facts, he suggests that, in training psychological of a man, it is necessary to experience and overcome his feminine side to give way to strength male.

This is evident when the Sergio's homoerotic experiences at the Ateneu give rise to interest in women, from his enchantment with D. Emma. In this way, the narrator indicates that Sérgio needed to experience homoeroticism as a kind of rehearsal for the his future heterosexual life and that his experiences, therefore, were part of his maturation psychological.

Work environment the athenaeum

The history of the athenaeum takes place in a boarding school for boys, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the 19th century. Thus, this naturalist novel, written in 1888, brings the thesis deterministic that the school environment is a corrupting space.

structure of the work the athenaeum

The book is a novel divided into twelve chapters and narrates, in chronological time, the experiences of the protagonist and narrator Sérgio, during the time he studied at the Ateneu. Thus, from a memorialistic perspective, the narrator-character reports, in the first chapter, his entry into the institution, at the age of 11 years. In the next chapters, he shows the facts experienced, which corroborate his thesis. He ends the work by narrating, in the last chapter, the end of the Athenaeum.

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Social criticism of the work the athenaeum

O romancethe athenaeum, one of the main works of Brazilian Naturalism, uses deterministic theory to criticize the corrupting environment of nineteenth-century boarding schools. Therefore, the author adheres to the idea that the environment in which the individual is inserted can influence his behavior.

In the case of this work, Sérgio, the protagonist of the story, receives the bad influence of his schoolmates. In this way, the school environment is portrayed as a degenerating space, where the child loses his innocence to enter adulthood. In this sense, the criticism extends to Rio and Brazilian society at the time.

After all, if that was the typical background of the bourgeois elite's heads of household, the conclusion is that the members of Rio society were corrupt, educated beings. for dissimulation, dishonesty, the game of interests and, finally, to follow the law of the strongest, the one capable of anything to triumph, for the benefit own.

Raul Pompeia, author of the athenaeum

Raul Pompeiaborn April 12, 1863, in Angra dos Reis. Later, at the age of 11, the novelist went on to study, in a boarding school, at Colégio Abílio, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Then he studied at Colégio Pedro II. Finally, at the Largo de São Francisco Law School, in São Paulo.

During his period as a law student, the writer became abolitionist and republican. After graduating, he decided not to practice. Thus, he embarked on a journalistic career, in addition to being a professor at the School of Fine Arts and director of the National Library, but by supporting the authoritarian president Floriano Peixoto (1839-1895), he fell out with some important intellectuals of the time.

Possibly due to the fact that he cannot withstand political persecution, the author killed himself on December 25, 1895, in Rio de Janeiro. He left works linked to Brazilian Naturalism, a period style characterized by objectivity, anti-romanticism and by a deterministic view of reality, in which race, environment and historical moment influence the fate of characters.

The writer Raul Pompeia has published the following books: